032: Want FREE PR for your Business or Product? Adrian Salamunovic of CanvasPop Reveals it All.

Background on Adrian Salamunovic of CanvasPop:

Adrian Salamunovic is Co-founder of CanvasPop, PopKey, & DNA11. He took $2,000 and launched two multi-million dollar, profitable companies without any outside investment. With his business partner (Nazim Ahmed), Adrian launched a DNA art company DNA11, a large format printing company CanvasPop, and PopKey, the first GIF keyboard. What is fascinating is that these companies were built by observing behavior, building the first company, and then building new businesses on top of that without killing the old one.

Adrian is an Expert in Public Relations & Growth Hacking (he’s rated the #1 PR Expert on Clarity). Adrian is also a 500 Start Ups mentor and can help you get massive exposure and launch your product right. He’s been featured dozens of times in Techcrunch, Mashable, CNN, The Verge, WIRED, and his products have appeared on CSI:NY, Today Show, Good Morning America, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and many more. Adrian has helped companies generate 100’s of millions of free media impressions. He knows how to help you get in front of the right journalists, at the right time with the right angle. He also will help you get traction quickly and generate revenue. Adrian Salamunovic loves working with and helping entrepreneurs like you kick ass!

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[1:08] CanvasPop is a company that Adrian bootstrap along with his business partner Nazim 9 years ago
[1:22] His company, CanvasPop, creates personalized wall art
[2:25] Adrian was a web consultant before turning into an entrepreneur
[2:59] His partner worked for a company that used to do DNA analysis and processing. That’s when they started making DNA art that turned into a business called DNA 11
[6:00] Adrian’s “superpower” is dealing and reaching with the media and helping develop partnerships
[7:22] “If there’s one skill that I think every start-up person should learn is how to deal with the media and the press to get free exposure early on”
[7:48] Adrian also do mentoring about Public Relations on Clarity
[15:45] “One of the biggest mistakes a lot of new entrepreneurs make is they’re are coming up with an app, they’re coming up with an idea or product, and they don’t want to tell anybody because they’re afraid that someone’s gonna actually steal their idea”
[17:49] When the company got into 7 figures in sales, that’s when they really started investing in technology and building their own technology
[18:39] In the early days, they really don’t have any money and it forced them to be creative and learned how to use PR
[20:22] “The people that helped you in the early stages may not be the best people for you in the later stages”
[24:17] Adrian started his business with his best friend and one of the challenges they’ve overcome is separating friendship from business
[30:30] “It doesn’t cost any money to think BIG”

Fabulous 4 Questions:

Favorite Book(s)? Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets by Christopher Lockhead, Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups by Jason Calacanis, Purple Cow by Seth Godin, & The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Apple Airpods
Favorite Tool that’s GROWN your Business? Pipedrive, MailChimp, & Growbots
BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Myself. At the end of the day the leaders have to take responsibility and ownership for making the right decisions and hiring the right people and keeping the “eye on the prize”.