Matt Moog from Viewpoints Network
SEO, affiliate marketing, community, lead generation, media buying, venture capital, viral marketing
Matt Moog was previously the CEO of CoolSavings and before that did presentations with Bill Gates at Microsoft. Matt talks about his time at CoolSavings (the original coupon site on the web), which included taking the company public and then back to being private. He also talks about how Viewpoints is creating a modern version of epinions, and which could become an amazing lead generation platform for advertisers, offering hot transfer leads from customers who are ready to buy. He's doing this while providing a lot of value to consumers. He's finding a way to generate leads which should generate a lot of loyalty from consumers.Full Interview »
Jason Fried from 37signals joins me for this interview. 37signals builds Web-based software and service products for small businesses. They're pretty famous in the web2.0 crowd for being easy to use. They are a relatively tiny company - typical of today's best startups, with a small team who are all high-caliber guys. Jason talks about how the company is able to meet deadlines and deliverables even though all 10 employees work remotely. They even have an 
Shawn Casey of Mining Gold Corporation is an information marketer who has been around almost longer than information marketing. He does $15M - $18M per year out of his house in Georgia with no team - just his brother and sister. One of the most interesting parts of the interview was when Shawn talked about how to test, manage and get the maximum dollar per lead from call center partners.
This interview is with Brad Powers, CEO of Active Response Group in New York. ARG is an online lead generation company that owns and operates 400 different sites as well as runs its own banner network serving 4.5-6 billion impressions per month. It's an interesting mix of being both a lead generation company and a publisher I haven't come across before. One thing that sets ARG apart from many Internet companies is that it answers to a board of directors. Brad shares the importance of having mentors to help walk your company through financial, operational, and legal issues. His insight is helpful, especially if your company is growing very quickly - and these guys have had phenomenal growth.
Matt Wise is the CEO of Q Interactive, and a really nice guy. But you're here for interviews, and so Q Interactive's interview is a good one – they actually started out as a coupons company (Cool Savings) and in the last few years completely reworked their direction to be a lead generation company. I think it’s yet another clear indicator that lead generation is one of the most powerful business models on the internet – many companies have reworked their business model in this same direction. We talk about the different methods of driving leads, what signifies "permission" and some sophisticated techniques to improve lead quality.
Meet Nathan Kinsella. He runs a $7M call center based in the Philippines. We had a very interesting conversation about how he acquires and works with clients, which is relevant to a large majority of the businesses here. If you're not working with a call center like the one Nathan runs, you're likely not selling enough and dramatically limiting the dollar revenue volume your business can do. And yes, call centers CAN work in an ethical manner that don't burn customers. You just need the right call center to work with.
This week’s interview is with Mike Filsaime. He’s another one of these viral guys. Except he’s different. Most viral business models don’t generate much revenue. And while Mike’s company is relatively small ($5M), he has very low acquisition costs due to the (mostly free) viral customer acquisition, so it’s very profitable. For anyone interested in viral marketing being used with lead generation or information product marketing, you should check out this interview.
