How to grow your business? #scaled16 case City Digital

How to turn around old-scool print business to 3rd fastest growing company in Finland* and to

61st fastest growing company in Europe* *Deloi'eFast500ranking,2015

@lavas

Ilkka O. Lavas

•  3 books about entrepreneurship ”Unstoppable Entrepreneurship, Amazon”

•  Partner, board member, investor –  Portfolio of 15 businesses –  10+ aquisitions done –  4 exits

•  Young Entrepreneur of the year 2009 in ’Southern Finland’

•  36years, 2 sons, 1 wife, 2,8k+ fb, 1.1k insta 2,7k+ linkedin, Snapchat @ilkkalavas 5,5k+ twitter @lavas

@lavas

EXITs:

Import & Export software

@lavas

”Stopprintbusinessanddo100%digitalmedia.Digitalmediaisscalable!”

@lavas

Wearemoreinterestedinprintbusiness

@lavas

Lesson 1: Dream Big

@lavas

2012:”IwishwecouldbebiggerthaniltalehKinFinland”

"Becarefulofyourthoughts,foryourthoughtsbecomeyourwords.Becarefulofyourwords,foryourwordsbecomeyourac7ons.Becarefulofyourac7ons,foryourac7onsbecomeyourhabits.Becarefulofyourhabits,foryourhabitsbecomeyourcharacter.Becarefulofyourcharacter,foryourcharacterbecomesyourdes7ny.”-Authorunknown

2015thishappened

@lavas

MediaDigitalizaKon:CityDigitalHowdidwejumptoFinnishtop10listin11months

TransformaKonfromsufferingprintmagazineintoGrowingandSuccessfulCityDigitalMediaFamily

@lavas

City.fi–numberofvisitors

STATISTICSOFVISITORS

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2012 2013 2014 2015E 2016E 2017E

AcquisitionofCitybyIlkkaLavas

CompanynametoCityDigital

Digitalmediafamilyestablishment

Increasing#ofcooperativeblogs

Establishnewmediafamiliesfromnewsubjectsandthemes

STRICTLYCONFIDENTIAL

BuyKlikkiNetwork&EstablishImproveMedia

Omiste:umedia

Eduste:umedia

@lavas

MediaDigitalization:CityDigital–HowdidwejumptoFinnishtop10list?

STATISTICSOFVISITORS

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2012 2013 2014 2015E 2016E 2017E

AcquisitionofCitybyIlkkaLavas

CompanynametoCityDigital

Digitalmediafamilyestablishment

Increasing#ofcooperativeblogs

Establishnewmediafamiliesfromnewsubjectsandthemes

STRICTLYCONFIDENTIAL@lavas

”Growth is important, and most great companies take it seriously.” - Adam Nash, Wealthfront (LinkedIn, eBay, Atlas Venture)

@lavas

Growth,isaboutincreasing…

•  Revenue •  Traffic •  Sales per customer

Morecustomers

Morerevenue

Morevaluepercustomer

@lavas

Lesson2Startwith

growthmindedpeople

@lavas

There is no such a thing as a GROWTH CORPORATION

Mindset?

Carol S. Dweck (2012). Mindset: How You Can Fulfill Your Potential

@lavas

Yes!Wecanbeevenbe'erindigital!

Carol S. Dweck (2012). Mindset: How You Can Fulfill Your Potential

+200%

CompaniesareALWAYSmadeofpeopletopeoplebypeople

@lavas

People make companies grow

HowTo: Build growth minded company culture?

•  Change owners –  Buy and turnaround –  Some owners are risk takes, some are cash cow lowers

•  Change management –  Hire growth minded managers, set growth goals

•  Change people –  Hire new –  Teach old (oh yes, many old dogs can learn new tricks) –  > New Culture

@lavas

GrowthMindsetßàGrowthCulture

3rdlesson.Scale!Togrow,

youneedtomulKplysomething

X 1 X 10 X 100 X 1 000 X 10 000 X 100 000 X 1 000 000 X 10 000 000 X 100 000 000 X 1 000 000 000 X 10 000 000 000 X 100 000 000 000

WhatcanyoumulKply?

@lavas

3rdlesson.Askyourself:WhatcanwemulKply?

Scalable •  Customers

And what customers you choose? •  What channels customers use? •  Unique Visitors •  Online Sales •  Programmatic Sales •  Ad Inventory •  Restaurants •  Table Reservations •  People who are Dating on Deitti.net Not scalable •  More salespeople •  Face 2 Face sales

Dropboxincome99e/yearperuserCostperuserfirstyear(useracquisiKoncost,hosKng,storage,etc)233-388epernewcustomerbeforegrowthhacking.

-Economics!!!!!!!Profitability!!!!!

Virality:AdverKsingdidnotwork.”Inviteyourfriends,referfriend,installtoyouphone”.”Yougetmorespace”PrioriKze:Scalewhatisscalableandprofitable,stopdoingeverythingelse

@lavas

Freemium->premium

Multiple amounts of customers / uniques visitors / ad impressions •  Shopify 30k+ •  Salesforce 100k+ •  Yammer 200k+ •  Slack 2 M+ daily •  GitHub 1,9M •  Mailchimp 2M •  Google apps 4M •  Freshbook 4,5 •  Google analytics 30M •  Evernote 30M •  Dropbox over 50M people are on dropbox

2Mdailyusers,

0,57MPAIDAccounts

@lavas

CaseCityDigital.WhatdidwemulKply?

What did we multiply?

Ad impressions 2012: 800 000 ad impressions 2013: 6 000 000 ad impressions 2014: 14 000 000 ad impressions 2015: 160 000 000 ad impressions Amount of customers 2012: 40 customers 2013: 200 customers, 30% paying digitally 2014: 4000 customers, 50% buying digitally 2015: 10000 customers, 70% paying digitally

@lavas

4thlesson:Neverstopimproving.Scalenow,scaleforever

1.  Always Improve 2.  Always Innovate 3.  Be better

–  as a team, – with your products, –  better than competitors, –  better with your customers

@lavas

Media group has stable business and growing international

Companieswithinourgroup Presentsi.e.

…

.EE

.EE

@lavas

Sports

Football

SportEnthusias

?cs

IceHockey

Entertainment

Lifestyle

Fashion

WellnessandAc?vesports

Homeandgardening

Family

Pets

Carsandmotors

Technology

Food&restauran

ts

Golf

InFinlandwerunoneoftheLargestadverKsementnetwork

Growth Plan

ProductDevelopment

Phase

Scaling

@lavas

DreamBig

”Ibelievewecangrowto100Mcompany"

@lavas

1985-2012Business:printmagazineArea:FinlandCustomers:LocalsReaders:200k-450kUniquevisitorsonweb:City0,1M,Network:0Impressions:800000

2012,2015->Business:DigitalUrbanMediaandAdverKsementNetworkArea:GlobalCustomer:GloballyReaders:360k/1100kcopiesUniquevisitorsperweek:CityDigital0,5M(weekly),IMNetwork:3MImpressions160000000

Grossglockner,Austria,EaKngIcecream

Team

1.  Dream big! 2.  Start with the Growth Minded team, create growth minded innovaHve culture 3.  Automate everything 4.  Scale it up 5.  Never give up!

HowtoGROW?

Never give up!

@lavas

YourownthoughtsAboutyourabilityIsoqentheBiggestlimiterOfyoursuccess

Photo:RobbieGrubbs

“Whetheryouthinkyoucan,oryouthinkyoucan'tyou'reright.”

-HenryFord

@lavas

IlkkaO.LavasAngelInvestor,SerialEntrepreneurandGrowthEntrepreneurshipManiacIlkka.lavas@city.fiFB,IG,SC:IlkkaLavasGsm+358400997969@lavasßßßFollownowonTwi'er!!!(yes,Iwillfollowyouback)

Ashipinportissafe;butthatisnotwhatshipsarebuiltfor.

Don’tbeafraidtogrow.Beafraidnottogrow.“Whenyoustopgrowingyoustartdying.”―WilliamS.Burroughs,Junky