Eric Siu bought the failing agency Single Grain for $2 and rebuilt it into a major player serving Uber, Amazon, and Airbnb. He's launched multiple podcasts to stay accountable, started software companies ClickFlow and Carrot, and learned that staying close to the work matters more than chasing the next idea.
12 years ago, I bought a failing marketing agency called Single Grain for $2. But before that, I'd already failed at everything. I had an e-commerce store selling magic tricks, an acne blog, a gaming site, and an agency that never got clients. Because of this, nothing really took off. I didn't have systems, a team, or any clue on how to build something that actually lasted. I tried rebuilding Single Grain 3 different times. I hired operators to replace me, but every time I stepped away, culture dropped and revenue dipped. I scaled fast, burned out, and I had to start again. Finally, after years of rebuilding, I figured out the one thing that actually worked. Staying close to the work. I launched the Leveling Up podcast and the Marketing School podcast to share what I was learning, not because podcasting was popular, but because it kept me accountable to keep learning. When I started doing this, everything changed. The podcast built an audience. Clients like Uber, Amazon, Salesforce, Airbnb came inbound, and Salesforce was able to scale. Single Grain really started to scale, and I launched my next software companies, ClickFlow and Carrot. Because of this experience, I learned there's nothing like having a founder in the trenches. Every time I've tried to outsource that founder vision, results dropped. Now I'm building for the long run. Follow for more lessons on building leading, and staying ahead in marketing and business.
