Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Welcome back to the Growth Focus podcast.
[00:00:19] Speaker C: I'm Gary Lafferty, your host and founder of the Growth Focus Partnerships where we help MSP owners and B2B tech companies fix the revenue gaps that are quietly costing them growth.
My guest today is Sean Miles, co founder of rgx, a two sided marketplace platform built to serve a problem an entire industry was ignoring. 25 years in sales, a background in running global sales teams, and then he went and built a SaaS business from scratch in a space that most people hadn't even named yet. And that's exactly why this one's worth your time. Because Sean's journey landing the first enterprise client. Pivoting the model when the market told him to. Making the call to deliberately slow down growth to fix what was underneath. And that's the same set of problems
[00:01:08] Speaker B: you're navigating right now, whether you're running
[00:01:11] Speaker C: an msp, scanning a platform or trying to turn a services business into something more predictable.
He describes his pipeline at one point as a water balloon ready to pop.
What he did next is not what most founders do. So as per usual, no fluff, let's get into it.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: So Sean, 25 years in sales, ran global sales at your last company and then you spotted and built, you spotted a gap and then you built this business in a marketplace from scratch.
Intriguing. Can't wait to get into it. But let's give us a 60 second version of what recycle GX is and what problem does it actually solve?
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Sure, recycle global exchange is a mouthful. So we go by RGX and what we are is we are a platform solution that is a two sided marketplace and the goal of it is to get inclusion, collaboration, transparency.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Welcome back to the Growth Focus podcast.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: I'm Gary, host and founder of the
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Growth Focus where we help MSP owners and B2B tech companies electronics critical materials infrastructure.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: My guest today is Sean, co founder of Garry X.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: And on the other side we have our service providers built that are either certified downstream directly, don't end up in a landfill or river.
So these two groups come onto our platform.
It's like a live exactly why this
[00:02:44] Speaker C: one's worth your time.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: You try to find options to dispose
[00:02:47] Speaker C: of your material pivoting the model when
[00:02:51] Speaker A: the market that was the big thing that we did.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Making the call.
You can have down growth, a whole
[00:02:56] Speaker A: life cycle management need in one dash
[00:02:59] Speaker B: problem
[00:03:03] Speaker A: and have choices.
You can manage multiple business, you can manage multiple vendors and you can have it all.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: His pipeline at 1.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Historically we were targeting big Companies multi site have lots of volume of material and that they had a team trying to manage all of these things going into one. So if you can imagine 50 plus sites and you have a vendor for each site, the one that's doing the logistics, one that's doing the packing, one that's doing the recycling. If you're the guy that's running that project, you have to reach out to each one of them, get them onboard to get a contract, you have to follow up with them to get payment, follow up with them to get the reporting. And they're doing all this through email and spreadsheets, typically in most companies.
So we created this marketplace as a tool for clients to utilize so they can have access to find local disposition and business process.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: It's always interesting and people are always commenting on this show about how entrepreneurs find a gap from somewhere and then run with it. They just said, what a great idea. No one's really doing it or if they are doing it, they aren't really taking the best advantage or the advantage they can out of it.
A step further and coined your own term deliberately enterprise asset disposition.
Why do you believe language matters so much in your marketplace? And especially when you're taking something new or a new product or a new service to marketplace.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: That's actually one of the things that we overlooked when we started is communication is the biggest thing. Whether it's through education, whether through its guidance, the communication. I could say something and you hear it one way and then I could say it to somebody else and they hear it another way.
So when you hear e waste, the first thing the conscious goes to is waste and they think junk and trash and all that. So. And then the word icat has been prevalent in the industry and that means it asset disposition. But it, when you think of it thinks of just computers and my tablets and phones.
So when we're dealing with enterprise, let's look at all of their assets. So we're dealing with large clients that deal with radios and antennas and generators and H vac and raw copper. Those are all assets for that enterprise that they need to dispose of and get recovery. So we opened that gamut. We wanted to coin this term saying this is encompassing. It's not just waste. There's value here and it's not limited just to what's in your computers. It's actually across the network and in different business units. So we're hoping that that's the education, the communication kind of works its way in. So people are like, well I can put this on There. Oh, I can put this on there.
So that's. That's why we changed that term.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Got it. Yeah. And. And when it comes to language, I know it's a great term. I love. I always think it's fantastic, especially in today's day and age when it does what it says on the tin. It just makes. It just makes life an awful lot easier for your prospects out there. And also clears the leather field a little bit, doesn't it? It says, okay, these are the guys who do this. This is what they do. There's no fancy name around it, but you also separated enough. So much so that. Let's talk about growth. AT&T was your first major client.
[00:06:19] Speaker C: Congratulations on that.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: You landed that through relationships, but after many, many multiple pilots.
How do you replicate that approach? Well, first of all, tell us a little bit about how you actually did that, because there'll be people interested in doing that, looking for their first enterprise clients or breaking in. And then let's talk about replicating. How do you replicate that approach when you have to move beyond your existing network, when you have to move beyond existing verticals? Let's get right there. So let's start with how did that come about?
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah, great question.
I always think business is always about relationships. No matter what. You could have the best product out there, but if I don't like you, I'm not really gonna give you the attention. So I do believe that relationships are the key to having a strong business.
But at the same time, your product has to back what you promise. Right? So I've been in the industry, like you had said, for 25 years. And one of the clients that we supported at time, a long time ago through relationships was AT&T. So luckily, when we went out to market with this MVP of the platform, we said, hey, does this something that resonates with you? You're using spreadsheets and your emails, and you got 60 jobs across the US that you're managing and your team keeps getting riffed. You went from 15 people down to, like a few people.
How do you. How do you sustain? And how do you meet the KPIs that you're still responsible for when you have all of this going on? And the answer was automation.
So when we created the automation saying, you can take these tasks, it's like what AI is talking about right now, right? So if I can take an administrative task and automate it, then it frees up my time to focus on the bigger programs and the projects that I need to get done. And that was the key essential thing that we saw was, okay, I'm going to make the experience good for you. I'm going to provide you roi.
Every business has to have ROI to it. But I'm also going to have a sustainability play because I'm trying to keep it local and I'm getting all of these other players involved that you're overlooking who have nine to 12 months barriers getting into supply chain to get even a contract. So if you can go through me and access all of these vendors, have automation, get ROI and get the reports, I've just made you look really good. Now you just use me as a tool.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that's always good. People love being look, especially within the business environment. If you can make somebody look good, you know, help their ego, help their position, help their career, help their business first before the ask, it does make life an awful lot easier. And, and to prove that that works, you, when we were speaking before, you described your pipeline and I never heard it said this way before, you described your pipeline right now as a water balloon ready to pop, which I think was such a descriptive way of looking at healthy but terrifying.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: What has got you to that point where you're now managing the balance between closing and actually delivering? Because that's another key thing, is that you can close as many you like, especially your back around in sales, but then you've got to deliver what you said you're going to deliver. And that's where we see a major downfall in a lot of companies.
[00:09:19] Speaker C: How are you balancing that?
[00:09:22] Speaker A: I think it's, it's, what we've done is we implemented pilots and I think that that's the best thing is it gives you a buffer. It's, it's, I'm going to use kind of like the metaphor. It's like dating. Let's not get married right away. Let's date for a minute and let's see if we like you, if you like us, if there's some customization that needs to happen. But what are your needs in your environment?
Yes, we're a software platform and we provide automation, but the reality is that it still requires a relationship. And so that relationship is human interaction. What is your needs? What are your KPIs, what are the things that you have to deliver on? And then what is it that we have that we can do for you without going 90 degrees right to actually deliver that? Let's stay within what our offering is. So our pipeline is very good right now, but unfortunately recycling isn't on the top of the mind of every corporation right now, they're still learning about it. They're really learning that reverse logistics and circularity are actually another revenue stream. So when you can take sustainability and revenue and put them together as a solution, then it's winning. And I think that goes back to the education and the communication on how you communicate it. You educate them, you empower them, you get them to try it. And then after that pilot, then you can go into a program that custom fits them to say, I'm going to use your system, but I need these five things separately.
So when we're managing our resources, basically we're still hitting on our key points to support a client.
But there might be little things that we can do where we add in the digital intake form or we remove a step of a process with reporting that they need that they are going to another business unit on. Those are the things that come in when we discover the pilot and after about 90 days, our pilot, we come back with the results and say, here's a program that would work for you. Does this fit?
[00:11:09] Speaker B: You know, and that's such a key thing, is that when, when we talk about pilots and within the tech industry, those watching and listening to this, you know, they'll be nodding their heads and go, yeah, we do piloting. But you know, I've got a question to, to some of them who are listening and watching on this.
When you say you're piloting, are you, are you doing a land and expand? Are you deliberately lowering the barrier of entry to help people through first so you can build up the relationship or you just taking a little bit of your. And then just say, okay, that's the, that's as small as I can sell them just to get the sale.
What do you mean, your thoughts on that, Sean?
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, the term freemium is out there a lot, right? So we try to give everything to get them connected and hooked on the product because they realize, wow, this is saving me a lot of efficiency in my time managing the vendors and the projects. So we try to go in there with no upfront costs. No very, not really a teethy contract. I mean, we have a EULA because there were terms and conditions because we're software and my legal would be on me if I did and to protect ourselves. But it just outlines the thing and saying, here's the keys. You get to drive. You can pick as many places as you want to try, you can do as many jobs as you want and throw it at us. And I'll give it to AT&T, like they. On our MVP pilot, our pilot went longer than 90 days, but they had us picking things up in Alaska, Hawaii, and then they throw something in la and then it was Florida, then Wisconsin, because they wanted to actually stress test the stuff system. And the results were staggering. I mean, every job that we did, we were averaging less than 62 miles to have a local option come and dispose of that. When they were, then they were actually doing it regionally, and it was like 900 miles average for disposal. So if you can think about that, that savings, the transportation avoidance, it was staggering. And in our first year, when we finished that pilot, the data doesn't lie. We saved them over 80% in transportation avoidance and CO2 emissions. And so how do we implement this very quickly then it's not selling anymore. It's like, how do you, how do you go to a program and say, this works? Right.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: That's really helped you then in, in, in the way the, you go to market in the marketplace itself. And, you know, as I said, when we've been talking before, your marketplace has evolved naturally, but, you know, you're going out there and doing them, getting great feedback from your pilots and then knowing what to change. Like you said, removing a step, adding a step, making it easier all the way around for your clients.
But the marketplace has evolved and the models move forward. You know, providers becoming clients, clients becoming providers. Very similar to the Airbnb dynamic.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: In your world, how much of that would you say was planned? And how much and how much did the market just show you what it wanted?
[00:13:55] Speaker A: So this is a message to all entrepreneurs.
You might have a perfect myopic vision of what I'm going to do, how I'm going to do it, and I'm going to deliver it.
And then like Mike Tyson says, everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face. Okay, so you have to go into this kind of thinking, I have a plan. This is my product. This is what we do. Good. But you have to get the feedback from your market, your field, your industry, your providers, because that's what actually keeps them coming back to wanting to use the product. So we did make some pivots.
I'll use the term, everybody's familiar with staples with the easy button. We kind of did the same thing where, like, we made it a recycling button, a disposal button. It's easy as pushing the button. What we learned was that not many people actually wanted to go and do it themselves, like load the job and pick it and run it through the system. But they love the concept so they asked if we would push the buttons for them and manage it for them, which became RGX Support Services. So it's, it's enterprise asset disposition as a service. So now we're offering that service to them as opposed to just somebody coming and putting something on there. They have the ability to say, if you'd like to have managed services support, our team will help you guide that and we work the program with them.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I think this is a significant shift in the way when you first came and I love how you started, the answer to that question was, you know, it doesn't matter what industry you're in, it doesn't matter what niche you're in, as long as you're an entrepreneur, as long as you have a business out there, as long as you're dealing with clients, listen to them. Because just because you think that's the best way of doing things isn't necessarily how they want to do it. So this model, this, you know, you pivoted from pure SaaS, self serve, you hit your own buttons. We can do it, we can show you what to do, but you do it to a hybrid model where managed support. And that was never on the cards when you first started. You know, that was a major significant shift.
Where do you think that's going? Is it moving more to a self drive mentality? Is it moving more to hybrid? Or do you think it's going to go from a DIY done with you to a done for you method? Where do you see it moving?
[00:16:04] Speaker A: I honestly, I don't want to abandon that because there are the people that are small and want to just do it themselves and that's kind of, they feel like maybe that's the job security, which is fine, but we don't, we still make that available, but I think we push that more because we're realizing that we have insight in the industry and knowledge and experience, that our relationship and our communication and education helps them. Hey, how do we make this program from where you are to make it better? What are your goals for the next six months and the 12 months? Right.
And I'll even add one more. We're now evolving even farther, the next step, which is basically clients are saying, I love this system. How do I bring this into my portfolio to sell it to my client?
So the message of sell to has become a sell through model. And so people are actually wanting to use our system as a white label or a co branded solution to offer a recovery program to their clients. And we still manage that. So it just, it keeps building blocks, which is really cool to watch. Just the organic evolution of this. And I think that's actually the fun part. And if you, if you don't resist it and just experience it, you'll have a lot of fun with it.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: You know, it's interesting you say that, you know, don't resist it. And I love that phraseology you just use to sell, you know, from sell to. To a sell through.
Because, you know, typically business is either one or the other. You're selling to the end user or you're selling through some, you know, joint venture partners or whatever the case may be, or referral partners. But very rarely do they come as a hybrid together and do that. So I think that's almost like a lesson. If nothing else, those listening and watching, if that isn't a nugget, you should be looking up and thinking how you can apply that to your business. You know, you're missing a tremendous amount there.
In reality, Sean, what that's done is allowed you to triple your revenue. And this is the key thing. You tripled your revenue and then you did something which most people don't do. You flatline deliberately to reinvest in the platform.
There'd be people now going, he did what?
[00:18:07] Speaker A: What?
[00:18:10] Speaker B: There's always growth.
You and I have talked about those numbers, you know, and most founders will never make that call. Walk us through the thinking in your head. You and I appreciate you doing this with your partner, but thinking through whether it's going to pay off, how do you see it paying off by just going, nope, here's the breaks. Deliberate breaks.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So I speak in metaphors. You probably already caught this through this interview.
So I would say what's in front of the curtain is your experience, and what's going on behind the curtain is making sure that experience is good for you. So you might have paperclips and gum holding things together to make sure things working, but the customer doesn't know that. Right. And that was how our MVP was working. We had what we call spaghetti in between our software development. And we said, if we're going, going back to that water balloon metaphor phrase, if that water balloon pops, we're not going to be able to handle the influx of jobs and transactions. So let's take a moment, let's rebuild this so it's solid so that we can have a thousand customers doing a thousand jobs a month if we want to. We have that scalability now, so we have rock solid ip, but we also had to Learn, too, during that, when we're getting feedback from the clients, that our sales cycle took longer than we expected from first point of contact to actually revenue could be anywhere from three to six months, which we are actually seeing maybe more eight to 12 months, because we're going for the larger clients that have multiple sites. And you got to go through a lot of red tape. So during that time, by saying, hey, we're talking to 50 different clients that we're working through legal on, let's make sure that if 50 clients come through that our system can support them. Because the last thing you want to do is go through that whole process, and then you're like, okay, we're ready. Oh, my God, the system's not working.
So you lose credibility very quickly if you don't do.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: You know, I was talking to another guest on this show a couple of weeks ago, and in the nicest possible way, especially within the tech industry, it's almost like the bar. We set the bar and expect it to go to marketplace with the flaws in place, with the bugs in place. Because it's a case of, oh, well, they'll come back to us, and then we'll fix it, you know, but we have to get out to market first. But there is that balance, Sean, isn't there, about, you know, getting your MVP out there, sell it before you build it, making sure you have it, but also knowing full well that you now have to facilitate it, bugs and all, to make sure that you don't then lose clients because what they bought is a crappier version of what you sold them.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, anybody that's in sales know you can lose a client in five seconds, but it takes a long time to get them. So you have to make sure that you're working along and what you're promising and delivering is that you can actually execute on. And that's why I'm really proud of our team. Because, you know, sales is also known to outkick their punt coverage. They'll go say yes to everything to get the deal done. And then it's like, okay, here you go. Figure it out. Operations and product. And then it's like, wait a minute. So when you're running a company as an entrepreneur, you have to be thinking outside of just getting the revenue. You have to make sure what's the process to go, okay, I've got the client. They're putting something on there, but the product has to work. And then the operations make sure that the vendors are responding. And then you have to Close the deal and the account. I mean, it's the whole process of the business to deliver it outside of just getting a yes.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: And you know, it's more common than people, I think, believe it is, you know, and you know, we've just had a holiday here and I had a family member and he was telling me in his industry, the sales guys have had to stop because the sales were outselling their ability to deliver.
Yeah, they just could not deliver. And it went from a three month to six months to now. I think they're now nine to ten months before deliverability.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So think about your burn, I mean your burn ratio every month on this. You don't have revenue. It's like, oh, this is wonderful. I can do this, I can do this. But every good idea dies with time and money. So if you don't have those things, it doesn't matter how good your idea is because you can't fund it. You ran out of time. So we came into the market with something as like a disruption because this hadn't been done before. Everybody was in their own areas. Like contact Gary if you need to get recycled or contact Sean directly and work a contract. We're saying work with Gary, Sean and everybody else in one and pick the best one and may the best man win.
So that caused a little bit of flux. But at the same time, when you have something that's a disruption, you have to actually run the run up the hill with it as quickly as possible to get that flag up on top of the hill. Because if not, you're basically going to get lost behind. And that's with AI coming out competition. Private equity is getting very much into our industry right now. They see the value.
So we're trying to be a benchmark, but we're also trying to make sure we deliver on what we promise.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's the key thing, you know, otherwise everything you built, everything you've done for growth now starts working against you. And that big heavy ball that you just pushed up the mountain, up the hill is beginning to come back down on you and getting very, very heavy. So we've talked about growth, we've talked about lessons for that. Let's obviously talk about hard lessons. Right. Let's talk about stuff that's not working.
You've tried to be everything in the past and everybody knows that whether people want to build accepted or not.
When you start a business, you try and be all things to all people.
You have a clear idea who you want to be. But you. Cash flows, cash flow you're trying to do what you want to. So you've tried to be everything just like everybody else and ended up with people asking you to dispose of the weird stuff. Like, what was it? Palmolive soap, I think you said last time.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: I'm flattered that you're like, okay, just put anything. It reminds me of, like, the movie Back to the Future. Like, when they're putting everything in. Oh, you can put trash in here. You can pour beer in here. I'm like, hold on, hold on. We said we deal with enterprise assets, not we're dealing. I mean, I guess that's an asset. But Palm all itself just didn't fit the criteria of what we're doing, though.
[00:24:22] Speaker B: Exactly. So one of the things you've learned from that, and this is easier said than done, is learning to say no. Learning to say no is one thing, but then actually doing it is another thing.
How did you get you and your business to hold that line? Because it is actually a line you have to hold.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
So I am going to be completely honest. I'm still struggling with that, Gary.
And it's something that most entrepreneurs will struggle with until you've solidified your business model. So I think there's two things I want to make sure that I point out to all the viewers. One is when you're going from just trying to get revenue, just trying to actually prove your concept of your business, we'll say if you. That first million dollars is really hard, you're starving. You're doing anything you can to try and get that million dollars. But when you start scaling from going from like 1 or 2 million dollars to 10 million dollars, it's a whole different ball game. You have to refine your process. You have to rebuild your software, make sure you can execute. You have to make sure your teams are in place to. To deliver.
So what happened? As I. As you know, I'm a natural sales guy, so I like to say yes. I actually had to lean in on my team to keep me within the guardrails of saying, sean, we're only doing this. And I'm like, well, but we could do this. We could do this, and, like, just do this.
So I actually lean in on my team for the support to say no. It's not just something I do, and I'm trying to get more disciplined on that. It's not that I don't believe in my product. It's that I want to grow at a faster scale, and I want to. I want to be all things and build my relationship. But that actually is counterintuitive to actually building a business. So I have to eat my own dog food and be like, this isn't going to work. This might not be a good fit for you right now. And here's the beauty part. I'll just make sure that this is known for everybody, that first no or that second no is very hard. But once you get to it, you'll realize, wow, you put your footage around, they will come back to you and they'll say, okay, let's do it this way. I understand why you said no.
So just take this, put your foot in the water, say no, and see what happens. Because it doesn't mean you're losing a sale. It's that you're standing your ground on your product.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And, and, and that, ironically, elevates you. It really does elevate you. Elevates you, your product, your company. So everything. Because you are standing your ground, you know, and, and, and that's a very important lesson. And, and here's the thing I want to talk about, and I'm a great believer that in business, everything's a lesson. Good, bad, indifferent, ugly. It's all a lesson.
By your own omission. You hunt whales, and if you're hunting whales, you're going to have long sales cycles. It's part of the course of being
[00:27:02] Speaker C: an enterprise and dealing with that.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: But we still lose deals. What was the biggest deal you lost and what did that teach you?
[00:27:11] Speaker A: So I wouldn't say we've lost it, but when we expected it to land, it hadn't.
We had about a $15 million deal that was going to come through with a new client in the, in the health sector.
And we did more than 90 days of pilot. A lot of education, a lot of support, even went through an RFP, which is antiquated. RFPs today are kind of a joke. You go through this process, you answer a hundred thousand questions, and it's hard because our system is almost like an RFP generator. Right away, you put something up, you get bids, you put on it, you go.
So it was hard to say. That doesn't apply to us because we're a platform that doesn't apply. I mean, it was almost copy and paste, but what we learned was you have to, like, put your time box on everything.
So even with the client that you thought was a solid slam dunk, you have to go back and say, okay, I'm only going to give you three months. If we go beyond that, it's going to be a paid Pilot. If we go beyond that, then it's really a program. While you're still kicking the tires, we'll still support you, but I'm not going to do this freemium. More than 90 days is really what we had to do. So that was the lesson learned is that time box, it let them go away, and maybe they'll come back, and if not, move on. There's a lot of people. We're dealing with the biggest waste stream in the world. E Waste is the biggest waste stream in the world. Everybody can feast, everybody can participate, and everybody's got this problem, you know, and that's.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: That's a great place to play in the marketplace, isn't it? So let me ask you this.
Your last question. I can't believe where the time has gone, Sean, as your last question, you know, when we were speaking before that. I'm a great believer in looking outside your industry. Looking outside your industry, see what's working.
That's what I did. That's what I did to grow my company before I sold it. And I. And I always teaching my clients how to do that as well. Look outside, see what's working. Bring it in.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: So that being said, you know that we got a lot of tech founders who are watching this and leaders and whatnot.
When it comes to your industry, Sean, when it comes to your experience, what's one thing that's working in your business right now that you think most founders in your space simply aren't doing? That.
They could be doing that people in the tech industry or anyone listening to this could take away with them right now.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: That's a good question. Can I answer it in three parts? I'll make it quick. The reason why? Yeah.
One is learn to be humble because your way might not be the only way.
All right. Two is plan to fail and learn from it. Because if you. Nobody hits a thousand baseballs at every swing. You know, it's like you have to fail. You have to learn so you can adjust and pivot. And three is stay invested in your team, because those are the most important people to help build your product and your service to come to reality. You can't do anything alone. So if you put those three lessons into play, that's at least what I've learned in this time, is I've learned to be humble.
I encourage people to fail. But if you repeat the failure, there's either a user error or there's just something that's not working right there. Right. But you have to fail to learn, and that's how you grow. And then basically you have to have the right people on the bus in the right seats. And so we're still shifting around with that. But there's people that come in when you, when you're so focused on the job every day. It's great to get outside perspective because they're looking at something that maybe you didn't. So you got to look at every side of a situation, not just one angle of it. And then you get really good perspective.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's a great place to wrap this episode up because, you know, great. Three great, great nuggets of advice there and insights. So, Sean, if people want to get a hold of you and certainly think you know or wanting to get to know you have a little bit more potentially work of you, what is the best way they can get hold of you?
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, our website is recycled gx.com you can contact us through there. Mine, you can reach out to me via email sales recycle gx.com or just Sean S E N S E A n@recyclegx. So I encourage people to reach out, connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm always on there.
Again, I'm going to end with, we're a software company, but we're human in the loop. And don't ever forget about the relationship. So I encourage people to reach out. I want to build a relationship. I might not be able to help you now, you might not be helping me now, but relationships gather in time and there's always a handshake. There's.
[00:31:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think definitely in the state or in a world of AI growing, just being, having a good relationship with people is so much more important. Let's all do that so we don't forget how to build a good relationship.
Sean, thank you very much for joining us on the show. It's been an absolute pleasure having you and thank you for your time and insights.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: Yeah, Gary, thank you. It was really good to meet with you and talk with you.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: You do likewise. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us for another episode of the Growth Focused podcast. So, again, loads of great nuggets here from Sean. If you've picked anything up of that or think that's interesting, I could be doing that or should be doing it. Make sure you like it. Make sure you let it know in the comments what you picked up so other people can learn. So until the next time, work hard, work smarter, but always be happy. See you next time. Bye. Bye.
[00:32:25] Speaker C: There's a moment in this conversation that I keep coming back to, Sean describes his pipeline as a water balloon ready to pop.
And then he made a decision that most founders won't make. He pulled the brakes, deliberately tripled revenue, then flatlined it to rebuild the platform underneath so we could actually handle what was coming.
That's not a growth story most people are prepared to tell because most people are too afraid to tell it.
But it's exactly the kind of decision that separates the business, businesses that scale from the ones that buckle under their own weight.
The lesson here isn't about recycling. It's about what happens after the deal. You can build the pipeline, you can close the sales, and then if the thing underneath isn't solid, all of that momentum starts working against you.
Sean called it spaghetti in the software.
For a lot of MSPs and B2B tech businesses I talk to, it's spaghetti in the revenue process. Leads are coming in, conversations are happening. But somewhere between interest and invoice, something's leaking.
And that's exactly what the revenue leak audit is built to find. It's a free 30 minute call. No pitch, just a straight diagnostic of where your revenue is slipping after the lead arrives.
If you're sitting on a pipeline that feels healthy but the numbers don't match the energy that you're putting in, that call is worth your time.
As per usual, the booking link is in the show notes. My thanks to Sean Marles for joining us. Honest, experienced, and generally good value. Send this to one person who needs to hear it and I look forward to seeing you the next time.
There's a moment in this conversation that
[00:34:12] Speaker B: I keep coming back to.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: Sean describes his pipeline as a water balloon ready to pop. And then he made a decision that most founders won't make. He pulled the brakes, deliberately tripled revenue, then flatlined it to rebuild the platform underneath so it could actually handle what was coming.
That's not a growth story most people are prepared to tell because most people are too afraid to tell it.
But it's exactly the kind of decision that separates the business, businesses that scale from the ones that buckle under their own weight.
The lesson here isn't about recycling, it's about what happens after the deal. You can build the pipeline, you can close the sales, and then if the thing underneath isn't solid, all of that momentum starts working against you.
Sean called it spaghetti in the software.
For a lot of MSPs and B2B tech businesses I talk to, it's spaghetti in the revenue process. Leads are coming in, conversations are happening. But somewhere between interest and invoice, something's leaking.
And that's exactly what the revenue leak audit is built to find. It's a free 30 minute call. No pitch, just a straight diagnostic of where your revenue is slipping after the lead arrives.
If you're sitting on a pipe run, that feels healthy, but the numbers don't match the energy that you're putting in that call is worth your time.
As per usual. The booking link is in the show notes. My thanks to Sean Marles for joining us. Honest, experienced and generally good value. Send this to one person who needs to hear it and I look forward to seeing you the next time.
