Episode 99: Fredrik van Huynh, CEO of Absolute Internship
Fredrik van Huynh, CEO of Absolute Internship, tells how he and a partner started an international internship company with a two-page plan, 2,000 euros in savings and one shared computer. He covers landing a first customer before the company was even incorporated, why he left an office in Shanghai to build a company people can run from anywhere, and the "champion mindset" he learned from his table-tennis coach. Recorded in 2022.
Fredrik van Huynh, CEO of Absolute Internship, tells how he and a partner started an international internship company with a two-page plan, 2,000 euros in savings and one shared computer. He covers landing a first customer before the company was even incorporated, why he left an office in Shanghai to build a company people can run from anywhere, and the "champion mindset" he learned from his table-tennis coach. Recorded in 2022.
Key takeaways
1. Start before you're ready. Absolute Internship began with a two-page Word plan, a small savings pot and one shared computer. (22:00)
2. Your first customer won't wait for your paperwork. The first student, from Switzerland, signed on before the company was incorporated, and the money went to a personal bank account. (31:41)
3. Live below your means while you build. Fredrik lived rent-free at his mother-in-law's in the south of France for a year so the business could keep going without a salary. (38:09)
4. Don't take money you can't yet manage. He turned away early investor interest because he didn't feel ready to run that much capital. (25:22)
5. A champion mindset shows up in the small things. His coach taught him to fold his clothes like a champion, not only to play like one. (26:42)
About Fredrik van Huynh
Fredrik van Huynh is the CEO of Absolute Internship, which places students in international internships, both remote and on-site. He grew up in Sweden, ran the company from Shanghai for about five years, spent a year in London, and later moved to Barcelona. He speaks seven languages, gave the TEDxYouth@Sundsvall talk "The Future is Remote Work," and hosts the podcast Fika with Rice. (Details as of the 2022 recording.)
Links from the episode
TEDx talk "The Future is Remote Work"
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Episode 98: Michael Ippolito, Co-founder of Blockworks
Michael Ippolito, co-founder of Blockworks, explains how the company translates crypto for traditional investors and why trusted media matters more as AI makes fakes easier to produce. He shares how Blockworks grew without outside capital, starting as a side project incorporated in December 2017, and why he sees a founder's main job as getting everyone rowing in the same direction.
Michael Ippolito, co-founder of Blockworks, explains how the company translates crypto for traditional investors and why trusted media matters more as AI makes fakes easier to produce. He shares how Blockworks grew without outside capital, starting as a side project incorporated in December 2017, and why he sees a founder's main job as getting everyone rowing in the same direction.
Key takeaways
1. Trust is the product. Michael sees a big premium on media people can trust in a fast, complex market like crypto. (25:49)
2. AI raises the stakes for real reporting. As AI makes convincing fakes easier, trusted human sources become more valuable, not less. (30:15)
3. Bootstrapping means hiring slowly. Without outside capital, Blockworks hired only when it absolutely had to and held a high bar for every hire, trading some early speed for culture. (37:23)
4. A founder's job is alignment. His hardest work wasn't strategy but getting people bought into one vision so they "row in the same direction". (40:35)
5. Pick the right industry. He argues that industry choice is a big part of a founder's odds, and points to the talent moving into crypto. (41:14)
About Michael Ippolito
Michael Ippolito is a co-founder of Blockworks (blockworks.co), which translates what's happening in crypto for traditional investors and financial-services professionals. He and his co-founder incorporated Blockworks in December 2017 and went full time in May 2018, building it without outside investor capital. He joined the show from Brooklyn and enjoys translating ancient Latin and Greek texts. Find him on X at @MikeIppolito_.
Links from the episode
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Related reading
How traditional investors use crypto through ETFs
A record exchange hack and the outflows that followed
Episode 97: Yaro Bagriy, Founder of Newsletter Crew
Yaro Bagriy left an electrical-engineering career because he didn’t want to spend 40 years doing the same thing. He shares the apps that didn’t work, including a mystery bar-finder and a hackathon air-quality app, and how he turned Newsletter Crew from a podcast into a membership and sponsorship business he sold for six figures. He also explains the “stair-step” way to start small with digital products. Recorded in 2022.
Yaro Bagriy left an electrical-engineering career because he didn’t want to spend 40 years doing the same thing. He shares the apps that didn’t work, including a mystery bar-finder and a hackathon air-quality app, and how he turned Newsletter Crew from a podcast into a membership and sponsorship business he sold for six figures. He also explains the “stair-step” way to start small with digital products. Recorded in 2022.
“I don't want to actually work for 40 years of my life doing the same thing.”
Key takeaways
• Failed products still pay you in skills. His first app barely got downloads, but building it while working full time gave him enough experience to land an iOS developer job.
• Know when to shut it down. Perseverance matters, but so does recognising an idea isn't working and moving to the next one quickly.
• Start with the smallest product you can ship. He recommends a “stair-step” path: sell something small like an ebook first, learn marketing on it, then take on a harder business.
• A podcast can become a business. Newsletter Crew grew from a podcast into a community, newsletter and membership site, with revenue split roughly between memberships and sponsorships, before he sold it for six figures.
• Build in public. Twitter was the launch pad for nearly everything he built; he shares updates on what he's building, customers and analytics as he goes.
About Yaro Bagriy
Yaro Bagriy is a Minneapolis-based indie maker who builds digital products and invests in income-producing assets. After a degree in electrical engineering and work as an iOS developer, he started Newsletter Crew, a podcast, membership and blog for newsletter creators, and sold it in a six-figure exit. His projects have also included the IndieStack community, ReferralKit and the community platform Playgroup.
Links from the episode
Yaro's site: https://www.yarobagriy.com/
Yaro on X: https://x.com/yarobagriy
Newsletter Crew: https://www.newslettercrew.com/
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-97-spotlight-yaro-bagriy-founder-of/id1505905505?i=1000716177222
Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/methodicalmillions/episodes/Episode-97---Spotlight-Yaro-Bagriy---Founder-of-Evercodelab-com-e3577po
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGvMpXZ9BD0
Related reading
Apple's paid podcast subscriptions: the same membership model Yaro used to make money from the Newsletter Crew podcast.
https://www.methodicalmillions.com/read/apple-podcasts-now-accepts-subscriptions
Episode 96: Patrick Dichter, Owner of Appletree Business Services
About a month after buying Appletree Business Services, a bookkeeping, payroll and tax firm for small businesses, Patrick Dichter explains how he found the deal through his own outreach after a 10-month search, how SBA financing and third-party valuations work, and why so many owners make bad decisions because they don't know their numbers. Recorded in January 2022.
About a month after buying Appletree Business Services, a bookkeeping, payroll and tax firm for small businesses, Patrick Dichter explains how he found the deal through his own outreach after a 10-month search, how SBA financing and third-party valuations work, and why so many owners make bad decisions because they don't know their numbers. Recorded in January 2022.
“Not knowing your numbers leads to bad decision-making.”
Key takeaways
• Know your numbers. Bad bookkeeping rarely closes a business on its own, but it leads owners into risky moves like over-expanding without the cash to back it.
• Create your own deal flow. Brokers often ignored a non-accountant buyer, so he did his own outreach: about 30 seller calls and six letters of intent over roughly 10 months.
• Sketch the worst case. Writing down the realistic downside showed him a failed deal would hurt but not ruin him, which made the upside worth the bet.
• Expect the valuation gate. SBA loans need a third-party valuation, and a low appraisal can force a renegotiation or kill a deal.
• Stabilise before you change things. His first months as owner were about learning how the firm runs before adding services such as fractional CFO work.
About Patrick Dichter
Patrick Dichter is the owner of Appletree Business Services, which provides bookkeeping, payroll and tax services to small businesses. Before buying the firm in early 2022 he spent seven years leading sales at a digital-marketing startup that grew to $35 million in annual revenue, then three and a half years advising small businesses. He studied international business and holds an MBA.
Links from the episode
Appletree Business Services: https://appletreebusiness.com/
Patrick on X: https://x.com/patrickdichter
Patrick's links: https://linktr.ee/pdichter
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-96-spotlight-patrick-dichter-with-appletree/id1505905505?i=1000715361721
Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/methodicalmillions/episodes/Episode-96---Spotlight-Patrick-Dichter-with-Appletree-Business-Services-e350323
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4VlYQl20oE
Episode 95: Joe Pohlen, CEO and Co-founder of Cardinal Senior Living
Joe Pohlen, CEO and co-founder of Cardinal Senior Living, explains how he went from renting bedrooms to classmates and working as a court-appointed receiver to partnering with investors on apartment buildings, then starting an assisted living company in 2015. He covers raising a $400,000 down payment he didn't have, turning around low-occupancy buildings, and why caring for staff is also good business. Recorded in early 2022.
Joe Pohlen, CEO and co-founder of Cardinal Senior Living, explains how he went from renting bedrooms to classmates and working as a court-appointed receiver to partnering with investors on apartment buildings, then starting an assisted living company in 2015. He covers raising a $400,000 down payment he didn't have, turning around low-occupancy buildings, and why caring for staff is also good business. Recorded in early 2022.
“I believe your success that you're going to have in life ultimately comes down to who do you trust and who trusts you.”
Key takeaways
• Trade work for capital. On his first big deal he ran the building and took no management fee while two investors put up the $400,000 down payment for half the ownership and a 7% return.
• Trust is the real currency. He credits his career to people willing to take a chance on him, and to keeping their trust.
• In fixed-cost businesses, occupancy is everything. An assisted living building costs about the same to run with one resident or 80, so Cardinal built its name on filling struggling buildings.
• Don't outgrow your market knowledge. Rules and power players differ by state and region, and operators who expand too fast get crushed.
• Good care and good margins go together. Buildings where staff are happy are the profitable ones; it isn't an either/or.
About Joe Pohlen
Joe Pohlen is the CEO and co-founder of Cardinal Senior Living, a Grand Rapids, Michigan company he started in 2015 with Chuck Gray. He began in real estate in college, worked as a court-appointed receiver after graduating in 2010, and partnered with investors on apartment and self-storage properties before moving into assisted living. At the time of recording, Cardinal had about 800 employees across Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Links from the episode
Cardinal Senior Living: https://cardinalseniorliving.com/
Joe on X: https://x.com/joepohlen
Listen on
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-95-spotlight-joe-pohlen-from-cardinal-senior/id1505905505?i=1000666128069
Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/methodicalmillions/episodes/Episode-95---Spotlight-Joe-Pohlen-from-Cardinal-Senior-Living-e2ne8qu
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHFMeq7ixA8