Andrew Gazdecki - Highlights

He’s started dozens of companies, most of which he started in college, driven by the sole fear of needing to get a job after college.

Some people are built for being an employee, and some are not. Andrew is definitely not.

I’ll open by saying that Andrew is a lot of things.

Impressive

Humble

Wickedly smart, but not boisterous about it

And lastly

Simple (in the absolute best way possible)

The more founders you meet, the more you realize that the ones that are absolutely crushing are NOT the ones creating really complex solutions to problems. They’re creating simple solutions to relatively simple, yet annoying problems,

His first business was called Bizness Apps. What’d they do? They built mobile apps for businesses. And before the age of 30, he sold that business for mid 8 figures.

His next big business he started is called acquire.com. What do they do? They’re a marketplace for the buying and selling of startups

You’ll notice a few things about Andrew throughout this newsletter: the first is that every business he’s built has solved a real pain point that he’s personally experienced. Not a new revelation, but an important one. The second is that each business is basically “picks and shovels” type of business.

When mobile apps were big, he didn’t try and go build a viral app. He built a machine for others to do that.

When building in B2B SAAS, he didn’t build the next viral product, he built a marketplace for those products to be bought and sold.

Frickin genius if you ask me.

I could’ve made this newsletter 20,000 words long, but I’ll spare you. Here’s the 6 takeaways I had from spending an hour talking to, and 10+hrs studying Andrew Gazdecki

1️⃣ The Cheeseburger theory

A few years ago I was at a wedding with Andrew in Chicago. We’re all sitting at a nice restaurant - think steaks, beautiful plates of fish, caviar, the whole shebang. Andrew walks in a little late, ultimate swagger, sits down and orders a plain cheeseburger.

His friends didn’t really think anything of it, but I was like dude what the f*ck 🤣

And then his friends were like “yep. That’s why we call him Simple Gaz”

Then, after having the chance to sit down with him this week, I realized that his philosophy of simplicity is so frickin incredibly valuable.

It’s one of the philosophies that allowed him to sell a business for mid 8 figures before the age of 30

And it’s how he runs his company, acquire.com today.

So why’s it called the cheeseburger theory? Well if you haven’t been able to guess by now, the cheeseburger theory goes something like this: when surrounded in a world of overpriced, over-prepared, and over seasoned food, sometimes the bet option is to get a cheeseburger.

Even when you look at the content her pushes on LinkedIn. It’s all simple, practical advice. He’s not telling crazy stories about times in South America taking ayahuasca with shamans in the amazon. He’s sharing short and punchy lines that apparently resonate with 100’s of thousands of people

Long story short - simple is almost always better. Whether its with making content, solving a problem aka building a startup, or ordering food, keep it simple.

2️⃣ Picks and shovels

Every business Andrew has built has been a picks and shovels type biz. If you don’t know the reference, basically during the gold rush, the people that got rich weren’t the ones who went panning for gold. 99% of them went home broke.

It’s the people who were selling the picks and selling the shovels to the miners who pretty much all got rich.

Rather than chasing after mobile apps, he built a machine that allowed them to “mine for gold”

Rather than building the next great software product, he built a marketplace for them to sell. Picks and shovels baby. Way better business model in my opinion (and Andrews")

3️⃣ Don’t chase dreams that aren’t yours

A billion dollars is pretty cool. But in reality, if you knew what it was like to have $100M in the bank, you’d probably realize that you only need $10M. After $10M, according to Andrew, the only thing that changes is that the houses get bigger and the cars get faster.

And, the statistical probability of building a company you can sell for $10M is astronomically higher than the probability of a billion dollar exit.

99% of founders should be chasing a $10M opportunity, not a billion dollar one

4️⃣ Ride waves

I’d say the singular biggest takeaway from this convo was that the market you choose to operate in matters INFINITELY more than the product. You can have a shit product but operate in a booming market, and still have an exit for millions of dollars.

He built BizApps when he was 21. And I don’t think he’d correct me when I say that he didn’t know jack shit about business when he started.

But, they were riding an incredible wave. Mobile apps was the place to be. And because a rising tide lifts all boats, he was able to still build a crazy successful company, in spite of making every single mistake in the book

5️⃣ Don’t be a visionary

I don’t even want to add my comments here because this line was an absolute banger. I’m going to drop this quote here and then shut up

Build an agency. Or something around a skill you already have. Golden rule: no moonshots before you’re already made it

6️⃣ Distribution is everything

90% of time just sales and marketing. its why he posts so much damn content - his whole day is spent doing sales and marketing.

Big takeaway for me here was if you’re not spending at least 50% of your day working to drive new business to your company, you’re just not gonna grow.
And the funny part? Is once you make the decision to do it, the answers on how to do it just become apparent.

More content. More phone calls. More emails.
It’s simple stuff that most just don’t wanna do.

Funny thing is I asked him why he pushed out so much LinkedIn content and his answer was “dude I don’t really have a choice”

Especially as a b2b founder nowadays, nobody cares about your product. You can literally vibe code and copy acquire.com in an afternoon.

It’s not the code base that’s valuable - it’s the network effects that Andrew has created by posting everyday and people talking about the platform.

Long story short, people want to hear from people about people. They don’t care about your product.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Hope to see ya next week

Cheers

Did You Know? We’re launching a founder led content agency in a month? Check out our website here

Till next time,