How She Scaled Howdy From $400 Left to $50M in Recurring Revenue | Entrepreneurship | How We Profit | E11

Hala Taha (0:00)

Hey, Young and Profiters, let's talk about that moment when your business starts growing beyond your wildest dreams. You go from working solo to managing a team, serving clients and balancing the systems that keep your lights on. I really felt that shift as Young and Profiting grew from side hustle to the media company that it is today, YAP Media. Suddenly, reliable connectivity is no longer just a nice to have. It's become essential to keeping everything moving smoothly. That's why I want to put you guys on to AT&T Business. Think of AT&T Business as your go-to for reliable business connectivity. They help your team, devices, systems, and day-to-day operations stay connected, so you can focus on the important stuff, serving your clients and growing your company. You work way too hard to let a shaky signal slow down your momentum. Give your business the rock-solid foundation it needs with AT&T Business, so you can step into your CEO energy. Powered by AT&T Business, built to work. Get AT&T Business at business.att.com.

Today's episode is sponsored in part by FreshBooks, Walmart Marketplace, and AG1. FreshBooks helps you manage all of your business finances in one place. Right now, my listeners can get FreshBooks for less than $3 a month for your first four months. That's 90 percent off. Head to freshbooks.com/podcast to get started. Walmart Marketplace helps you reach millions of active online shoppers and get ready for the holiday demand. Apply to sell today at marketplace.walmart.com/profiting.

AG1 is a daily health drink that helps maintain energy, gut health and immune health all in one simple scoop. And for a limited time, save 20 percent on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/profiting.

As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes or at youngandprofiting.com/deals.

Jacqueline Samira (1:57)

People were just leapfrogging from job to job to job to job. And I was like, this is so insane. This is such a dumb problem for startups to have. I mean, imagine you raise $2 million and you can't hire people. How is that possible? So I was like, this is a dumb problem to have. There's smart people all over the world. Why isn't there a solution? And there was, there was tons of solutions, but it was overseas.

Hala Taha (2:19)

Jacqueline Samira is the founder of Howdy, a company helping US businesses build teams across Latin America. Today, we're breaking down how Howdy actually makes money, what global talent really costs.

Jacqueline Samira (2:31)

We have a 15% margin on everything we do.

Hala Taha (2:34)

How much money did you end up raising in total?

Jacqueline Samira (2:35)

We raised $21 million.

Hala Taha (2:37)

Looking back, do you feel like you raised too much money?

Jacqueline Samira (2:39)

I would say if you have the ability to not fundraise, it's always better because...

Hala Taha (2:44)

One of the things that I see you do is billboards, which is really unique.

Jacqueline Samira (2:48)

The billboards are like $10 a month.

Hala Taha (2:51)

Oh, wow.

Jacqueline Samira (2:52)

For one.

Hala Taha (2:53)

Really? That expensive?

Jacqueline Samira (2:55)

We were thinking if we could create this unique algorithm, this company is going to have this type of grading based on the type of employees that they want, and then people are going to have this grading based on the type of employee they are.

We both realized we're like, well, you're not an ML expert and I'm not a psychologist, so our very first recruiter we hired was actually a psychologist. Because, especially when you go through the vetting process, you are clearly smart. You clearly know what you're talking about. So failure only happens when there's a...

Hala Taha (3:25)

Jacqueline, welcome to How We Profit.

Jacqueline Samira (3:27)

Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Hala Taha (3:30)

Me too. I was seriously looking forward to this conversation. So we're actually friends. We're in an entrepreneurship peer group. You're somebody who I really look up to. You're one of the smartest women that I know.

And when I started this series, I told you about it right away, because I was like, you need to be on How We Profit, because YAP fam, she is such a badass. She has grown a company to $30 million in annual rent, probably more now.

$50 million in ARR. Like, oh my god. Like, that is absolutely incredible. And so the company is called Howdy. You're like kind of famous in Austin. Everybody knows you in Austin. But for those of us all around the world tuning in, what is Howdy exactly?

Jacqueline Samira (4:11)