Founder's Story
He Turned Niche Websites Into a Multi-Million Dollar Empire—From Farm Roots to Digital Mastery | Ep214 with Matt Raad Co-founder of eBusiness Institute
07 May 2025
Matt Raad (CEO & Co‑Founder of eBusiness Institute) shares how he and his wife, Liz Raad, went from farming and zoology students to buying, scaling, and exiting online businesses. Learn why “page‑five” passion sites can be goldmines, how AI accelerates growth, and the blueprint for low‑risk, high‑cash‑flow digital entrepreneurship.Key Discussion PointsFrom Kangaroos to Cashflow: How Matt & Liz leveraged rural roots and early manufacturing M&A mistakes to discover online’s superior risk‑return profile.Valuing Digital Assets: Why net profit × 1–5× multiples, recurring revenue, traffic quality, and audience/community strength are your core due diligence metrics.Finding Diamonds in the Rough: Hunting bargains via Flippa classifieds and private outreach to page‑5+ Google sites—plus the art of negotiating with cash and escrow.com.Build, Automate, Flip: Renovate niche blogs with SEO, monetization (ads, affiliates, sponsorships), and AI‑assisted content editing to boost profits.Scaling with AI: How ChatGPT, Claude & Gemini are slashing team sizes, turbocharging site builds (ten‑minute bootcamp wins!,) and cutting content costs.Exit‑Ready Growth: Why hitting 7‑figure ARR unlocks private‑equity interest, and how leadership + repeatable processes maximize your sale multiple.Key TakeawaysStart Small, Win Big: Learn website building, buy a sub‑$5K site, and experiment with AI—no big capital required.Audience Is Asset: Communities trump page‑one rankings; loyal followings drive recurring, scalable revenue.Due Diligence Matters: Practice on low‑risk deals, use escrow for safe transfers, and know threshold profit multiples.Niche Is King: Passionate micro‑niches host undervalued sites ripe for 10× upside with the right know‑how.Exit Strategy: Buyers buy growth potential and proven teams—build with scalability and clear leadership in mind.Closing ThoughtsReady to quit the nine‑to‑five grind? Tune in to discover a battle‑tested playbook for buying, scaling, and exiting online businesses with Matt & Liz—plus actionable steps to launch your own digital side hustle.Our Sponsors:* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Northwest Registered Agent and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://northwestregisteredagent.com* Check out Plus500: https://plus500.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com
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Hey everyone, welcome back to Founders Story. Today we have Matt Rod, the CEO and co-founder of eBusiness Institute. And Matt, I'm really excited to dive into how you are talking through people about making money online, starting businesses online, buying and selling online companies. It seems to be, you know, these are the things that are really taking off.
At least recently, I'm seeing a lot of people talking about this. And as we know, it's a global marketplace and a lot of people don't want to have the typical nine to five job. I experienced that. So let's first start off with your story. And what was the spark for you that made you say, I want to be an entrepreneur and this is the industry I want to go into?
Yeah, really, really good question. I guess it's very appropriate, Daniel. I'm on your podcast and our founder's story. I think in this instance, our actual founder's story is probably most important because people look at what Liz and I do. Liz is my wife. Like Daniel said, we buy and sell online businesses and it's obviously the place to be. But backing up to our actual story, I met Liz at uni.
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