
Eric MacColl on Leaving Atlassian and the Referral Network That Built His Business (Ep. 31)
Eric MacColl spent 15 years climbing the in-house ladder from a paid search agency to Scripted to Lyft to Atlassian, where he watched his team grow to 60 people and realized he had stopped doing any actual marketing. He was being managed up and out of the work he loved. Four and a half years into running Demand Gen Solutions, mostly from referral business. 0:00 – Intro 0:55 – Agency to Scripted to Lyft to Atlassian and the Tom Brady on the sidelines moment 6:12 – How the first clients came in from former Atlassian colleagues 9:00 – 80 to 90% referral business and the network plays that made it possible 12:58 – Flat rate retainers, four-client cap, and how he manages scope creep 17:20 – Why he struggles to scale and why he keeps choosing to go deeper instead 22:10 – The Emily Kramer recommended contractor list and what it did for inbound 25:00 – The private equity portfolio model and why it reduces how often he has to sell 40:49 – The March gap, the tax bill he did not see coming, and the interview calls he started taking 47:09 – Why he does not post on LinkedIn and what happens every time he does 49:37 – $30K a month, a one-year-old, a new house, and why San Francisco keeps him from slowing down #FreelanceMarketing #FractionalMarketing #SoloConsultant Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasbober The Marketer's Exit – themarketersexit.com
