247: Content Creator Builds a Successful SaaS Business & Sells it to Adobe – Alex Packham of ContentCal
Background on Alex Packham of ContentCal:
Alex Packham is the Founder of ContentCal and a serial entrepreneur. During the ContentCal journey, Alex raised over £10m for ContentCal, built the business to 3,000+ customers globally, a team of 50, and consistently grew 150% year on year. ContentCal was acquired by Adobe in 2021. Alex currently serves as Product Director at Adobe and is an investor and advisor to multiple companies.
In business, Alex is passionate about building a strong company vision, an outstanding product, crafting a high performing, empowered team and building a growth culture that drives success. He currently lives in London and enjoys good wine, cooking, playing the drums, and enjoying time with family and friends.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [1:06] Alex Packham, 32 years old and based in the UK. Alex shares some of his personal background, his education, and how his career started.
- [3:37] One of his first job role experiences was in the UK's biggest cinema chain where he creates fun and entertaining content about films and movies.
- [4:50] He also joined Sky TV when they only consisted of 40 people.
- [6:00] ContentCal started as an agency for 2 years. Their first two clients were Sky and UK’s largest cinema chain.
- [7:56] Alex shared a brief story of what happened with ContentCal.
- [9:24] Even though he is wealthy enough not to work again, Alex still wants to work, and he hasn’t lost his passion for business.
- [10:09] The first goal for Alex when he started a business was to have an exit.
- [16:46] ContentCal has integrated with a product called Adobe Express.
- [17:09] Building and selling the business is a truly intense and difficult process according to Alex.
- [18:10] Alex shares more information about the process of selling ContentCal.
- [22:10] Living in London for 12 years, Alex describes it as a hustle and bustle city that is comparable to New York.
- [23:20] Alex started his agency with only $50 using only a self-made website.
- [27:03] For people who are planning to build their own brand, Alex shares some tips and advice.
- [30:38] During the earliest days of his business, Alex was surprised that many people wanted to help him grow his business.
- [33:05] Alex talks about the type of people who get the best deals and best opportunities in business.
- [35:15] The first year of Alex’s agency was fun and enjoyable for him.
- [39:41] In the early days of the agency, Alex hired a friend who is great at sales and runs the commercial side of the business.
- [43:08] While building his agency, Alex was tinkering with a new product that would eventually become ContentCal.
- [48:11] Alex talks about this type of attitude that could be extremely beneficial in life and business.
- [50:04] Another advice from Alex for people who want to have multiple separate businesses.
- [52:11] Focusing on mental resilience and managing cash flow are just some of the advice that Alex wants to impart to the new entrepreneurs.
- [53:53] Alex discusses the effect of Brexit on the businesses in the UK.
- [57:55] More inspirational advice from Alex on how to become a successful entrepreneur.
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The Fabulous 4 Questions:
- 📖📚 Favorite Books? Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger, & The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday.
- 🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Electric Standing Desk was a game changer for my back and productivity throughout the day!
- 🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? LinkedIn. I have found that publishing regularly on LinkedIn has grown my business in more ways I could have originally imagined.
- 💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Finding great talent. It’s people who ultimately drive business growth, so I am always looking for better ways to find/engage with and hire great talent.
Key Point from Our Episode with Alex Packham:
- “To anybody thinking about starting a business, you’re not Elon Musk, you can probably only do one at a time, and that’s what you should do. Focus on one thing and just hundred percent dedication to it. And yes, maybe you are the rare event where you could be Elon Musk and do five businesses at the same time and whatever else but most people, one is enough.”
Resources Mentioned:
- LinkedIn: AlexPackham
- Instagram: @astpackham
- Crunchbase: Alex Packham
- ContentCal.com
- AlexPackham.com
- Adobe to acquire social media planning company ContentCal
- London’s social media and content planning platform ContentCal to be acquired by Adobe
- ContentCal, The Content Planning Platform, Closes New Funding Round