How Nick Kellet Sold His Startup for Millions & Created a Board Game
Nick Kellet is the co-founder of Listly, a product that helps bloggers & publishers engage their audience with continuously evolving lists. According to Listly, 30% of all content on the web is built around lists. But these lists can quickly get stale and don't do much to engage the audience. So Listly, allows bloggers, content marketers, and publishers to create interactive lists which they can embed on their own site or syndicate across other sites.
In 1999, Nick sold his software product called AnswerSets to Business Objects for over $8 million. A few years later, he came up with the idea for a board game while talking to his daughter. Without knowing anything about the toys & games business, he jumped into the deep and launched a new board game which has won multiple awards and sold almost 100,000 copies worldwide.
Success Quote
- “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.” — Steve Jobs
Book Recommendation
- “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph” by Ryan Holiday
- “Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator” by Ryan Holiday
Links, Resources & People Mentioned
- Listly – @Listly
- NickKellet
- AnswerSets – @AnswerSets
- GiftTrap – About GiftTRAP
- BuzzFeed
- Shyam Subramanyan – Co-Founder, Listly
- Slideshare
- Survey Monkey
Contact Information
- Nick Kellet – @NickKellet | LinkedIn
- Omer Khan – @omerkhan
Recommended Podcast Episodes
- lempire: From $1K Launch to $26M ARR Profitable SaaS - with Guillaume Moubeche [405]
- ClickFunnels: Bootstrapping a SaaS to $140M ARR with Webinars - with Todd Dickerson [413]
- Banzai: Pivoting from a Near Collapse to 8 Figure ARR SaaS - with Joe Davy [371]
- Boast.ai: The Tough Road to SaaS Success and Beyond - with Lloyed Lobo [377]
- 7 Key User Flows to Unlock Your SaaS Growth - with Peter Loving [410]
- Perseverance in SaaS: Navigating Pivots, Exits, and New Ventures - with Jake Stein [404]
- Overcoming the Challenges of a Female-Founded SaaS Startup - with Rachel Liaw [253]
- A Guide to SaaS Customer Success: Reduce Churn & Grow Revenue - with Nick Mehta [267]
- How This Non-Technical Founder Launched Two Successful SaaS Startups - with Hiten…
- Qwilr: SaaS Freemium Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them - with Mark Tanner [261]