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Back to 17 Years of Online Ventures, with Matt Giovanisci of Swim University, with Matt Giovanisci.

Why Did Matt Giovanisci Want to Be His Own Boss?

Matt Giovanisci, founder of Swim University, says he always wanted to be his own boss and has never done well with authority. Around age 20 he nearly bought a pool store. A backer was ready, and the first pool store he had worked at, starting at 13, was for sale. He and the owner talked it through and then did not do the deal. Small money-making projects had been a hobby since childhood, and he always assumed he would run something, maybe a web-design shop, without knowing what. Swim University was what he finally chose. Learning HTML and CSS, he says, later made independence practical, because he could build Swim University himself.

Transcript

17 Years of Online Ventures, with Matt Giovanisci of Swim University ·

The Failory Podcast

More from this episode

  1. Who Is Matt GiovanisciMatt shares his background and what he is currently working on.
  2. What Led You to Building a Swimming Pool Niche SiteMat shares his motivation behind building SwimUniversity, a niche site around swim pool and hot tube care, which was making $400k/y, pre-Amazon's cut on…
  3. What Was Matt Giovanisci's Failed Startup Spruce?Spruce was Matt Giovanisci's attempt to turn the monthly spreadsheet behind Swim University into software.
  4. What Were the Motivations Behind SpruceAfter sharing the whole Spruce's fail story, Matt shares what were his real motivations behind building the product.
  5. Is There Any Space in the Market for Spruce NowadaysBrandon asks Matt if he thinks there are any other products solving what they aimed to solve with Spruce and if there's any space for a product like it to…
  6. Why Does Matt Share Failure & Mistakes So TransparentlyMatt has a personal website (called MoneyLab) where he runs experiments on his different online ventures.
  7. What's Swim University (matt's +$35k/mo Niche Site) AboutMatt shares what is Swim University about as if he was explaining it to a 10-year old child. "We teach Mommy and Daddy keep your pool clear".
  8. How Has Matt Grown a Site Almost 5m Visits/yearMatt shares how he grew his swim pool care site to millions of visits and 6 figures per year. He has been working on the site for +10 years...
  9. Were Your Failed Startup Lessons Useful SomehowBrandon asks Matt is he applied any of the lessons learned from Spruce's failure into SwimUniversity or other businesses.
  10. What Keeps Matt Giovanisci Working on Swim University?Matt Giovanisci says inspirational posts do nothing for him. He runs on negative motivation: tell him he cannot do something and he will.
  11. What Content Mistakes Does Matt Giovanisci See Most Often?Matt Giovanisci, publisher of Swim University and Money Lab, says marketers obsess over volume.
  12. What Would You Tell Former Self After FailingMatt shares what he would tell Matt from many years ago after Spruce Metrics was shut down.

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