$20 Million Annual Revenue Thanks To Meetups

🎙️ From an interview on Mixergy…

Lloyed Lobo believes anyone could have founded Boast, a company designed to help businesses secure R&D tax credits. However, when asked about why he built it to tens of millions in revenue when others didn’t, he attributes it to community.

Apparently the business now does $20 million in annual recurring revenue, and Lloyed recently sold a chunk of it for a big payday 💰

From another interview…

Boast.ai was launched in 2017 after starting a services business in 2012 that helped larger company administer their R&D tax credits.

So essentially Lloyed started out as a freelancer, helping companies get those tax credits.

And then he “transitioned to an automated product over years.”

Back to the community aspect 👇

Lloyed writes on his website…

If you build a community, you won’t become a commodity.

He explains in the Mixergy interview how Boast got traction…

We started hosting our own events and we had a coworking space. We could get a free meeting space there. 

The first event we invited 10 people. I’m inviting Sarah, she just bootstrapped her company to a million. She’s going to talk about how she got her first hundred customers by doing X, Y, and Z. There’s going to be some free pizza. 10 people showed up. 

We never stopped, we just kept doing these meetups… One day 200 people show up [for a meetup]

… meetups were the lifeblood of us building social proof… and getting warm client referrals.

Everyone prefers to do business with people they know and trust 👍

And there’s no better way to build familiarity and trust than by getting in front of people regularly. 

What if you organized a regular meetup in your local area to connect with your target audience?

Or, if you’re a bit on the shy side, how about teaming up with an extroverted friend or acquaintance?

💬 Last words from Lloyed…

Your companions matter the most. Loneliness is the number one killer in America. 

And recently there is this concept of blue zones, the five places in the world where people live functionally to 100 [years old]. They have nine traits. Four or five of those traits have to do with human to human connection.

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