Hey, Sumo-ling!

What does it take to scale a side hustle into 17 different revenue streams or sell your startup for $52M in under 100 days?

We recently sat down with two founders worth learning from—Chris Koerner and Marshall Haas—to understand exactly how they did it.

As part of our AI Week event last month, we also tested four top AI notetakers to help you capture and implement ideas faster.

Let's dig into the content 👇

$2M/year without VC or cold calls

Self-proclaimed “ADHD entrepreneur” Chris Koerner turned a college iPhone repair hustle into 17 revenue streams generating over $2M annually—all without investors. Here’s his playbook:

Pick a niche. Find “boring” high-margin services with a weak online presence (e.g., tree-trimming services, home cleaning, party buses, etc.).
Build a contact list. Chris uses something like Outscraper to build a hyperlocal contact list.
Give value first. Offer something valuable for free in exchange for a testimonial. (Chris offered to fix Google Business Profiles.)
Automate with AI. Use AI tools to review responses, generate copy, or scale your client services.
Hire VAs. Delegate, delegate, delegate. Virtual assistants on Upwork or similar platforms can help you handle stuff like cold outreach and follow-ups.
Upsell after you build trust. Once you’ve proven your value and gotten a foot in the door, offer higher-ticket services like SEO or lead gen.

The main thing is to keep going and not to be afraid of rejection. Every business idea is a science experiment. “Plant a million seeds and see what sprouts.”

📽️ Watch our interview with Chris

👉 Read the full strategy

Scaling a business in 97 days

Marshall Haas sold his remote hiring company, Shepherd (now Somewhere), for $52M after dedicating less than 100 days to it. His approach?

Track every hour like it’s a game. Track your time meticulously to focus on high-impact activities. Marshall used a time tracker to log all the time he spent on Shepherd—just 782 hours total (or about 97 eight-hour days). Tracking forced him to prioritize only high-leverage work and eliminate busywork.
Delegate aggressively. Just like Chris, Marshall emphasizes duplicating yourself by delegating. Marshall didn’t start out great at it. He got there by logging his tasks, using Loom to record how he did them, and building SOPs. Then he hired to take those tasks off his plate.
Build with an exit in mind. Create businesses that are attractive to potential buyers from day one. Shepherd wasn’t just a business—it was built to be acquired. Marshall landed a $26M personal payday from selling Shepherd and still retained equity.

Also? Give yourself some credit. Marshall says, “Everything is practice. You’re not out-of-the-gate good at delegating, or starting a company, or marketing. You get better over time.”

📽️ Watch our interview with Marshall

👉 Steal his methods

Top AI Notetakers of 2025

Our Head of Operations, Vanessa, is in meetings all day. So she tried out four AI notetaking tools. Here's what she found:

Fathom: Integrates well with Zoom. Offers accurate transcriptions and speaker identification.
Limitless.ai: Offers discreet background transcription. Ideal for solo users.
Hedy AI: Provides real-time coaching and post-meeting summaries. Great for sounding smart in meetings.
Granola: Fast, simple, sleek. Best for teams that want speed and surface-level recaps, not deep analysis.

If you run meetings or manage clients, these tools can save you hours.

(Don’t want to pay monthly for your AI notetaker? Check out Letterly—lifetime access on AppSumo is just $69.)

👉 See the full comparison

BTW…

Our biggest sale of the season drops next month. And we’re giving away software like ChatGPT Plus and Zapier for life.

See you there.

❤️ & 🌮,
The AppSumo Team

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