From High School Drop Out to $20M in Revenue: Brad Lea’s Journey with Lightspeed VT (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You were selling this particular training to car dealerships, and that became the core business for about a year.

Brad Lea: Yes, I had about 50 to 60 dealerships subscribing to use my system. I realized that that recurring revenue was definitely what I wanted to focus on. What happened was, as I continued to try and sell my training, the dealerships that I would approach had other trainers that they preferred or already used. I was having a hard time getting any scalability past 50. I kept hearing certain names as my competition, “We already use Greg Cardone.” I couldn’t convince them that I was better. I was finding a lot of no’s and was not able to grow my business.

I decided that the software worked for me so well that I would approach these other competitors and show them my software, which they did not have. I figured that I will show my competitors and let them private-label it so, at least, if I were going to have competition, I would be partnering with my competition. I closed them on using my software. I made a deal with them to use my software and go get those dealerships that I couldn’t get.

Sramana Mitra: How did that business ramp? We’re talking 2002 now?

Brad Lea: This was probably around 2003.

Sramana Mitra: How did the business ramp?

Brad Lea: It ramped pretty well. Back then, a lot of people weren’t into online learning but I put on a couple of big name clients. They went on to get their own business. Ultimately, they didn’t want me to compete with them because I knew where their accounts were. They didn’t want me selling my training because I had the inside scoop on their customers so I agreed that I wouldn’t sell my training. I would just focus on the software.

We started focusing on the software alone and really developing a highly interactive, engaging system and they just focused on their training and content. Then it reached outside of car dealerships. We started getting people who weren’t just in car dealerships. We started getting Zig Ziglar, John Maxwell, and Tom Hopkins. For the next five or ten years, we just focused on the platform. We just kept developing the platform and making it better and better. Over the years, our clients have just grown and grown.

Sramana Mitra: How long did it take you to get to a million dollars in recurring revenue?

Brad Lea: From when I began?

Sramana Mitra: We have your chronology right now. It was around 2003 when you started the SaaS business. What year did you hit the $1 million revenue mark with the SaaS business.

Brad Lea: I would say 2005 or 2006. $1 million doesn’t really matter when you’re spending $1.2 million. I didn’t really recognize that I was at a million because it didn’t feel like it.

Sramana Mitra: But it’s a milestone. That’s the point where you have enough reference customers that selling becomes a lot easier. That’s one of the reasons why we track that as a milestone. Getting from zero to $1 million is much harder than getting from $1 million to $2 million.

Brad Lea: I would agree. Definitely.

This segment is part 4 in the series : From High School Drop Out to $20M in Revenue: Brad Lea’s Journey with Lightspeed VT
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