Connor Gillivan – From dorm room to $20 million in drop-shipping sales on Amazon.com in just 4 years
Jul 25, 2017
In this episode I speak to Connor Gillivan – a 27 year old serial entrepreneur who started his first drop-shipping company out of his dorm room at Quinnipiac University building it to over $20 million of sales on Amazon.com in just 4 years. After becoming an expert at hiring, he co-founded FreeeUp, an online hiring marketplace bringing together the top 1% of freelancers with growing businesses. He is also the owner of ConnorGillivan.com, where he writes about entrepreneurship and eCommerce.
1:25 - Background information on Connor and how he started his first business.
2:33 - How Connor got started in his business with his business partner.
3:44 - Some of the obstacles in their business early on.
5:30 - What motivated Connor to continue on in the business and not give up; whose advice he sought.
7:06 - Being accepting of advice from mentors.
8:09 - Recognizing and cultivating a long-term vision while still being focused on issues at hand.
9:56 - What mentoring advice he would give himself now if he could go back and talk with himself two months into the business.
11:47 - Expanding the business into dropshipping and learning about that side of the industry.
13:29 - Starting a cash-flow positive business versus starting out without any profit.
16:42 - Challenges that still exist in dropshipping and ways to get started.
22:07 - The most effective way Connor has found to test a business and advertise through social media.
23:18 - Background on Connor’s book, Free Up Your Business.
27:20 - Information on Connor’s venture, FreeeUp and improving on the online freelancing marketplace.
30:11 - The pain point that FreeeUp is solving.
31:53 - Approaching growth in his various businesses and applying that to other businesses.
33:50 - Connor’s view on the importance of a financial plan and how to approach changing circumstances.
35:25 - Story from FreeeUp about staying diversified and how that led to growth.
38:24 - What’s next for Connor and he’s looking into diversification to continue growing into different markets.
39:48 - Background on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service.
40:36 - Connor’s view for his large scale goals.
42:06 - How his entry to e-commerce is comparable to the online hiring industry now and being driven by empowering other people.
Resources and Links Mentioned:
Free Up Your Business by Connor Gillivan
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service