How this 22-year-old built his eCommerce brand and exited for 7 figures

At 18, Vilen Abrahamyan left Armenia to come to the United States and enroll in college. Unfortunately, when he arrived, he was already too late for the semester. Instead of waiting around, Vilen went to YouTube University and learned everything he could about making money online. And today at the ripe old age of 22, Vilen has his first 7-figure exit.

Hear his story of starting GetPhoera.com, building it, and eventually selling it with the help of WebsiteClosers.com.

Today’s episode of Deal Closers is hosted by Jason Gillikin, brought to you by WebsiteClosers.com, and is produced by Earfluence.

Transcript

Vilen Abrahamyan: It’s like treat your customers as customers, not just numbers on Facebook dashboard. 

Jason Gillikin:You’re listening to Deal Closers, brought to you by WebsiteClosers.com, a show about how to build your ecommerce business to be profitable, scalable, and one day, even sellable. 

 

I’m Jason Gillikin, and on the show today, Website Closeers Ron Matheson, Izach Porter, Jason Guerretaz and I talk to a founder who grew up in a tiny country a tenth the size of California, moved to the US at 18 to go to college (which didn’t quite work out), started his online business, sold it, and he’s still just 22 years old.

 

You know when someone moves to a different country, it’s a pretty risky proposition. Many times they’re leaving their families behind, their language behind, and they have to completely change their way of life. It’s no wonder that immigrants tend to take risks in business too. In the United States, immigrant entrepreneurs make up 22% of all business owners, despite being just 14% of the population.

 

For Vilen Abrahamyan, he’s one of those risk takers. He grew up in Armenia and decided when he was 18 that it was time to move to the United States for college. And although English wasn’t his first language, he figured it out. 

 

Vilen Abrahamyan: Uh, I started watching YouTube videos since I was like 11, just the topics that I was interested in. I literally started from like knowing zero words at all. And all I did was just started the captions on all videos, and I would just stop the video and translate the sentences with Google translate. And that’s how I got to learn English because, you know, going through the academic way of learning English, you talk that way to, to, to people, it’s like, it sounds weird. You know, it’s not the same way as just like communicating through with a regular person.

Jason Gillikin: YouTube university is something that Vilen would become very familiar with because when he got to the US with plans on enrolling in San Jose State University, they told him he had to wait another year. So he enrolled in community college, but he felt like he was learning more on YouTube than in his classes, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.

Vilen Abrahamyan:So I was, I was sitting there I’m like, well, might as well just, you know, start working. But then I thought, like, I don’t have a college degree. I don’t, I don’t have a degree at all. I’m not going to get any job that I want. Right. I’m just going to get a minimum wage.

So., and that’s what I did. So I was a lifeguard for three months cause I have a swimming background in, in, in Armenia. Meanwhile, while was doing that. I was like, maybe I should start my own thing. Like I’ll, I’ll try this online thing. And it all started with like scammy websites of like how to make money online and all those like stupid videos. But it’s just like, that’s how I just stumbled upon like a, the whole online world of, of business. 

Izach Porter: So how long did you stay in school at the community college?

Vilen: So I stayed there for a year and a half, I pretty much started the learning about online business maybe couple months after I started college. So it was right, like I moved to the US within like five months, I’m trying to learn something, how to make money online. So over a year and a half period, I tested out a bunch of I tried to design booklets, I try to do direct affiliate marketing, I tried to do email marketing, I tried to do an online fitness training coaching business. I tried to do chatbots, automation. So for a year and a half, I’ve pretty much tried everything that I could get my hands on. Like even, even e-commerce and anything and everything that could do, and just like failed on everything. 

But I mean, throughout, I also had a goal of just reading a book every two weeks, like a specific business book. So for after like a year and a half, I already had like 30 books under my belt. And I already had like so many failures and kind of every three months or so I would just go back and like, look what I did.

And I was like, Okay. so I did this, this didn’t work. What can I learn from here? Like, right. So after that it was May of 2019 And it was right at the end of the quarter. And, and I, started to get for a .com was like, let me give this e-commerce, one more shot. And I launched a website. I launched the ads in within two hours, I got my first sale and for the whole year and a half, my only goal was just to make $1 profit online, profitable. And I remember I spent $10 on ads and I got a $20 sale and $6 was the cost of goods. And I was like, if I shut down everything right now, I’ve made $4 in profit. So I’ve, I’ve reached my goal to go, last year and a half.

I have made $4 in profit and I was just ecstatic. So I was thinking, all right, if I can make this work, because I wasn’t going to take any summer classes, if I can get to 10K a month till September, I’m not going back. So that’s pretty much how it happened. So I didn’t officially like drop out in the cold and I’m like, I’m not coming back. Like, you know, screw you. It’s just like, I’ll go into classes after a quarter. And like, I never, never went back.

Jason Gillikin: And they’re still trying to call you and, oh actually what they’re going to be calling you for an alumni donation now.

Vilen: And then they call me, they’re like, oh, they asked me like, do you work? I’m like, yeah. So how much is it that related to your studies? I’m like 0%. 

Jason Guerrettaz: I have a question about, you know, what it was like when you first got over here. I don’t know if you come from money or if you had a lot of money, but I would assume things were a bit stressful, no? I mean, as you’re, as you’re trying all these things out and time is passing and it sounds like you were doing life guardian and so forth, but I would assume that there was a little bit of stress 

Vilen: Not really. I’m so grateful about that. So I don’t come, I don’t come from a money family. I mean, there was a time where four of us in Armenia, we lived on $2 a day and, I’m so weird. So for my, I mean, I’ve, I’ve watched my dad like work throughout his whole life. And, and, I mean, he’s a top 1% earner. He works at a software company.

So just watching that, like the whole spectrum of, of living on, on loans and then to getting to a place where it’s like, you drive a nice car, you like, you don’t have to worry about food and stuff. So when we, when we got here, like I have no bills, I have pretty much nothing on me. So even if it, I was thinking just like, it takes me a year, five years, 10 years, like, what do I have to lose? Even if it means, like I save all this money from, from a regular job and I waste it on business, like I have nothing to lose, you know. I’m never going to be in a position where my, like my dad was where like I have to worry about today’s food. I just had the, the, the ability to explore the, this new country and all the opportunity that opportunities did that it gives you. So I’m super grateful about that.

Jason Guerrettaz: so I assume you would recommend what you’ve done to others in Armenia, right? Why not? There’s this is a world of, I mean, America is a, is an amazing opportunity 

Vilen: Yeah. So my friends, like one of my friends, I was with them a few days ago. I just come, came back from trip and he was like, so how do I get there? I’m like, look just, he’s a software engineer. I’m like, just get extremely good at what you do. And then apply it to H1B visas to all the software companies here and just get here. There’s so many things to do. If, I mean, if I go back to Armenia, let’s say I have to start from zero. I can obviously do everything from zero in there as well, but just the environment, just still like seeing everything around you and seeing the structure, like it’s a lot different there. So it, it, it clears up your mind and it gives you the, the, the vision to see, like, what is out there?

Jason Guerrettaz: Cool. It’s a great story.

Jason Gillikin: Vilen talk, go back to your failures, not failures, learnings about e-commerce and affiliates and all that. were the, some of the lessons there of like why this wasn’t working and how did you apply that to, to GetPheora?

Vilen: One of the biggest things was that I was just treating it as a side hustle and like make money online and just push two buttons and make like a hundred dollars a day in income. But I personally don’t believe that that happens, right? So it’s like, oh, make a hundred dollars with e-comm like if you have the business that makes a hundred dollars, you can make a thousand dollars a day. you can make $10,000 a day. So it’s, it’s a business, right? It’s not a, make money online, no side hustle. It’s a business. So everything changed when I started to treat it like a business. 

So another big thing was I was sold on all of these automations and like funnels and kind of optimizations in order bumps and like all of that stuff. When, in reality, do you know how to sell a product? You got to take a product that people want, you got to, you know, you got to sell it. So it doesn’t make a difference. Whether it be advertisement design on a newspaper, on a TV or on Facebook, it’s the same advertisement. All of the fundamental things change is kind of the biggest list learning was that, there’s a lot 99% of the information out there is like a noise and you can just disregard those and just focus on the basic fundamentals. That’s when it clicked for me, you know?

Jason Gillikin: Basic fundamentals. Like how do you know what that 1% is? So like there’s 99% noise. How do you know? What’s a 1% like here are the core fundamentals? 

Vilen: Look for people, look for mentors and, the people who are sharing good information instead of flashing a lifestyle. You know what I mean? So there are a lot of peoples online that just shared the lifestyle and they sell you the dream and they’re like, oh, you can do two hours of work for two weeks and then you have a Lambo. Right. So that, that, that doesn’t happen. 

So, and then also read the books, for example the personal MBA, that’s one of my favorite books? That’s, that’s super helpful. Just like reading that book alone will, will get you like 50% into business mindset it’s like, oh, so I have to do all of this stuff to, to actually start making money. I actually have to know about taxes. I actually have to know about accounting. I actually have to know about marketing and sales and like, instead of just go to the scammy website and click these two buttons and share your social security number. 

Jason Gillikin: And get your Lamborghini.

Vilen: Yeah. 

Ron Matheson: Vilen, you didn’t do a mastermind or anything like that, it’s just all trial and error?

Vilen: So for about a year, it was all trial and trial and error, but then also I would just let’s say it was a, if it was a course, I remember it was a course from Alex Becker. He offered $1 for 30-day trial and the whole course Was six months. So what I did is I bought, I paid $1 and within one month I watched the full thing, the six-month course, and then I just canceled it because I couldn’t afford the, to pay the continuity program.

And then when I was at the lifeguard job and I, and I had saved up a bit of money, I bought this, it was consulting accelerator course by Sam Ovens. One of the best $1,500 that I’ve spent., so that’s another course that I bought, pretty much a majority of trial and error, then books and a couple courses. 

Izach: Yeah.

Jason Gillikin: Vilen, I guess, take us back. Like, what exactly is Pheora and getpheora.com? Is it an affiliate site? Is it a drop shipping site? Like what is that? 

Vilen: Yes. So, getpheora.com was a, it started as being just a drop shipping website for a full coverage makeup foundation. And when I started, there were probably 50 different sellers on Facebook selling the same product. Right. And then like fast forward, three years later, were the biggest a seller in the entire world and had a licensing agreement with the manufacturer. Just hundreds of thousands of customers and returning customers. 

But, yeah, it just started as a simple, a drop shipping website. The idea was for the first year and a half to go was just to make $1 in profit because I knew that if I can make $1 profit, I can make a lot more. So it kind of worked out and I actually made 16K profit first month, like first full month. Yeah, cause I already knew, I already knew from the year and a half before of all the failures and like, I already knew how to do Facebook ads. I already knew how get an LLC going, did I have to get an LLC, get an S Corp you know, I already knew the how to do accounting. I already knew like what cost of goods, gross margin and all that stuff. So I just kind of, I just did not have a place to implement the knowledge that I learned before. And once I had it, once I had the first sale, I was like, okay, this is it. I think, I think I can make this work.

Jason Gillikin: That is incredible. So 16 K profit in your first month? Are we talking like 100K then in revenue? 

Vilen: No it was, it was like 60K in revenue and in 16 in profit. So first sale I got on May 14th, till May 31st, I believe it’s a 30, 31-day month. I have 2000 in sales and $50 profit. And then the month of June, I had about 60,000 in sales and 16k profit and then July was a hundred dollars, a hundred thousand in sales and 32K profit.

Jason Gillikin: Well, I mean, what’s going through your mind at this point, cause you’re going from zero and just hoping to make a dollar to make an, you said 32 grand in your second month. 

Vilen: I was just terrifying, terrified, 

Jason Gillikin: terrified?

Vilen: Terrified of losing it. I, I spent $0. I mean, I didn’t have even, even time to spend any money, but I was just working all day, day and night. I was handling all the comments, the emails, the order fulfillment, that was fulfilling the manually like out. So I was just doing everything. Since the moment I opened my eyes to the moment I close my eyes, just like straight up work, seven days a week. 

I kind of knew what to expect, cause I had this idea in my mind. I was like, if I can, even the year and a half before that I was just working very hard. I was like, eventually it’s going to happen. So when it did, I wasn’t shocked.

I mean, I was very happy. I was ecstatic, but it wasn’t like, oh, this is dream that I’m going to wake up from. It’s like, oh, okay. So this is where, this is where I get to reap all the benefits of, of my previous work. The Rocky cut scene, I like to call it. 

Jason Guerrettaz: And also the hard work, the seven days a week. That’s what it takes is an entrepreneur. 

Vilen: It’s 24/7, and I learned that from Henry Ford, his autobiography, it’s such a good book. It was like, entrepreneurship is 24/7. If you want to, if you want to work and then go chill and then like, not think about work like this is not for you, because there’ll be, there’ll always be somebody that is willing to work 24/7.

Jason Gillikin: So Vilen, when was there any sort of mental relief about like losing that fear of losing it all?

Vilen: When I exited the company. 

Jason Gillikin: Okay. All right. Well, we’ll, we’ll get to that., did you experience growth in terms of team members? Was there anybody that could take some, some things off your plate? 

Vilen: Yeah. So after a month of all of fulfilling orders, pretty much from Ali express, like manually, I got in touch with, with an agent, I was lucky enough to get recommended this agent. So I didn’t have to go through all the screening process. And so that was pretty much the first team member who started taking over the fulfillment. After doing two months of customer support, I got a customer support representative. 

That was pretty much the team for a whole year. The first year, those, those two people. Yeah. And then I would do everything else myself, mainly because I wanted to do it, to learn. Like I wanted to do two months of customer support so that when I get a person, I already had the templates. So this is the email. This is the question. This is the response. These are all the scenarios. Like if, if it’s outside of this, ask me, we’re going to handle and we’re going to add it to the FAQ list. 

And then like I did the whole accounting first year of accounting myself. I, I did all of that myself, like Facebook ads, creating videos, video editing, shooting the content. So all of that, I did myself just to learn. And then beginning of 2020 is when I started to get more teammates. 

Jason Gillikin: Yeah. And it seems like with those SOPs in place, you are very well set up for a potential exit, because you already had those things done. It’s so easy as a, as a founder to just go, not go through the motions, but do what’s right in front of you and not truly go after those SOPs., but it sounds like you had that, that great foundation.

Vilen: Yeah, it was, it was definitely important because when you have, when you have a kind of a process, it’s, it’s two ways you don’t have to be extremely, kind of rigid in those processes because the business is growing and you have to give yourself the flexibility of changing and any time you’re doing something, you probably can do better.

So I didn’t have it like, oh, this is the way, and this is 100% is going to be the way for forever but I still had the kind of the. This is the goal of this process. This is like, this is the problem, and this is where we’re trying to achieve in in-between this is how we do it, but it can also be changed.

But it also helps you, like when you get a team member, let’s say your customer support rep leaves you in like suddenly they’re like, oh, I’ll, I’ll be gone tomorrow. Then you can easily hire another person and give them the SOP to start working the following day. 

Izach: Well, then you, you mentioned something I want to go back to. You were talking about problem solving. And one of, one of the things that stood out to me when, I think the first time or the second time that we talked is you said that you’ve encountered every problem there is and figured out how to overcome it. And that was pretty much your attitude, you know, through the whole startup process and through the whole transaction. 

Can you tell us about some of the problems, you know, even before you went to market, but some of the problems that you’ve encountered in the business and how you resolve it?

Vilen: Problem number one, the orders weren’t being fulfilled as fast as I wanted. Solution, scream at the supplier. Yeah, there was the, there was one of the, one of the first ones. Like I had to figure out a way to communicate with the supplier and way to manage the inventory and made sure that the orders are being fulfilled every day.

And it mostly required me to staying on top of things when they now want to do that. Another problem that I, hit, I got my ad account shut down pretty much, after two months., so in August of 2019 and it got shut down because the bank rejected the payment from Facebook and then the ad account went down and then I applied then the same thing happened twice.

And then there was a bug on Facebook that shut down the account three times. So I couldn’t appeal it. So I texted the Facebook rep support. They’re like, oh, just open another ad account and then start advertising. News flash, you can’t do that, circumventing their policies. So I got my business manager shutdown and I just knew that if I try to do the same thing. I’ll get my personal account shut down, which would just wipe me out. So I would just wait for a week, try to figure out how to do it, and then found a solution, got back to work and, that figured that whole thing out. 

Then for a few months, another problem was the ads like fi solving the ads and like inconsistency in how to grow. Right. So I learned all I could about that, fixed that. Beginning of 2020, COVID hit huge supply issues. I like, I learned how to manage customers, during that period, like manage thousands of angry customers, how to create systems like spreadsheets of managing problem orders and how to handle individually and kind of create the hierarchy of solutions.

It’s like, oh, if this customer, like, we offered them, we just say, sorry. And then we may be offered them a discount for the next order. If they don’t want, maybe we offer them a free product with their shipping, or maybe we offered them a partial refund, and then we go to the refund, right? So like a hierarchy of solutions.

Uh, there was a big, big issue a, an influencer bought the product from our website and, she made a, review video on it, and then I used a clip from this VR review video, and then I got DMCA claimed and the whole website went down with the whole Facebook ad account went down.

So that was a major, major issue. Took me so long to just, grinding my teeth out, to find a solution with that individual, because she was so mad at me. I don’t know why, but I guess that happens. That, during that time I, again went back to like my Facebook solution of how to start a backup to keep it separated, you know, that, that you can get going.

But yeah, I mean, COVID was one of the biggest ones. And yeah, I mean the ongoing problems of like, let’s say you hire somebody and that the hire doesn’t work or they screw it up or like something is not working, orders are not being fulfilled. Like ads are not, ads are going bad, you cannot find good team members.

Like something is off with accounting. So it just like ongoing issues of, of fixing. And I do have the mentality of like, I don’t care what it is. I’ll figure it. So like vast majority of the time, like, it’s like, oh, what are you going to do? I’m like, I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. 

Ron: Vilen, what was your inspiration to choose your product lines? You know, where did it all come from?

Vilen: Yeah. So I had a, this a list of criteria that I wanted for me, one of the products. So it had to solve a problem. It had to have a larger market. It had to be hard to find in stores. You have to be unique and impressive. It had to have some competition. You had to have the track record of selling.

It had to be evergreen, which means I could sell it for a very long time. You had to have, healthy margins, gross profit margins. And it had to be perceived as have high value. So if you go through, like if you attached to makeup foundation to that criteria, it matched, matched everything.

So it was like 10 out of 10. I’m like I have no idea, I don’t know anything about cosmetics and I still don’t. I was like, but this looks like if I have a criteria that I’m going to follow, then I’m going to follow. I’m not going to have any emotional attachments to the product. So let me give this product a shot.

So it was my very first product that I tried them And I’m happy that I went for it, from Allianz. Just went to Alex, press search. The brand’s name found, the, the one that it wasn’t the cheapest one, but it had the most amount of reviews. So I was like, I was not dumb enough to go with the cheapest one and have issues with the supply chain. So I would just pay a bit more, but get it delivered.

Ron: And where did the name come from and the, you know, how did you bring.

Vilen: So because the product had already the brand name on it., and I, I went up online and I sold these competent competitors that were selling from like scammy shops. It was like, like trendy products, xyz.com or like some

Jason Gillikin: Yeah.

Vilen: things like that. And I was like, what if I can position myself as, as a., seller of the brand, like a major seller of the brand without looking scammy.

Right. So I would just call the website initially was trifacta.com, but after my first, account shut down from Facebook, turned it to get for a.com. And, I was like, that’s pretty much how it went so that the product name already was on it. I just positioned myself in a better way than that than the marketplace.

Izach: I think one of the other things that impressed me as we went through the process Vilen was that I think in every, every month that we worked together and got financial updates, your number of recurring customers, repeat customers increased. So, you know, people loved this product and I think to your credit, you worked through some of those challenges you had in fulfillment and customer service, and you kept really good reviews on, on Facebook. And because of that, people came back to buy again. 

So how big did it get for you, in terms of kind of the, the total volume of business you were doing and how many total customers did you have and what was kind of, you know, when you sold, what was the re recurring customer paying?

Vilen: Yeah. Well, when we sold, in total, we had 450,000 customers and on a monthly basis where we’re getting 30% returning customers. So two plus times of, of repeat purchases. 

Izach: That’s so valuable.

Vilen: Yeah. It’s, I believe it’s the, the most amount of that’s the biggest value component of the business. The key to that was that even if it’s shipped from China, it had like seven-day shipping. it’s not like it’s a two-month shipping time. It’s not like it would, the packaging is crap. And like the product is bad. Everything is, is extremely good, and it’s just the drop shipping model, people, this is, this is what I mean by treating you as a business, drop shipping just means that you don’t hold inventory in the beginning.

Right. You don’t hold inventory, but that’s it. Everything else is like applies to, if you’re a big brand or a drop-shipper like, everything is the same. 

Jason Gillikin: So besides the shipping time though, how did your customers stay loyal to you? Like, did you put them in some sort of email sequence? Like how, how did they stay loyal?

Vilen: We had a whole process of email marketing, SMS marketing retargeting with ads, making new offers, bundles. So there has been a tremendous amount of help. And plus just going through the process of purchasing from the website, let’s say the customer doesn’t know their shade, right.

And they, and they send us a message. They’re like, oh, I don’t know what shade to get. And we help them out to pick a shade. And they’re like, oh, this, this has been super helpful., I love you. So I’m going to order again, or if the shade did not work for them, let’s say they’re like, oh, this is a bit light.

We would just send them another shade for absolutely for free. And they’re like, oh, this is, this is amazing. So I get to products. Like I get it for free. I thought I was going to pay for it. So I’m just going to come back and buy it. And I’m going to refer to my friends to come back and buy. So that’s kind of how it, how it grew. It’s like treat your customers as customers, not just numbers on Facebook dashboard. 

Jason Guerrettaz: Here, here.

Ron: Vilen when it came to transition was a kind of on the flyer. Did you have it all systematically laid out or how did that work?

Vilen: I, I, I knew how transition would have happened from the beginning of, of working with, with Izach, because if you’re going to sell your business, obviously there’s going to be a transition period, right? Might as well get prepared for it. Cause also the buyer will be curious of how you’re going to do it.

So I had by that time, So I had a team member of a team of 11 people. Everything was being done automatically I was just working maybe an hour or two hours a day, pretty much had all the systems, processes, team members, everything laid out. And I knew like, oh, the first week, this is going to be transitioned for the first week.

This is going to be the training for the first week. This is going to be the training for this second, third transition. So I had it laid out, but I guess it’s, it’s specific for every business and specific to, where you are at the business journey.

Jason Gillikin: So w why not just keep this train rolling then? Like why sell the company if you’re working one, two hours a day, and your profiting, you know, tens of thousands of dollars a month?

Vilen: Yeah, it’s I just, I wasn’t passionate about it. Like I told you, I didn’t know anything about cosmetics and I thought to myself, well, I can go two routes. I can double down on this business and grow. And the growth opportunities were there 100%, but it’s like if I have to go through all this pain and, and kind of struggle to, to grow.

Why not just do something that I enjoy? So it was kind of a win-win situation. It’s like, I can exit the business. I can get capital for my future endeavors. I can transition the business to somebody who can grow it, and there’s a lot of meat on the bone to keep growing the business.

And it’s kind of like a win-win situation. So that’s what I decided. Okay. Let’s do this, but even throughout the process, as it can tell you is like to sell it, we sell it. If we don’t dislike it’s okay. I can, you know, I don’t mind keeping it. 

Jason Guerrettaz: Yeah, I have a question on that. So when you started the process with Izach. Did you have in mind who you thought the perfect buyer would be? And if so, did that match, who ended up buying the company?

Vilen: That one. I didn’t actually didn’t because the whole thing is, was so, new to me. I had no idea. I didn’t know if it was going to be somebody like me who bought the company, who was going to just have a small team running the company. Is it going to be like a billion-dollar brand, just buying the company to get the, like all close to half a million customers? Is it going to be like a firm that has different types of brands and like, so I didn’t know? I didn’t know what to expect.

Jason Gillikin: So, so who did you connect with then? Like, did you talk to a few different companies that were, you know, smaller companies and then some larger?

Vilen: So I got, a good friend of mine, Alex, Alex Fetodoff, he introduced me to, Izach and Brent. And, I asked you guys. So what’s needed from what is needed from me. And there were very upfront, very honest. It’s like, we’re going to have to obviously get the information from the company financials, et cetera, make the packaging and launch it.

And then from there on we’ll handle all the all the, paperwork, NDAs, Buyer screening calls, et cetera. So it’s more of an Izach question who we talked to., but yeah, we’ve, we’ve had a lot of activity. 

Izach: Yeah, we, we had, I think, well, over 200 NDA responses for, for this company, we probably conducted 2020 or more buyer calls. We had multiple offers on the business. You know, ultimately found a buyer that had the right, the right capital structure when we closed. And I don’t know if you can share any of the, kind of, not, not the dollar amounts, but just the type of structure that you got and how the deal works.

Vilen: it was a hundred percent cash purchase, with a two months transition., and that’s what I wanted. I honestly, if I want, I could have went with a different structure with, let’s say seller notes, and let’s say an earnout, I would have got more money from it, but if I do something like I like to start from a clean plate. I don’t like to intermingle project, et cetera. So I was like, if I, if I’m exiting the business might as well just exit it completely. You know what I mean? So I, I wanted that, that cash purchase structure and, I’m very happy that I, that I got it. 

Ron: Vilen you visualized all these different kinds of buyers, Izach brought you, you know, a large amount of buyers who in the end, what kind of buyer was it?

Vilen: He’s an individual owner on an older side and he has a tremendous amount of experience in business in general. What he was looking for when he purchased the business was just a cashflow machine. It’s like I buy the business and I leave it and it pumps out cashflow.

And, I’m happy to say that, that that’s what he got. So after, during the transition period, I,, I even hired another person to take over my, my responsibility in the company and kind of train them as well. So at the moment, I believe, I believe like the new owner, it was doing the minimal amount of work, like maybe 10 minutes a day. And it’s still making a very good amount. 

Ron: So after the sale of your company, I don’t picture you hanging on the beach. You know, like the days of being a lifeguard, what is going on now? What’s next?

Vilen: Yeah. So right now I’m in the resting phase. So I had a trip to Vegas. I had the trip to Florida. I just got back from Dubai as they’ve read a lot of my friends and then I’m leaving to Maldives in two days. So I, but I planned this like very long time ago, so I planned a one-month rest. And then start something new., and, yeah, I, I cannot imagine myself not working. 

What else am I going to do? I’ll just go crazy. You know, so I I’m so excited. I get, I get the itch of going back to work, like probably two days after we, after we exited the company. Where I’ve been, I I’ve had that itch for like two months now.

And it’s like, I’m going to see, so I’m going to Maldives with my girlfriend and I’m telling her like, oh, I cannot wait to come back and get to work. She’s like, you just enjoy for just two weeks, like really You’re going to get a bit of rest. I don’t even worry about what, no, I can’t. I can’t. It’s just me. Like I have to go back to work. So I’m excited.

Ron: You’re afflicted by that disease called entrepreneurship.

Vilen: I guess so. It’s, it’s, you know, because I’ve seen, like, I’ve seen the whole spectrum, I’ve seen what it, like what it’s like to not being able to leave your country, like the visa issue, passport issues. You can’t do anything. You can’t travel, you can’t see a friends and family. You can’t, you go to a store, you can’t buy anything.

You can’t like a, like even growing up, like, I want this toy. Like I cannot get it. You know, I want this food, I cannot get it. So I’ve seen all of that. I’m very fortunate that I’m not in that situation anymore, but like, thinking about it, the freedom and, and kind of all of the stuff that I have all came through work. So am I just going to leave it and like waste my time? Like, I don’t think so. So I’m just going to go back and double down on work and then see what happens in the next 10 years. 

Jason Guerrettaz: How old are you now? 

Vilen: I’m 22. 

Jason Guerrettaz: 22 and you had a big exit, what a great story. 

Jason Gillikin: Alright, that was Vilen Abrahamyan, and the website that he started is GetPhoera.com, that’s G E T P H O E R A dot com.

 

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This episode was edited and produced by Earfluence.

I’m Jason Gillikin, and we’ll see you next on the Deal Closers Podcast!