In this vlog, Ryan Shank gives a candid, behind‑the‑scenes update on his startup PhoneWagon while traveling to the Clemson‑Louisville football game with his dad. He explains how the company shifted its growth strategy by adding outbound cold‑email outreach, using Prospect.io to manage large prospect lists, and creating multiple Gmail aliases to bypass daily sending limits. Ryan also launches an ambassador (referral) program via GetAmbassador, describing its setup and purpose for marketing‑focused customers. He shares recent revenue metrics, noting a jump from $200‑$250 net new MRR per week to $450 in the latest week, and mentions that PhoneWagon is in the final ten days of its Techstars accelerator program in New York City. Interspersed with these business updates are travel moments: arriving in Louisville, Kentucky, visiting the stadium, and attending the Clemson‑Louisville game. Throughout, Ryan thanks viewers, encourages them to work hard, and signs off with a motivational call to “be pioneers, be wagoners.”
Chapters
What up guys, I'm in a closet. All right, so check this out. So before we dive into the day that you're about to watch, the vlog is actually pretty dope. It's actually a combination of a couple days plus my weekend. But before that, I'm going to tell you where I'm at right now. So if you want to do calls and stuff in this room right here, but there's these little like, like closets that you're supposed to do calls in. I go in here because the audio's a little better. Anyway, vlog that you guys are about to see was last Thursday and Friday. A couple things happened. So one, we— so basically, like I said, I kept looking at our numbers and I think we, we said this a couple videos ago, but I was like, all right, what can we do? We need to do something differently if we want different results. We were not doing outbound cold emails, okay? We're not doing— we don't have a referral program, you know? So what I kind of— I listed a thing, a bunch of things that we could possibly do to grow the business, to get additional customers. And I basically said like, let's just do a couple of those things and just execute on that. So that super cool. We did a bunch of other stuff. So we got to— then I went to Louisville, Kentucky. I went to Clemson University. We're national champions. And so I went to the Louisville-Clemson game with my dad. I met him in Kentucky and we went to that game this past weekend. That's the vlog you're gonna see. Finally started to hit our stride and started to get back. So we had been coming in at like $200, $250 in net new MRR for the past like 3 weeks. We finally came in at like $450 last week and we're already on pace. By the way, my name is Ryan Shank and this is our journey, right? We're building PhoneWagon from the ground up. We're going through Techstars in New York City. By the way, there's only 10 days left of Techstars. I really appreciate you guys. Honestly following along, and I hope you're out there working hard, being pioneers, being wagoneers. Peace. You're like, cool, so you can actually see the phone calls as events, and then if you click into that, you can even see the caller.
So the premise of it is like you just did something and then you ask them like a question and then you leave it at that. You're like, hey John, I saw you guys were like looking into like call tracking. Are you still interested in, in learning more about are you still looking for a call tracking solution?
I started acquiring a bunch of lists, verticals that like phone calls as leads, right? Like lawyers, dentists, and then I signed up for Prospect.io, which basically you can like upload these lists and then you connect your email. So it sends from your actual email. But something that I did, by the way, and take note of this, which is actually really cool, especially if you're gonna use Prospect.io. So I created a bunch of different emails in, in my Gmail account. So I created like Ryan S. at PhoneWagon, RS at PhoneWagon, because Gmail only lets you send 400 emails a day. So I created all these different emails, and then when I'm syncing my my Gmail account with Prospect.io because it's gonna sync it and then send it from the actual email, I can send it from all these different aliases that are actual emails. And then what I do is once I create them, I go into the Gmail and then I just forward them to my regular email. So I only have to manage one inbox. Anytime an email goes to like Ryan Shank at FunWagon or RS at FunWagon, it goes to my regular email.
Started off as a greenhorn, then an adventurer, then a trail guide, and then a wagoner.
Oh my God.
Is this actually—
is this live?
About to be tomorrow.
Ambassador program, which is like a referral program that we got set up because we have a lot of our customers are in marketing and they want to be able to like basically refer to their customers to use PhoneWagon, and then they want to get commission. So we use Get Ambassador. We signed up for it. It just seems really, really cool. We actually just today finally got it live, but we were going through the setup of that.
National Championship winning quarterback last year.
He got 350 in MRR, came up short on the big rock.
Actually, he might get a sign-up. He just can't book it for any—
Wait, so can they sign up? They just can't like refer yet?
I think so, but actually, actually no.
What'd he say? What'd he say? What'd he say? Hold up, don't tell me, don't tell me, don't tell me. Sure, go ahead. The Lyft fees and invoices are later this month. Fuckin' talkin' about, Dave, I fuck with you.
I mean, this is just kind of random, like Dave deciding to upgrade right now. Didn't some engagement come up?
Yeah, someone else was like, are you here? Like, let's talk about it. Like, I'm getting a lot of people there. And in theory, the tuition expires after 2 years, so it's still profitable.
To Louisville, Kentucky for the Clemson game. 3 seconds, we're just already gonna be there. So instead of flying on this plane, we're just gonna time travel. 1, 2, whoops! Whoa!
Now we are in Louisville, Kentucky. We have the stadium, which is somewhere back there, and then we got the Clemson-Louisville game today. I went to Clemson College, so we're here.
Let's do that thing!
I mean, I guess Saturdays are for the boys. I really appreciate you guys honestly following along, and I hope you're out there working hard, being pioneers, being wagoners. Nice place.
