The Founder of AdQuick.com (Matt O’Connor) Shares Why When You Do Hard Things Life Gets Easier

Show Notes

The founder of AdQuick.com shares how he launched America’s most effective outdoor advertising company and why when you do hard things life gets easier.

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1. Matt O’Connor, welcome onto The Thrivetime Show! How are you sir?!
2. Matt your career is so massive and today you’ve obviously experienced so much success, but I would love to start at the bottom. What was your childhood like growing up and how did that impact you become the person that you are today?
3. Matt, I would love for you to share about what AdQuick is and when you first had the idea to start AdQuick?
   1. AdQuick is the easiest way to find, but and measure outdoor advertising.
   2. I was a sports junkie my entire life.
   3. Competition was core in my childhood.
   4. A big part of my childhood was learning how to work with team mates.
   5. I had the idea very slowly. I had bumped into the process on how to buy outdoor advertising and was very frustrated as to how difficult it was to actually buy outdoor advertising.
   6. I looked to other people who knew more about outdoor advertising and eventually started a company to make outdoor advertising easy.
4. Matt, I’d love to hear your story about how you funded the starting of AdQuick?
   1. It was initially no salaries. It was all our savings.
   2. It started with friends and family and as we grew, we got into some early stage venture capitalists.
   3. With the venture capitalist rounds, I as a business owner was onto something promising and I could not get to the promised land without a certain amount of capital. Venture capitalists fill that gap for a portion of your company.
   4. I was fortunate because I worked for a venture backed company called Grocery Cart. I had experience working at a venture backed company that grew fast so I had experiences that I could learn from.
   5. We hearn “No” from most people but were lucky that we had our past experiences.
   6. If you are looking for venture capital, you should use a company that is already ahead of you as a bridge.
5. How does AdQuick work?
   1. Any company of any size can come to us with demographics.
   2. Our platform will surface available locations and options for that business owner. We provide them the tools to help them pick an option to fit their budget and reach their goals.
   3. Outdoor advertising can start in the 100’s of dollars.
   4. There is typically a 4 week minimum.
   5. It is really up to the company as to how long they book the advertising.
   6. The benefit, customers can’t block the ad. When it is there for 12 months, it becomes a part of the customer’s life.
   7. Not only is it easier to buy and optimizable, we have a bunch of tracking materials that can show that we do cause increase of business.
   8. Tracking is becoming easier and easier with all of the technology that everyone is carrying around.
   9. We service all locations, not just specific locations. We have technology that we can bring to companies to bring them up to speed and become compatible with AdQuick.
   10. We are operating internationally.
6. Matt, How big is the company?
   1. We have hundreds of customers.
   2. Most of our business is done by purchases online.
   3. Most of our business is done with small and medium businesses.
7. Matt, you come across as a very proactive person despite constant demands on your time. How do you typically organize that first 4 hours of your work day and what time do you typically wake up?
   1. Being a startup founder, I find constance variance exciting.
   2. I am up between 5:00am and 8:00am
   3. There are different priorities for the company every month and every other month.
   4. The first 3 hours of the day is spent on the biggest limiting factors of the company.
8. If you could give one message to everyone listening, what would you tell them?
   1. Do you really want to do something that is easy?
   2. When it is easy, it’s not fulfilling.
   3. When it is hard, it feels great once you have success.
   4. You have to be comfortable doing hard things.
   5. If you’re thinking that you “might” start a company, that’s a no.
   6. You have to have an overwhelming conviction that you can’t leave until get to the top.
   7. If you think you want to start a business, work for someone who is doing what you want to be doing.
9. Matt, you seem like a very well read person. What are a few books that have impacted you the most throughout your career and why?
   1. Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics – Richard H. Thaler
   2. Antifragile – Nassim Nicholas Taleb