July 9, 2025 • 31 mins
Imagine building a digital empire that someone would pay millions to acquire. For content creators and online entrepreneurs, this isn't just a fantasy—it's happening every day.
Blake Hutchinson, CEO of Flippa, pulls back the curtain on the thriving marketplace for digital assets where YouTube channels, e-commerce stores, SaaS businesses, and more change hands for anywhere from $10,000 to $35 million. What began as a platform for small digital assets has transformed into "the investment bank for the 99%," democratizing exit opportunities previously reserved for corporate giants.
For creators wondering if their audience has monetary value beyond sponsorships and ad revenue, Hutchinson delivers eye-opening insights. YouTube channels have become particularly hot commodities, with "faceless" channels (those not dependent on a specific personality) often commanding premium prices due to their transferability. However, any channel with consistent viewership and predictable revenue can become a valuable asset.
The timing of your exit proves crucial to maximizing value. Hutchinson advises entrepreneurs to begin planning their exit strategy at the first signs of waning enthusiasm, not after burnout has set in. "A buyer will sense when a business has been neglected," he cautions, emphasizing the importance of maintaining clean financials and documented procedures well before listing.
Perhaps most compelling is the ROI comparison between digital assets and traditional investments. While a property in Melbourne might require a million-dollar investment, digital assets can be acquired for a fraction of that cost while potentially generating $150,000-$200,000 in annual profit. This dramatic return has attracted a massive buyer ecosystem, with Flippa adding up to 20,000 new buyers monthly to their network of 1.6 million.
Whether you're building a digital brand with future liquidity in mind or looking to acquire established online businesses, this conversation reveals the mechanics of the digital asset marketplace that's creating millionaires from passionate creators. The question isn't whether your digital presence has value—it's whether you're positioning it for maximum value when you're ready for your exit.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Walt Bayliss (00:00):
Today's episode of the Influencer Empires podcast
is brought to you by the EmpireProgram with White Label Suite
powering our influencers andbuilding their empires.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank youso much for joining us today.
We are focusing on a specialguest who's got a real specialty
in empires and exits that comealong with those empires.
(00:20):
Watching some of ourinfluencers, watching some of
the tribes that are beingcreated, we're seeing incredible
growth in those numbers, in thepeople and the audiences that
they're building, and, of course, what happens then is we might
be looking towards an exit andtaking that growth and being
able to capitalize on that in anamazing way.
Today's special guest is nostranger to building empires
(00:40):
himself, having started his ownstartup company, which he then
went on to list on a websitecalled Flippa, which he is now
the CEO of, based down inMelbourne.
He's also worked with Xero asthe head of strategic
partnerships there.
He was the GM and chief revenueofficer for Luxury Escapes,
which actually grew to over $300million in gross revenue, and,
(01:01):
of course, the influencer modelplaying a big part in the hotel
space and Luxury Es luxuryescapes.
As the CEO of Flippa since 2018, our special guest here, blake,
has created something of aphenomenon, launching now in
multiple companies, partneringwith Google and creating the
world's best marketplace forlisting digital assets and
exiting companies.
He is the CEO of Flippacom.
(01:24):
He is an incredible businessturnaround specialist.
He is none other than BlakeHutchinson.
Blake, thank you so much forjoining us.
Blake Hutchison (01:31):
Hi Walt, Thank you so much for having me.
Walt Bayliss (01:32):
Mate, what a journey.
You've created somethingspecial there.
So I'm looking through yourhistory.
You're university educated,you've got straight into the
corporate space, you've workedwith startups, you've grown
through partnerships and nowyou're heading up the fastest
growing and biggest digitalmarketplace on the planet.
Mate, what a journey for you.
Blake Hutchison (01:50):
It's been interesting.
I've worked in lots ofdifferent industries across lots
of different business models.
Flippa is certainly the mostinteresting so far.
Walt Bayliss (01:59):
Speaking of business models, with Flippa you
would have, I guess, visibilityon some of the most incredible
business models of all timecoming across your desk.
I mean, have you seen some bigchanges in the time since you've
been there?
Blake Hutchison (02:10):
Yeah, I think for all of our staff it's almost
like a mini MBA every time youcome to work, because the world
on Flippa evolves so quickly and, of course, entrepreneurs are
so clever so they're alwaysinventing new ways to make money
and, of course, in the digitalsphere, in the internet economy,
that's no different.
Flipper is very much attuned tothat.
(02:31):
We see business owners from allover the world operating across
SaaS, e-commerce, youtubechannels, newsletters, apps, ios
and Android and anything thatis digital, and so it is really
interesting.
And, of course, theentrepreneurs that live and
breathe within the Flipperecosystem are pretty savvy.
They do things really well andthey can get the benefit of
(02:53):
exiting, so it's superinteresting.
Walt Bayliss (02:55):
I love it.
I've actually personally sold abunch of sites on Flipper.
We've created little WordPresssites or little apps that we've
sold there.
It's been an amazing success.
Little WordPress sites orlittle apps that we've sold
there it's been an amazingsuccess.
But I was looking Flipper'swhole.
I guess demeanor has changed,especially in the last few years
.
Now, as I look at Flipper, Imean you are really focused on
M&A.
You've got high profile teamsthere that are working with
(03:18):
brokers.
You've really elevated the Iguess the base of Flipper into
that high levellevel enterprisemarket and everything in between
.
I'm seeing again valuationsfrom $10,000 to millions.
You've grown that massively.
How have you gone about that?
Blake Hutchison (03:35):
Yeah.
So I guess it starts with thevision.
So the vision is to create theinvestment bank for the 99%.
So you and I both know that theworld of M&A has been reserved
for very big businesses andthose who are well-connected,
well-heeled and often can affordthe services of an investment
(03:55):
bank.
But for the small guy, for theS&P, for the male and female
founders around the world whohave created something of value,
they also deserve thatopportunity to exit.
And so we believe that therewill be one default marketplace,
like in many other industries,that will ultimately dominate
(04:17):
the M&A service proposition foras many business owners as
possible.
And so, therefore, our missionis to democratize the exit, make
founders aware of that exitopportunity and provide that in
the most efficient and scalablemanner to serve as many people
as possible.
And so when I joined, which isnow nearly seven years ago,
(04:38):
flippa was a good company, butwe were a company that
represented mostly tiny digitalassets, were a company that
represented mostly tiny digitalassets, and over time, the
internet economy has clearlyevolved and matured, and
e-commerce businesses 15 yearsago were new and small and
nascent, and now they're big andmature and thriving, and so we
(04:58):
have done a good job ofobviously positioning ourselves
to capitalize on that.
But at the same time, we've alsofollowed the internet economy
and its maturation generally,and so over time those business
models have evolved.
Small business owners are nowgravitating to the internet
first and foremost, versustraditional SMB, and over time
(05:18):
they've also become very attunedto this idea that, much like
buying or selling a house,buying or selling a business is
something that is available andaccessible to many.
So for us it's been aboutobviously hiring great talent
that can help customers exit,but it's also about making sure
that the platform itself cansatisfy the needs of those who
(05:40):
operate in the internet economy.
So we only do digital, whichmeans we specialize in
understanding the nuances of ane-commerce business or a YouTube
channel or a SaaS business oran iOS and Android app, and
that's different to most people.
So we've become specialists inthat space and therefore built
specialization in exiting thosebusinesses.
Walt Bayliss (05:58):
I love it.
I love it and for the audiencethat we specifically talk to,
blake, we're talking to creators.
We're talking to people who arebuilding their own tribes and
their audiences and often thequestion of monetization comes
up when we're talking to theseinfluencers.
So somebody is running aYouTube channel, for example.
They're creating great content,they're driving up those
subscriber numbers and theymight be monetizing that in a
(06:20):
number of ways.
They might be ad revenue orcontracts that they've got,
branding placements, their ownproducts, white label, might
come into the play.
Is there a model for a creatoror for somebody that owns that
kind of influence and space thatworks best in terms of exiting
that as a company?
Blake Hutchison (06:38):
Yeah, so certainly, what a buyer is
looking for is something thatthey can.
What a buyer is looking for issomething that they can take
over and run in the same manneror more efficiently, and so,
therefore, something which iseasy to adopt or easy to take
(06:58):
over is better than somethingwhich is more bespoke, and so
the easiest would probably beAdSense, and that's Google's
traditional ad monetizationmodel and that was initially
used for bloggers and publishersites and has obviously expanded
to be a suitable way togenerate revenue if you're a
YouTube channel creator or owner, and so that's the easiest way
(07:23):
to generate revenue and the mostunderstood way from a buyer
standpoint brand paying forpre-roll, mid-roll, end-roll or
it could be somewhat of aproduct placement.
Let's say, for argument's sake,you've got a YouTube channel
(07:53):
about golf and you're getting asponsorship by Callaway or
Titleist or Srixon where they'reasking you to use their clubs
or their balls Don't ask me whyI've gone down the golf track,
walt, but here we are then thatwould be easily, you could
easily articulate that andtherefore get buyers who are
interested in that.
Really, what it comes down tois is the viewership growing and
(08:18):
is predictable, and is revenuegrowing and or predictable?
And so if those two thingsstack up, then you are sitting
on a really good quality channeland you are therefore sitting
on a channel which can beleveraged by an acquirer.
Now, some of the time, it'simportant to recognize why
(08:39):
buyers buy, and so a buyer willbuy for one of two reasons.
They're either a financialbuyer, in which case they say,
well, really good YouTubechannel, I'd like to buy it from
you because I believe thefinancial stack up and I want
the benefit of the ROI, a prettystraightforward financial M&A
process.
In other cases, it's morestrategic.
(09:00):
So let's say, for argument'ssake, you own a chain of golf
shops and you have 25 shopsacross australia and you then
find a channel which has got amassive following among
community golfers acrossaustralia.
Then you could acquire thatchannel for its arbitrage
(09:21):
benefits.
So, essentially, is what you'reseeking to get out of it and
therefore, whilst you might beinterested in the revenue,
probably what you're moreinterested in is the size of the
audience, where the audience isbased and the audience's
propensity to buy from you.
Walt Bayliss (09:38):
Perfect, amazing.
So we talk about monetization,we talk about creating that
revenue and of course, that'sfactoring into the exits, as
we're saying there.
When it comes to businessownership and again with your
experience and looking back overthe incredible businesses
you've seen come through Flippaquite often what we see is that
a business really takes theprofit from an exit so they've
(10:00):
built up something over theyears.
Maybe just a business owner isjust paying the bills and
getting by, but then it's theexit that allows them to really
capitalize on their years ofhard work.
Blake Hutchison (10:09):
Yeah, Well, 100%.
I mean, I used to work at Xeroyou will have seen that, or I
think you even alluded to thatin my introduction and one of
the things which was reallyinteresting there is obviously
watching business growth throughthe data, and then obviously
watching business growth throughthe data, and then obviously
watching average business lifecycle, and the reality is most
businesses don't survive thatfirst year, and the average life
(10:34):
of a business is just over fiveyears, and so, if you think
about that, it's highly unlikelythat a small business owner is
going to want to run theirbusiness forever.
They might do that today, butthe reality is that's unlikely
in the future, and so therefore,as you said, a lot of the time
(10:54):
they're just trying to put aroof over their head, a lot of
the time they're working onsomething that they're
passionate about, a lot of thetime they actually do run out of
steam, and therefore it'simportant that creators, youtube
channel owners, social mediainfluencers or business owners
(11:17):
generally start to think aboutthe time in the future where
they may consider that exitprocess and start to plan for
that early.
Walt Bayliss (11:22):
And we spoke just before we hit the record button
about there being a great timeto plan for that and a terrible
time to plan for that exit.
Is there a?
If somebody's at this peak,they feel like things could not
be going any better than theyare right now.
Is that the right time?
Should they push it a littlebit further?
What's your thoughts there interms of planning for that?
Blake Hutchison (11:42):
So, generally speaking, I think and I've been
an operator of businesses I'veobviously been an entrepreneur
You've alluded to that and I'vebeen involved in multiple
startups as well, and so a lotof the time there is a point
where you start to loseconfidence and faith in what
you're building, and a lot ofthe time, your energy levels
(12:04):
will start to dissipate, and soyou can feel that coming.
And so it's really importantthat, the minute that type of
feeling starts to arise, thatyou start to plan accordingly,
and that means ensuring that,financially, the business is in
the best possible shape, not theworst possible shape, and it
(12:25):
also means that things likestandard operating procedures,
things like using cloudaccounting, things like working
with a bookkeeper or accountantto ensure that your financials
are actually in a good workingorder, should actually be
planned at that time, versuswhen you truly do run out of
steam, because it kind of smellsand a buyer will sense that and
(12:47):
they're less likely to want toacquire something where they can
feel like it's been neglectedover X period of time.
Walt Bayliss (12:54):
Interesting.
So we've talked about the exitas being an amazing time in a
founder's life or a creator'slife when they capitalize on
that.
But what I've seen?
I was looking at the FlippaFacebook page just a few moments
ago.
I think there's 37,000 peoplefollowing every single post and
congrats to the Flippa team whoare posting there multiple times
a day with different deals thatare available and different
(13:16):
sites that are for sale anddifferent buyers that you're
looking for.
And that's the one I want tofocus on just for a moment,
because we're talking aboutselling.
But there's a real niche insideof the Flippa community that
are professional acquirers.
Yeah, so they're looking togrow their portfolio.
People with revenue, peoplewith experience.
They're coming into Flippasaying, cool, what do you got?
I'm ready for the next one, I'mready to pick up something else
(13:37):
in my, in my world.
Have you got a growingcommunity of people that are
cashed up, ready to buy insideof Flippa?
Blake Hutchison (13:44):
Yeah, so I'm going to backtrack just a little
bit and talk about the size ofexits and then give you a feel
for the buyers that look forthat.
Yeah, great.
So there's kind of new carexits, new apartment exits, new
house exits and new life exits.
There is this different sizeexit price that will afford you
(14:05):
different things as you go aboveand beyond or outside of that
exit horizon.
And so then you'll have sidehustlers.
They're those people who arelooking to buy something that is
going to provide them someincome while they work for
somebody else.
Typically You've got a kind ofacquisition entrepreneur and
(14:26):
they're looking to buy theirnext job.
So they've put aside some money, they've been searching for
something and they're going totake over your business and run
it for the purposes of theirprofessional income.
And then you have a strategicbuyer or institutional buyer
who's typically looking forsomething bigger and typically
has strategic and or financialbenefit to the company that they
already run today.
(14:47):
And we have a massive mixdepending on the price point,
because Flippa does do as yousaid.
We represent businesses as lowvalue as $10,000 and as high as
the biggest business we've soldon the platform was $35 million
Fantastic, and so it really doeshave quite the range, and so,
(15:13):
yeah, in short, we sign upbetween 17,500 and 20,000 net
new buyers every month, and wehave over 1.6 million buyers in
our network, and we have them.
The US does dominate, so thereare more buyers registered in
the US than there are anywhereelse.
But the good news is for anentrepreneur operating no matter
where they are in the world,the reality is it's the internet
, and so long as you've got adiverse audience, you get people
(15:35):
who say I really want afaceless YouTube channel in the
automotive space.
You'll get people who saysomething more broad than that.
They'll just say you know, I'mlooking for a SaaS business
(15:55):
which is generating greater than$2 million EBITDA, and so you
know, some go very broad intheir mandate and some go very
specific in their mandate, andso what Flippa has is AI
matching.
So we basically look at allthose mandates.
We also look at intent on theplatform, so we watch what
they're doing on the platformand we then essentially create a
(16:16):
likeness score.
So how similar are you to me?
And if you're similar enough tome, then I will show you assets
that Walter's looked like, andthen vice versa, nice.
Walt Bayliss (16:25):
Okay.
Blake Hutchison (16:27):
And then we will text those buyers, we will
email those buyers and,essentially, we're running AI
matching 425,000 AI matches aweek, so 20 million annually and
our job is therefore to makesure that there's enough buyers
looking at the relevant assetson the platform, ensuring that
those entrepreneurs can get theexits that they want.
Walt Bayliss (16:44):
That's fantastic.
That's amazing and I'm assuming, as you've created that network
, blake, you would have had theopportunity yourself to meet
some pretty connected andpowerful individuals around both
in the buying and the sellingspace.
How has that?
I guess you would have had theopportunity yourself to meet
some pretty connected andpowerful individuals around both
in the buying and the sellingspace.
How has that I guess, elevationof your network affected you
personally?
Blake Hutchison (17:04):
Oh look, I mean I spend most of my time as an
operator just trying to buildthe best performing marketplace
to represent as many businessowners as possible to ensure
that they get the exit they want.
We have a team of sales people,marketers, account managers,
brokers, et cetera operatingaround the world and, yeah,
you're right, they meet somereally interesting people and
(17:25):
often not always, but often someof those really interesting
people have a lot of money andso, yeah, I mean you meet people
who have gone and raised abunch of capital from brand-name
investors and are now shoppingfor that asset that they can
acquire.
You also meet some really savvypeople that have built, as you
say, a portfolio.
I mean there's a guy it soundsweird, but there's a guy in
(17:47):
Serbia.
He's a PHP developer and he'sbeen acquiring two assets on
Flippa a month so two assets amonth for the last six years,
and he has a very, verysubstantial portfolio.
He spent over $2 million on theFlippa platform.
He's scaled those businessesand grown those businesses and
(18:09):
achieving substantial ROI onthat investment over time, and
he's just one example.
Now, I've never met him, but Ican see his behaviours on the
platform, and so that's the moreimpressive that these people go
under the radar, and they'renot there to brag, necessarily.
They're there to truly amass aportfolio of high-performance
digital assets that will sort ofmirror and or outpace what you
(18:33):
might get from traditional realestate investment, which is, of
coursepace what you might getfrom traditional real estate
investment, which is, of course,what you and I are more
familiar with here in Australia.
Walt Bayliss (18:39):
Yeah, wow, that's so amazing.
And the digital action space,as you said, I did the
comparison myself againsttraditional real estate.
It's incredible to think whatit would take to you to generate
the same return, so long asyou're running it intelligently.
So, blake, I want to focus onthis.
Blake Hutchison (18:53):
The buy-in's lower.
Walt Bayliss (18:55):
Yeah right.
Blake Hutchison (18:56):
So if you think about a place in Melbourne or
Sydney, or I think you're on theGold Coast, you know the
reality is you're not going tobuy in for, in many cases, less
than a million dollarsAbsolutely, whereas you can buy
a digital asset for $10,000,$50,000, $100,000, and of course
(19:17):
.
So therefore the buy-in islower.
I must admit to be transparentabout it.
Access to capital is harderbecause there's no traditional
bank that's going to give you80% of the value of a property
or 90% of the value of theproperty.
They're not going to do that inthe digital asset landscape
because they don't understand ityet.
It's still relatively nascent.
But the point being is thebuy-in is lower and the ROI is
far better.
I mean, you're buying these aresmall businesses so you buy
something for, let's say, half amillion dollars.
(19:38):
Well, the reality is thatbusiness is probably turning
over $150,000 to $200,000 inprofit.
So you know the ROI on thatbusiness in year one, two and
three is far better than thereturn you're going to get on a
rental yield.
Walt Bayliss (19:51):
Yeah, definitely, absolutely.
It's easy to stack thosenumbers up, blake.
We were talking just beforeabout the digital assets and the
growth of social media andinfluencers and creators over
the last few years.
I know I'll come back to Marty,who was a YouTuber who sold on
the platform.
He's a really interesting story.
I'll come back to that in justa moment.
So YouTube as a channel hasbeen something very successful
(20:13):
with the Flippa marketplace.
Are there others as well?
Have you seen the TikTok shopsgetting traction, the Instagram
accounts also blowing up?
Have you seen those kind ofspaces?
Or has YouTube just been thedominating force?
Blake Hutchison (20:25):
We are seeing some green shoots there, they
feel a bit new still.
Youtube's a funny one because,as well as it's a new category
for Flippa, the reality is theYouTube search engine is the
second largest search engine inthe world, google number one,
and Google owns number two too,and it's been around for a long
time now, and so TikTok shopswill get there, instagram
(20:48):
accounts will get there, butYouTube, whilst it feels like a
new asset type for Flippa, thereality is it's an established
environment where creators havebeen growing influence, audience
and community for a long timenow, and buyers and investors
aren't silly, they don't reallywant fads, they don't really
(21:11):
want to place bets and they'remore likely to defer risk, and
so, therefore, youtube feels farless risky than some of the
others just because of itslong-term establishment.
And so, long story short,that's the fast growth one for
us, walt, and what buyers arelooking for.
(21:32):
There is very, very, verysubstantial viewership traction.
So subscribers important, butnowhere near as important as
video views.
Walt Bayliss (21:44):
Nice, nice, one of the interviews that we had.
I mentioned before a gentlemannamed Austin Armstrong who's
created Syllabi and has been anadvocate for faceless channels
and has over I think it's nearlya billion views across faceless
channels on YouTube.
So you mentioned before thatfaceless channels obviously have
a real appeal to a buyer.
Is it just faceless channels onYouTube that are working or is
(22:08):
there a call that other channelsmay also have that kind of
those results as well?
Blake Hutchison (22:13):
Yeah, not just.
I mean it's just an easier thingto the owner, the new owner,
and so I can't think of a sortof metaphor or equivalent for
that in other asset classes.
But I guess, well you know,maybe if you took over a cupcake
shop that had a famousMasterChef chef that had run it,
(22:38):
then you know all of the brandequity is in that MasterChef
chef and in the end you go andnow acquire that you're going to
have to retain that endorsementto ensure that people want to
continue to visit that shop andbuy those cupcakes.
And so a little bit equivalentto that, it's not perfectly
(22:59):
enough.
Walt Bayliss (22:59):
Yeah, I can see.
Blake Hutchison (23:00):
A little bit equivalent to that and so it's
just a safer bet.
But certainly we've sold a lotof YouTube channels that are not
faceless.
But the faceless ones fly offthe shelf because let's say it's
just about recipes or somethingwhere there's not a brand name
(23:21):
behind it, an individual brandname or spokesperson behind it.
Let's say it's about whateverpets falling into swimming pools
, whatever, and there's a lot ofviews for that type of content.
Then you could mount the casethat that's evergreen content.
You could mount the case that,unless there was a massive
change to the YouTube searchalgorithm, that that video and
(23:45):
that channel will continue toacquire views and as a result of
that, it's a more likelylong-term bet.
Walt Bayliss (23:52):
Nice, yeah, absolutely Easier for the new
buyer to take over.
As you said, let's dive intoMarty if you don't mind.
So, marty, a 75-year-oldretired YouTuber.
Successful sale on Flippa.
That's become a bit of a casestudy for you guys over the last
I think three or four weeks.
Tell me about that experience.
That's something that's kind ofset the scene for creators on
(24:17):
Flippa.
Blake Hutchison (24:18):
Well, we like it because you know most people.
When they visualise thesecreators, they see these young
millennials, Gen Z, and Marty'sclearly not that he's a boomer,
and so we like the idea that youknow these creator environments
, YouTube being one of them, areapplicable for everyone, and if
(24:42):
someone's passionate aboutsomething, and preferably a
subject matter expert, then youtoo can build an audience, and
so that's why we chose to putMarty on a pedestal, because he
was so passionate about what hehad built, and he built it over
a fairly long period of time ifI remember correctly, seven
years or maybe even longer.
So he'd built it over a fairlylong period of time.
If I remember correctly, it wasseven years or maybe even
longer, so he'd done this forseven years.
(25:03):
He'd established a community.
He loved the community.
He was really only exitingbecause, at the end of the day,
he was 75 years old and hewanted liquidity, and so we can
provide that liquidityopportunity for him, and so I
can't remember correctly, but Ithink it sold within 30 days of
being listed.
So you got Marty there.
He's 75 years old, he choosesFlippa, he lists with Flippa.
(25:25):
We match him up to the world'slargest universe of buyers,
specifically those buyers, inthis case looking for YouTube
channels.
He gets the cash.
He gets the cash in hand within30 to 45 days and he's a really
happy guy.
He then puts a goodbye messageup on his YouTube channel, and
he's a really happy guy.
He then puts a goodbye messageup on his YouTube channel.
People go nuts.
Now the channel's now thrivingwithout him, and so he gets
(25:47):
liquidity.
The new owner gets a businessthat they can take and run and
grow and everyone's happy.
So it's just a story what agreat story how someone who's
got passion for something canbuild an audience and how
someone who has that ability tobuild an audience can find
liquidity.
Walt Bayliss (26:02):
I love it, man, I love it.
And Flippa itself as a business, as a company, is expanding
massively.
I saw that you just opened upin Spain, a couple of weeks ago.
Blake Hutchison (26:10):
We did.
We did.
It's a really interesting oneOn the YouTube vein.
We ended up bringing on call itan acquihire, for want of a
better description but we endedup bringing on the founder and
some of the staff of an oldbrokerage called TrustU
T-R-U-S-T dot I-U.
(26:32):
That was a Spanish-based brokerfor YouTube channels.
So all they did was tradeYouTube channels in a
traditional brokerage model andwe got to know them and
ultimately we didn't acquire thebusiness.
But when that business shutdown, we wanted someone to run
youtube, and so we were able toget the founder of that business
and then some of his staff, uhto join us at flipper and then
(26:56):
run our youtube category.
So it was kind of serendipitousand it worked out well for
everyone, because now we've gotan office there and we can hire
there and bring more talent intoour European enterprise, whilst
getting subject matterexpertise around YouTube, which
is something that we've beenpassionate about but haven't
necessarily had the capabilityin-house to run.
Walt Bayliss (27:16):
That's so cool, and you get somebody else on the
other time zone as well.
More people behind the scenes,behind the teams Amazing, mate.
So what's next for Flippa?
I mean the last seven years foryou have seen an incredible
growth, a change in culture, achange in who Flippa is in the
marketplace and how it'sregarded by entrepreneurs
(27:36):
everywhere.
So huge congrats to you.
What's the next step?
Where will we see you on thehorizon?
Blake Hutchison (27:42):
Yeah, so part of the issue for us is we've got
so many buyers and they havevery, very specific and
different mandates, and youcan't always give them what they
want, and so that's as afunction of not having every
asset listed on Flippa, and sowhat we're thinking about is how
we can build an off-marketengine for buyers Interesting,
(28:03):
and so we have a lot of data onbusinesses and a lot of data on
businesses that are notcurrently listed on Flippa, and
so we believe that a lot ofthose business owners would love
to hear from a buyer, even ifthey're not formally going
through that exit process, andso what we're working on right
now is a system that gives those1.6 million buyers around the
(28:23):
world an opportunity to connectwith off-market business owners,
in addition to, obviously,consuming the marketplace.
So that's a very, very focusedstrategy for us right now.
How do you give all of thesebuyers what they want, given
that, for the 6,000 assets thatare on the platform at any given
time, that's not enough tosatisfy that huge intent.
Walt Bayliss (28:48):
Yeah, so there's a really huge growth model for
you moving that forward and, ofcourse, the people and the teams
that you've got behind you aresomething special in that space,
so you'll be able to leveragethat.
That's exciting, man, and foryou personally, I mean have you
got plans of exiting?
Is there an exit inside, from aCEO's perspective?
Blake Hutchison (29:07):
Yeah, maybe We've grown six years
consecutively and we're proud ofthat because it's been a
challenging climate for a verylong time actually.
I mean, we didn't get a COVIDbump because most of the digital
assets weren't mature enough atthat stage to benefit from a
flip platform.
And then you've had thismassive sort of groundswell of
(29:29):
uncertainty, from high interest,high inflation rate climate to
geopolitical challenges and then, more recently, the tariff
pressure that's really impactede-commerce.
So we're proud of the fact thatwe've been able to grow for six
years consecutively in achallenging environment and we
think that, so long as wecontinue that growth rate and
trajectory, yeah, there'sliquidity on the horizon for
(29:52):
Flippa too.
Walt Bayliss (29:53):
That's fantastic, amazing.
It'd be a great story to tell,actually, and especially looking
at the journey.
Well, guys, as we're listeninghere from a creator's
perspective, there areopportunities for you to invest
as a buyer.
You can join the crew and findamazing businesses that you can
add to your portfolio.
But, as Blake said, buildingthat dependable viewership, that
(30:15):
audience that has attraction,genuinely creates an asset for
you.
So, guys, get in touch with theteam at Flippa.
It's Flippacom Follow along ontheir website there and also the
Facebook group super, superactive.
Your buyer agents are out thereworking the crew and finding
buyers for business owners thatare selling.
The seller agents are obviouslyengaging there as well.
So, guys, if you are thinkingabout what your next step as a
(30:39):
creator, as an influencer, canbe, get in touch with the team
at Flippa.
There's literally nobody betterin the world than the team at
Flippa under the helm of Blake.
As he said, the guys are veryactive on Facebook.
Blake, I've seen you'respecifically active on LinkedIn.
I know you've got a hugefollowing there.
I think there's nearly 10,000people that are following your
posts on LinkedIn.
So find Blake across onLinkedIn.
We'll make sure we've got yourlinks there in the show notes as
(31:02):
well, and dude just.
Thank you so much for your time.
I really appreciate theinsights and what we're doing
for the community here.
Blake Hutchison (31:08):
Yeah, thank you , walt.
I really appreciate it as welland hopefully it's been helpful
for the community.
Walt Bayliss (31:12):
Yeah, amazing mate .
Thanks again.
All right guys, we'll see youon the next episode.
Today's episode of the Influencer Empires podcast
is brought to you by the EmpireProgram with White Label Suite
powering our influencers andbuilding their empires.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank youso much for joining us today.
We are focusing on a specialguest who's got a real specialty
in empires and exits that comealong with those empires.
(00:20):
Watching some of ourinfluencers, watching some of
the tribes that are beingcreated, we're seeing incredible
growth in those numbers, in thepeople and the audiences that
they're building, and, of course, what happens then is we might
be looking towards an exit andtaking that growth and being
able to capitalize on that in anamazing way.
Today's special guest is nostranger to building empires
(00:40):
himself, having started his ownstartup company, which he then
went on to list on a websitecalled Flippa, which he is now
the CEO of, based down inMelbourne.
He's also worked with Xero asthe head of strategic
partnerships there.
He was the GM and chief revenueofficer for Luxury Escapes,
which actually grew to over $300million in gross revenue, and,
(01:01):
of course, the influencer modelplaying a big part in the hotel
space and Luxury Es luxuryescapes.
As the CEO of Flippa since 2018, our special guest here, blake,
has created something of aphenomenon, launching now in
multiple companies, partneringwith Google and creating the
world's best marketplace forlisting digital assets and
exiting companies.
He is the CEO of Flippacom.
(01:24):
He is an incredible businessturnaround specialist.
He is none other than BlakeHutchinson.
Blake, thank you so much forjoining us.
Blake Hutchison (01:31):
Hi Walt, Thank you so much for having me.
Walt Bayliss (01:32):
Mate, what a journey.
You've created somethingspecial there.
So I'm looking through yourhistory.
You're university educated,you've got straight into the
corporate space, you've workedwith startups, you've grown
through partnerships and nowyou're heading up the fastest
growing and biggest digitalmarketplace on the planet.
Mate, what a journey for you.
Blake Hutchison (01:50):
It's been interesting.
I've worked in lots ofdifferent industries across lots
of different business models.
Flippa is certainly the mostinteresting so far.
Walt Bayliss (01:59):
Speaking of business models, with Flippa you
would have, I guess, visibilityon some of the most incredible
business models of all timecoming across your desk.
I mean, have you seen some bigchanges in the time since you've
been there?
Blake Hutchison (02:10):
Yeah, I think for all of our staff it's almost
like a mini MBA every time youcome to work, because the world
on Flippa evolves so quickly and, of course, entrepreneurs are
so clever so they're alwaysinventing new ways to make money
and, of course, in the digitalsphere, in the internet economy,
that's no different.
Flipper is very much attuned tothat.
(02:31):
We see business owners from allover the world operating across
SaaS, e-commerce, youtubechannels, newsletters, apps, ios
and Android and anything thatis digital, and so it is really
interesting.
And, of course, theentrepreneurs that live and
breathe within the Flipperecosystem are pretty savvy.
They do things really well andthey can get the benefit of
(02:53):
exiting, so it's superinteresting.
Walt Bayliss (02:55):
I love it.
I've actually personally sold abunch of sites on Flipper.
We've created little WordPresssites or little apps that we've
sold there.
It's been an amazing success.
Little WordPress sites orlittle apps that we've sold
there it's been an amazingsuccess.
But I was looking Flipper'swhole.
I guess demeanor has changed,especially in the last few years
.
Now, as I look at Flipper, Imean you are really focused on
M&A.
You've got high profile teamsthere that are working with
(03:18):
brokers.
You've really elevated the Iguess the base of Flipper into
that high levellevel enterprisemarket and everything in between
.
I'm seeing again valuationsfrom $10,000 to millions.
You've grown that massively.
How have you gone about that?
Blake Hutchison (03:35):
Yeah.
So I guess it starts with thevision.
So the vision is to create theinvestment bank for the 99%.
So you and I both know that theworld of M&A has been reserved
for very big businesses andthose who are well-connected,
well-heeled and often can affordthe services of an investment
(03:55):
bank.
But for the small guy, for theS&P, for the male and female
founders around the world whohave created something of value,
they also deserve thatopportunity to exit.
And so we believe that therewill be one default marketplace,
like in many other industries,that will ultimately dominate
(04:17):
the M&A service proposition foras many business owners as
possible.
And so, therefore, our missionis to democratize the exit, make
founders aware of that exitopportunity and provide that in
the most efficient and scalablemanner to serve as many people
as possible.
And so when I joined, which isnow nearly seven years ago,
(04:38):
flippa was a good company, butwe were a company that
represented mostly tiny digitalassets, were a company that
represented mostly tiny digitalassets, and over time, the
internet economy has clearlyevolved and matured, and
e-commerce businesses 15 yearsago were new and small and
nascent, and now they're big andmature and thriving, and so we
(04:58):
have done a good job ofobviously positioning ourselves
to capitalize on that.
But at the same time, we've alsofollowed the internet economy
and its maturation generally,and so over time those business
models have evolved.
Small business owners are nowgravitating to the internet
first and foremost, versustraditional SMB, and over time
(05:18):
they've also become very attunedto this idea that, much like
buying or selling a house,buying or selling a business is
something that is available andaccessible to many.
So for us it's been aboutobviously hiring great talent
that can help customers exit,but it's also about making sure
that the platform itself cansatisfy the needs of those who
(05:40):
operate in the internet economy.
So we only do digital, whichmeans we specialize in
understanding the nuances of ane-commerce business or a YouTube
channel or a SaaS business oran iOS and Android app, and
that's different to most people.
So we've become specialists inthat space and therefore built
specialization in exiting thosebusinesses.
Walt Bayliss (05:58):
I love it.
I love it and for the audiencethat we specifically talk to,
blake, we're talking to creators.
We're talking to people who arebuilding their own tribes and
their audiences and often thequestion of monetization comes
up when we're talking to theseinfluencers.
So somebody is running aYouTube channel, for example.
They're creating great content,they're driving up those
subscriber numbers and theymight be monetizing that in a
(06:20):
number of ways.
They might be ad revenue orcontracts that they've got,
branding placements, their ownproducts, white label, might
come into the play.
Is there a model for a creatoror for somebody that owns that
kind of influence and space thatworks best in terms of exiting
that as a company?
Blake Hutchison (06:38):
Yeah, so certainly, what a buyer is
looking for is something thatthey can.
What a buyer is looking for issomething that they can take
over and run in the same manneror more efficiently, and so,
therefore, something which iseasy to adopt or easy to take
(06:58):
over is better than somethingwhich is more bespoke, and so
the easiest would probably beAdSense, and that's Google's
traditional ad monetizationmodel and that was initially
used for bloggers and publishersites and has obviously expanded
to be a suitable way togenerate revenue if you're a
YouTube channel creator or owner, and so that's the easiest way
(07:23):
to generate revenue and the mostunderstood way from a buyer
standpoint brand paying forpre-roll, mid-roll, end-roll or
it could be somewhat of aproduct placement.
Let's say, for argument's sake,you've got a YouTube channel
(07:53):
about golf and you're getting asponsorship by Callaway or
Titleist or Srixon where they'reasking you to use their clubs
or their balls Don't ask me whyI've gone down the golf track,
walt, but here we are then thatwould be easily, you could
easily articulate that andtherefore get buyers who are
interested in that.
Really, what it comes down tois is the viewership growing and
(08:18):
is predictable, and is revenuegrowing and or predictable?
And so if those two thingsstack up, then you are sitting
on a really good quality channeland you are therefore sitting
on a channel which can beleveraged by an acquirer.
Now, some of the time, it'simportant to recognize why
(08:39):
buyers buy, and so a buyer willbuy for one of two reasons.
They're either a financialbuyer, in which case they say,
well, really good YouTubechannel, I'd like to buy it from
you because I believe thefinancial stack up and I want
the benefit of the ROI, a prettystraightforward financial M&A
process.
In other cases, it's morestrategic.
(09:00):
So let's say, for argument'ssake, you own a chain of golf
shops and you have 25 shopsacross australia and you then
find a channel which has got amassive following among
community golfers acrossaustralia.
Then you could acquire thatchannel for its arbitrage
(09:21):
benefits.
So, essentially, is what you'reseeking to get out of it and
therefore, whilst you might beinterested in the revenue,
probably what you're moreinterested in is the size of the
audience, where the audience isbased and the audience's
propensity to buy from you.
Walt Bayliss (09:38):
Perfect, amazing.
So we talk about monetization,we talk about creating that
revenue and of course, that'sfactoring into the exits, as
we're saying there.
When it comes to businessownership and again with your
experience and looking back overthe incredible businesses
you've seen come through Flippaquite often what we see is that
a business really takes theprofit from an exit so they've
(10:00):
built up something over theyears.
Maybe just a business owner isjust paying the bills and
getting by, but then it's theexit that allows them to really
capitalize on their years ofhard work.
Blake Hutchison (10:09):
Yeah, Well, 100%.
I mean, I used to work at Xeroyou will have seen that, or I
think you even alluded to thatin my introduction and one of
the things which was reallyinteresting there is obviously
watching business growth throughthe data, and then obviously
watching business growth throughthe data, and then obviously
watching average business lifecycle, and the reality is most
businesses don't survive thatfirst year, and the average life
(10:34):
of a business is just over fiveyears, and so, if you think
about that, it's highly unlikelythat a small business owner is
going to want to run theirbusiness forever.
They might do that today, butthe reality is that's unlikely
in the future, and so therefore,as you said, a lot of the time
(10:54):
they're just trying to put aroof over their head, a lot of
the time they're working onsomething that they're
passionate about, a lot of thetime they actually do run out of
steam, and therefore it'simportant that creators, youtube
channel owners, social mediainfluencers or business owners
(11:17):
generally start to think aboutthe time in the future where
they may consider that exitprocess and start to plan for
that early.
Walt Bayliss (11:22):
And we spoke just before we hit the record button
about there being a great timeto plan for that and a terrible
time to plan for that exit.
Is there a?
If somebody's at this peak,they feel like things could not
be going any better than theyare right now.
Is that the right time?
Should they push it a littlebit further?
What's your thoughts there interms of planning for that?
Blake Hutchison (11:42):
So, generally speaking, I think and I've been
an operator of businesses I'veobviously been an entrepreneur
You've alluded to that and I'vebeen involved in multiple
startups as well, and so a lotof the time there is a point
where you start to loseconfidence and faith in what
you're building, and a lot ofthe time, your energy levels
(12:04):
will start to dissipate, and soyou can feel that coming.
And so it's really importantthat, the minute that type of
feeling starts to arise, thatyou start to plan accordingly,
and that means ensuring that,financially, the business is in
the best possible shape, not theworst possible shape, and it
(12:25):
also means that things likestandard operating procedures,
things like using cloudaccounting, things like working
with a bookkeeper or accountantto ensure that your financials
are actually in a good workingorder, should actually be
planned at that time, versuswhen you truly do run out of
steam, because it kind of smellsand a buyer will sense that and
(12:47):
they're less likely to want toacquire something where they can
feel like it's been neglectedover X period of time.
Walt Bayliss (12:54):
Interesting.
So we've talked about the exitas being an amazing time in a
founder's life or a creator'slife when they capitalize on
that.
But what I've seen?
I was looking at the FlippaFacebook page just a few moments
ago.
I think there's 37,000 peoplefollowing every single post and
congrats to the Flippa team whoare posting there multiple times
a day with different deals thatare available and different
(13:16):
sites that are for sale anddifferent buyers that you're
looking for.
And that's the one I want tofocus on just for a moment,
because we're talking aboutselling.
But there's a real niche insideof the Flippa community that
are professional acquirers.
Yeah, so they're looking togrow their portfolio.
People with revenue, peoplewith experience.
They're coming into Flippasaying, cool, what do you got?
I'm ready for the next one, I'mready to pick up something else
(13:37):
in my, in my world.
Have you got a growingcommunity of people that are
cashed up, ready to buy insideof Flippa?
Blake Hutchison (13:44):
Yeah, so I'm going to backtrack just a little
bit and talk about the size ofexits and then give you a feel
for the buyers that look forthat.
Yeah, great.
So there's kind of new carexits, new apartment exits, new
house exits and new life exits.
There is this different sizeexit price that will afford you
(14:05):
different things as you go aboveand beyond or outside of that
exit horizon.
And so then you'll have sidehustlers.
They're those people who arelooking to buy something that is
going to provide them someincome while they work for
somebody else.
Typically You've got a kind ofacquisition entrepreneur and
(14:26):
they're looking to buy theirnext job.
So they've put aside some money, they've been searching for
something and they're going totake over your business and run
it for the purposes of theirprofessional income.
And then you have a strategicbuyer or institutional buyer
who's typically looking forsomething bigger and typically
has strategic and or financialbenefit to the company that they
already run today.
(14:47):
And we have a massive mixdepending on the price point,
because Flippa does do as yousaid.
We represent businesses as lowvalue as $10,000 and as high as
the biggest business we've soldon the platform was $35 million
Fantastic, and so it really doeshave quite the range, and so,
(15:13):
yeah, in short, we sign upbetween 17,500 and 20,000 net
new buyers every month, and wehave over 1.6 million buyers in
our network, and we have them.
The US does dominate, so thereare more buyers registered in
the US than there are anywhereelse.
But the good news is for anentrepreneur operating no matter
where they are in the world,the reality is it's the internet
, and so long as you've got adiverse audience, you get people
(15:35):
who say I really want afaceless YouTube channel in the
automotive space.
You'll get people who saysomething more broad than that.
They'll just say you know, I'mlooking for a SaaS business
(15:55):
which is generating greater than$2 million EBITDA, and so you
know, some go very broad intheir mandate and some go very
specific in their mandate, andso what Flippa has is AI
matching.
So we basically look at allthose mandates.
We also look at intent on theplatform, so we watch what
they're doing on the platformand we then essentially create a
(16:16):
likeness score.
So how similar are you to me?
And if you're similar enough tome, then I will show you assets
that Walter's looked like, andthen vice versa, nice.
Walt Bayliss (16:25):
Okay.
Blake Hutchison (16:27):
And then we will text those buyers, we will
email those buyers and,essentially, we're running AI
matching 425,000 AI matches aweek, so 20 million annually and
our job is therefore to makesure that there's enough buyers
looking at the relevant assetson the platform, ensuring that
those entrepreneurs can get theexits that they want.
Walt Bayliss (16:44):
That's fantastic.
That's amazing and I'm assuming, as you've created that network
, blake, you would have had theopportunity yourself to meet
some pretty connected andpowerful individuals around both
in the buying and the sellingspace.
How has that?
I guess you would have had theopportunity yourself to meet
some pretty connected andpowerful individuals around both
in the buying and the sellingspace.
How has that I guess, elevationof your network affected you
personally?
Blake Hutchison (17:04):
Oh look, I mean I spend most of my time as an
operator just trying to buildthe best performing marketplace
to represent as many businessowners as possible to ensure
that they get the exit they want.
We have a team of sales people,marketers, account managers,
brokers, et cetera operatingaround the world and, yeah,
you're right, they meet somereally interesting people and
(17:25):
often not always, but often someof those really interesting
people have a lot of money andso, yeah, I mean you meet people
who have gone and raised abunch of capital from brand-name
investors and are now shoppingfor that asset that they can
acquire.
You also meet some really savvypeople that have built, as you
say, a portfolio.
I mean there's a guy it soundsweird, but there's a guy in
(17:47):
Serbia.
He's a PHP developer and he'sbeen acquiring two assets on
Flippa a month so two assets amonth for the last six years,
and he has a very, verysubstantial portfolio.
He spent over $2 million on theFlippa platform.
He's scaled those businessesand grown those businesses and
(18:09):
achieving substantial ROI onthat investment over time, and
he's just one example.
Now, I've never met him, but Ican see his behaviours on the
platform, and so that's the moreimpressive that these people go
under the radar, and they'renot there to brag, necessarily.
They're there to truly amass aportfolio of high-performance
digital assets that will sort ofmirror and or outpace what you
(18:33):
might get from traditional realestate investment, which is, of
coursepace what you might getfrom traditional real estate
investment, which is, of course,what you and I are more
familiar with here in Australia.
Walt Bayliss (18:39):
Yeah, wow, that's so amazing.
And the digital action space,as you said, I did the
comparison myself againsttraditional real estate.
It's incredible to think whatit would take to you to generate
the same return, so long asyou're running it intelligently.
So, blake, I want to focus onthis.
Blake Hutchison (18:53):
The buy-in's lower.
Walt Bayliss (18:55):
Yeah right.
Blake Hutchison (18:56):
So if you think about a place in Melbourne or
Sydney, or I think you're on theGold Coast, you know the
reality is you're not going tobuy in for, in many cases, less
than a million dollarsAbsolutely, whereas you can buy
a digital asset for $10,000,$50,000, $100,000, and of course
(19:17):
.
So therefore the buy-in islower.
I must admit to be transparentabout it.
Access to capital is harderbecause there's no traditional
bank that's going to give you80% of the value of a property
or 90% of the value of theproperty.
They're not going to do that inthe digital asset landscape
because they don't understand ityet.
It's still relatively nascent.
But the point being is thebuy-in is lower and the ROI is
far better.
I mean, you're buying these aresmall businesses so you buy
something for, let's say, half amillion dollars.
(19:38):
Well, the reality is thatbusiness is probably turning
over $150,000 to $200,000 inprofit.
So you know the ROI on thatbusiness in year one, two and
three is far better than thereturn you're going to get on a
rental yield.
Walt Bayliss (19:51):
Yeah, definitely, absolutely.
It's easy to stack thosenumbers up, blake.
We were talking just beforeabout the digital assets and the
growth of social media andinfluencers and creators over
the last few years.
I know I'll come back to Marty,who was a YouTuber who sold on
the platform.
He's a really interesting story.
I'll come back to that in justa moment.
So YouTube as a channel hasbeen something very successful
(20:13):
with the Flippa marketplace.
Are there others as well?
Have you seen the TikTok shopsgetting traction, the Instagram
accounts also blowing up?
Have you seen those kind ofspaces?
Or has YouTube just been thedominating force?
Blake Hutchison (20:25):
We are seeing some green shoots there, they
feel a bit new still.
Youtube's a funny one because,as well as it's a new category
for Flippa, the reality is theYouTube search engine is the
second largest search engine inthe world, google number one,
and Google owns number two too,and it's been around for a long
time now, and so TikTok shopswill get there, instagram
(20:48):
accounts will get there, butYouTube, whilst it feels like a
new asset type for Flippa, thereality is it's an established
environment where creators havebeen growing influence, audience
and community for a long timenow, and buyers and investors
aren't silly, they don't reallywant fads, they don't really
(21:11):
want to place bets and they'remore likely to defer risk, and
so, therefore, youtube feels farless risky than some of the
others just because of itslong-term establishment.
And so, long story short,that's the fast growth one for
us, walt, and what buyers arelooking for.
(21:32):
There is very, very, verysubstantial viewership traction.
So subscribers important, butnowhere near as important as
video views.
Walt Bayliss (21:44):
Nice, nice, one of the interviews that we had.
I mentioned before a gentlemannamed Austin Armstrong who's
created Syllabi and has been anadvocate for faceless channels
and has over I think it's nearlya billion views across faceless
channels on YouTube.
So you mentioned before thatfaceless channels obviously have
a real appeal to a buyer.
Is it just faceless channels onYouTube that are working or is
(22:08):
there a call that other channelsmay also have that kind of
those results as well?
Blake Hutchison (22:13):
Yeah, not just.
I mean it's just an easier thingto the owner, the new owner,
and so I can't think of a sortof metaphor or equivalent for
that in other asset classes.
But I guess, well you know,maybe if you took over a cupcake
shop that had a famousMasterChef chef that had run it,
(22:38):
then you know all of the brandequity is in that MasterChef
chef and in the end you go andnow acquire that you're going to
have to retain that endorsementto ensure that people want to
continue to visit that shop andbuy those cupcakes.
And so a little bit equivalentto that, it's not perfectly
(22:59):
enough.
Walt Bayliss (22:59):
Yeah, I can see.
Blake Hutchison (23:00):
A little bit equivalent to that and so it's
just a safer bet.
But certainly we've sold a lotof YouTube channels that are not
faceless.
But the faceless ones fly offthe shelf because let's say it's
just about recipes or somethingwhere there's not a brand name
(23:21):
behind it, an individual brandname or spokesperson behind it.
Let's say it's about whateverpets falling into swimming pools
, whatever, and there's a lot ofviews for that type of content.
Then you could mount the casethat that's evergreen content.
You could mount the case that,unless there was a massive
change to the YouTube searchalgorithm, that that video and
(23:45):
that channel will continue toacquire views and as a result of
that, it's a more likelylong-term bet.
Walt Bayliss (23:52):
Nice, yeah, absolutely Easier for the new
buyer to take over.
As you said, let's dive intoMarty if you don't mind.
So, marty, a 75-year-oldretired YouTuber.
Successful sale on Flippa.
That's become a bit of a casestudy for you guys over the last
I think three or four weeks.
Tell me about that experience.
That's something that's kind ofset the scene for creators on
(24:17):
Flippa.
Blake Hutchison (24:18):
Well, we like it because you know most people.
When they visualise thesecreators, they see these young
millennials, Gen Z, and Marty'sclearly not that he's a boomer,
and so we like the idea that youknow these creator environments
, YouTube being one of them, areapplicable for everyone, and if
(24:42):
someone's passionate aboutsomething, and preferably a
subject matter expert, then youtoo can build an audience, and
so that's why we chose to putMarty on a pedestal, because he
was so passionate about what hehad built, and he built it over
a fairly long period of time ifI remember correctly, seven
years or maybe even longer.
So he'd built it over a fairlylong period of time.
If I remember correctly, it wasseven years or maybe even
longer, so he'd done this forseven years.
(25:03):
He'd established a community.
He loved the community.
He was really only exitingbecause, at the end of the day,
he was 75 years old and hewanted liquidity, and so we can
provide that liquidityopportunity for him, and so I
can't remember correctly, but Ithink it sold within 30 days of
being listed.
So you got Marty there.
He's 75 years old, he choosesFlippa, he lists with Flippa.
(25:25):
We match him up to the world'slargest universe of buyers,
specifically those buyers, inthis case looking for YouTube
channels.
He gets the cash.
He gets the cash in hand within30 to 45 days and he's a really
happy guy.
He then puts a goodbye messageup on his YouTube channel, and
he's a really happy guy.
He then puts a goodbye messageup on his YouTube channel.
People go nuts.
Now the channel's now thrivingwithout him, and so he gets
(25:47):
liquidity.
The new owner gets a businessthat they can take and run and
grow and everyone's happy.
So it's just a story what agreat story how someone who's
got passion for something canbuild an audience and how
someone who has that ability tobuild an audience can find
liquidity.
Walt Bayliss (26:02):
I love it, man, I love it.
And Flippa itself as a business, as a company, is expanding
massively.
I saw that you just opened upin Spain, a couple of weeks ago.
Blake Hutchison (26:10):
We did.
We did.
It's a really interesting oneOn the YouTube vein.
We ended up bringing on call itan acquihire, for want of a
better description but we endedup bringing on the founder and
some of the staff of an oldbrokerage called TrustU
T-R-U-S-T dot I-U.
(26:32):
That was a Spanish-based brokerfor YouTube channels.
So all they did was tradeYouTube channels in a
traditional brokerage model andwe got to know them and
ultimately we didn't acquire thebusiness.
But when that business shutdown, we wanted someone to run
youtube, and so we were able toget the founder of that business
and then some of his staff, uhto join us at flipper and then
(26:56):
run our youtube category.
So it was kind of serendipitousand it worked out well for
everyone, because now we've gotan office there and we can hire
there and bring more talent intoour European enterprise, whilst
getting subject matterexpertise around YouTube, which
is something that we've beenpassionate about but haven't
necessarily had the capabilityin-house to run.
Walt Bayliss (27:16):
That's so cool, and you get somebody else on the
other time zone as well.
More people behind the scenes,behind the teams Amazing, mate.
So what's next for Flippa?
I mean the last seven years foryou have seen an incredible
growth, a change in culture, achange in who Flippa is in the
marketplace and how it'sregarded by entrepreneurs
(27:36):
everywhere.
So huge congrats to you.
What's the next step?
Where will we see you on thehorizon?
Blake Hutchison (27:42):
Yeah, so part of the issue for us is we've got
so many buyers and they havevery, very specific and
different mandates, and youcan't always give them what they
want, and so that's as afunction of not having every
asset listed on Flippa, and sowhat we're thinking about is how
we can build an off-marketengine for buyers Interesting,
(28:03):
and so we have a lot of data onbusinesses and a lot of data on
businesses that are notcurrently listed on Flippa, and
so we believe that a lot ofthose business owners would love
to hear from a buyer, even ifthey're not formally going
through that exit process, andso what we're working on right
now is a system that gives those1.6 million buyers around the
(28:23):
world an opportunity to connectwith off-market business owners,
in addition to, obviously,consuming the marketplace.
So that's a very, very focusedstrategy for us right now.
How do you give all of thesebuyers what they want, given
that, for the 6,000 assets thatare on the platform at any given
time, that's not enough tosatisfy that huge intent.
Walt Bayliss (28:48):
Yeah, so there's a really huge growth model for
you moving that forward and, ofcourse, the people and the teams
that you've got behind you aresomething special in that space,
so you'll be able to leveragethat.
That's exciting, man, and foryou personally, I mean have you
got plans of exiting?
Is there an exit inside, from aCEO's perspective?
Blake Hutchison (29:07):
Yeah, maybe We've grown six years
consecutively and we're proud ofthat because it's been a
challenging climate for a verylong time actually.
I mean, we didn't get a COVIDbump because most of the digital
assets weren't mature enough atthat stage to benefit from a
flip platform.
And then you've had thismassive sort of groundswell of
(29:29):
uncertainty, from high interest,high inflation rate climate to
geopolitical challenges and then, more recently, the tariff
pressure that's really impactede-commerce.
So we're proud of the fact thatwe've been able to grow for six
years consecutively in achallenging environment and we
think that, so long as wecontinue that growth rate and
trajectory, yeah, there'sliquidity on the horizon for
(29:52):
Flippa too.
Walt Bayliss (29:53):
That's fantastic, amazing.
It'd be a great story to tell,actually, and especially looking
at the journey.
Well, guys, as we're listeninghere from a creator's
perspective, there areopportunities for you to invest
as a buyer.
You can join the crew and findamazing businesses that you can
add to your portfolio.
But, as Blake said, buildingthat dependable viewership, that
(30:15):
audience that has attraction,genuinely creates an asset for
you.
So, guys, get in touch with theteam at Flippa.
It's Flippacom Follow along ontheir website there and also the
Facebook group super, superactive.
Your buyer agents are out thereworking the crew and finding
buyers for business owners thatare selling.
The seller agents are obviouslyengaging there as well.
So, guys, if you are thinkingabout what your next step as a
(30:39):
creator, as an influencer, canbe, get in touch with the team
at Flippa.
There's literally nobody betterin the world than the team at
Flippa under the helm of Blake.
As he said, the guys are veryactive on Facebook.
Blake, I've seen you'respecifically active on LinkedIn.
I know you've got a hugefollowing there.
I think there's nearly 10,000people that are following your
posts on LinkedIn.
So find Blake across onLinkedIn.
We'll make sure we've got yourlinks there in the show notes as
(31:02):
well, and dude just.
Thank you so much for your time.
I really appreciate theinsights and what we're doing
for the community here.
Blake Hutchison (31:08):
Yeah, thank you , walt.
I really appreciate it as welland hopefully it's been helpful
for the community.
Walt Bayliss (31:12):
Yeah, amazing mate .
Thanks again.
All right guys, we'll see youon the next episode.
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