In this edition of Innovator’s Hangout, we’re excited to chat with Jerry Del Colliano, a serial entrepreneur and seasoned expert in the world of consumer electronics media. With an impressive track record of building and selling a number of highly successful online magazines—AVRev.com, HomeTheaterReview.com, AudiophileReview.com and now FutureAudiophile.com—for millions of dollars each, Jerry brings a wealth of experience and insights that are invaluable to anyone looking to make their mark in the digital space.
Jerry’s entrepreneurial journey is marked by his user-powered, hands-on approach to SEO, his deep understanding of the evolving role of AI and social media in business, and his no-nonsense advice on navigating the complexities of starting and growing a successful online venture. Beyond the digital strategies, he’s also keen on sharing the often overlooked yet crucial aspects of running a business, such as hiring the right legal and financial experts and protecting your company’s data.
Join us as Jerry dives deep into the practical lessons that go beyond what’s taught in business school, including the importance of matching your CPA to your business style, how to leverage SEO to outsmart larger competitors, and the two main reasons businesses fail. If you’re looking to elevate your startup game and learn from a pro who’s been there and done that, this conversation is for you.
Thank you so much Jerry for doing this with us! As always, before we dive into the deep end, we are eager to learn more about your personal journey. Can you share a bit about how you came to be here?
I grew up as a teenager in Philadelphia in the 1980s and developed a passion for stereo equipment from my father and my stepfather, as well as my best friend’s father. When I turned 16 years old, most of the other kids at prep school were given cars. In my case, my father taught me how to sell so that I could pay for my own ride. Even at that young age, I was over six feet tall and wore a jacket and tie to school. I was armed with knowledge gained from listening to Tom Hopkins sales tapes, and it didn’t take long for me to make enough money for me to buy a bright red 1992 Volkswagen GTI, as well as all of the audio gear that I dreamed of for my home stereo.
When I left for Los Angeles in the summer of 1993 for college at the University of Southern California, these sales skills followed me to Beverly Hills, where I was able to land a job selling much more expensive gear and quickly making a six-figure living while working two or three days per week as a full-time college student. That early California success led to being recruited to work for the most famous man in the audiophile world. If you’ve ever noticed the brand on the premium audio system in a Lexus, you might be familiar with Mark Levinson. In the early to mid-1990s, he became a mentor to me, having taught me lessons today that resonate 30 years later. Perhaps equally important, working for Mark at Cello Music and Film, as well as my gig before that at the legendary Christopher Hansen Ltd., gave me the credibility to be a publisher in the consumer electronics space at 22 years old
Jerry, you’ve built and sold a number of highly successful online magazines. What were the biggest challenges you faced when starting each one, and how did those challenges evolve over time?
I funded AVRev.com with a $11,000 commission from the sale of a Cello Music and Film reference audiophile system that was over $300,000 in retail cost to a man who was a professional poker player based in Las Vegas. When I started AVRev.com, I had an Apple MacBook 520b (B means black and white) laptop with a 9600 baud dial-up modem. I was used to making $150,000 per year in the 1990s part-time and I went to being a cash-strapped entrepreneur with no family support (that was done by them on purpose), so cash flow was a big issue.
You often mention the importance of SEO in your success. Can you share a specific example of how SEO became your “secret weapon” against larger competitors?
No matter how affordable PPC (pay per click) ads were in the early days, content providers like me couldn’t afford to invest real money in giving away content for free, thus the importance of SEO.
The problem with search engine optimization is that people think that a good SEO is powered by somebody with a magic wand and that, with a wave of said wand, you can flip the “unlimited traffic switch.” Respectfully, Google didn’t make it to the place in the world where they are by giving away traffic like that.
The best way that I can describe things today is that PPC is more like the flipping of a switch, in that you can drop money and traffic starts flowing in as quickly as that day. When you run out of money, the switch flips back off. SEO is a much more organic, laborious process that doesn’t pay immediate dividends, but is well worth the effort, because it delivers a longer burn and more of an asset quality marketing outcome. With that said, SEO always requires a buyer beware attitude just because of the nature of the business. I do take on SEO clients, but no more than a handful, as I can’t do a great job for too many clients, which can be disappointing when I have to turn down SEO work. Right now I am working with a Connecticut divorce attorney and a Los Angeles-based employment lawyer.
AI is changing the game for search engines and content delivery. How do you see AI impacting SEO strategies in the coming years, and how are you preparing for this shift?
In many exciting ways, AI today reminds me of the Internet back in 1993. Nobody really knows what it is capable of, but everybody is pretty impressed with its potential.
Relative to search, every indicator in the SEO world suggests that, without having your online properties healthy, well-linked to and packing high user engagement – you likely are going to get passed over by any kind of meaningful AI search.
Don’t be discouraged. Now is the time to do a “land grab” in your space and get into the AI world for your chosen topic. It isn’t impossible.
Today is the best day to get started on your SEO/AI campaign, as each new day will be harder and harder to make your move, with more and more players trying to get into the game. You want to be dominant now, as that’s the best way to keep said dominance for both SEO and pending AI search results.
You’ve talked about two main reasons businesses fail: starvation and indigestion. Can you elaborate on these concepts, and maybe share a story from your experience that highlights these risks?
One of the fastest ways to grow is to sell more, but with that can come growing pains or, in this case, “indigestion.” Pundits will say “that’s a nice problem to have,” but it is still a problem. Scaling your business too fast can be a major issue and cause sustainability problems. I put a premium on consistent growth versus rocket-like take-offs.
Starving is an obvious issue, which is when not enough money is flowing in to a small business. What makes things really tough on solo-preneurs is the historically high interest rates. Banks don’t like to lend to us, no matter how proven we are in our respective businesses. Credit cards will give you more liberal credit, but at 20 to 30 percent (plus), who can afford those rates versus rates from pre-pandemic eras of, say, five to seven percent.
Finding the right lawyers and accountants seems like a no-brainer, but you emphasize it a lot. What are some red flags to watch for when hiring these professionals, and how do you go about finding the right fit?
Even at Top-25 colleges, little to no emphasis is given to the art and science of hiring a lawyer and/or an accountant, despite how these decisions will factor into your professional and personal life in the years to come.
Here’s something that many of us don’t understand, and I say this having worked with lawyers extensively… nine out of 10 lawyers pretty much suck at legal part of their jobs. With the exception of contingency lawyers (think: personal Injury, employment but not all practice areas), their business model is fully in conflict with your interests. Seek lawyers who treat you like a partner in your business journey. Avoid ones who bill $500-plus per hour and view you like a cash register.
Early in life, I got the chance to meet Al Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix’s father at a music industry press event. He was able to give me some really unique insight on how the Hendrix estate inherited many lawyers that were tied into political movements like the Black Panthers. That didn’t help Al manage the estate as well as he hoped to do. In the very late 1980s, he changed the accountant for the estate, and it was an awakening, with the results being amazingly positive. Not all accountants and CPAs are created equal, and not all are good personality matches. Keep that in mind and interview many (perhaps more than three) to find one whose risk tolerances match yours, and where there is a good personality match. This is time very well-spent.
Data security is a huge issue today, especially with increasing remote work and digital transactions. How do you recommend startups protect their data without breaking the bank?
Enthusiastically embrace running a CRM like Zoho (you don’t have to spend on Salesforce.com, for example) and keep your data on lockdown as one of the top benefits.
I can’t tell you how many other small business owners have told me about how so-and-so walked out the front door with a thumb drive full of their customers’ data or their press list (or worse). It happens all the time. A solid CRM costs under $50 per month; you can’t live without it on a security basis, but it also will allow you superior sales monitoring as well.
You’ve built companies that generated millions in revenue, but what’s your advice for a founder facing early-stage cash flow problems? How can they focus on “selling more” as a solution?
You likely need more money than you think. When building a house, the number over that you will be is 35 percent. It always happens, and it is always 35 percent. A new business likely will need double the amount of cash that you think. What is your plan if you need more money? This is a good question to ask before you take on any new business.
The digital landscape is always evolving. What trends do you see as most crucial for startups to watch in the next five-10 years, especially in the consumer electronics and media space?
The issue that we are most carefully watching is demographics. The audiophile hobby (people who love stereos) are typically exclusively male and now 70-plus years old. This isn’t an audience who is going to need too many more pairs of expensive speakers or fancy electronics. The good news is that younger customers, like Millennials who value experiences sometimes over assets, can have it both ways with a modest music playback system. Younger music lovers, say, from Gen Z, often deal with issues like stress and anxiety, and that same modest stereo system, or even a really good pair of headphones can deliver for them for not all that much money. There’s a lot of hope for the future of the hobby and business of audio.
Your experience spans both the creative side of content and the technical aspects of running an online business. How do you balance these two worlds, and what advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are more creatively inclined, but need to handle the technical side?
There are three main skills needed to succeed as a digital content provider, and they are all very unique. The first one is the least difficult today, which is technical. You can start a YouTube.com channel or a pretty slick e-commerce site for close to no money, when that was impossible in the recent past.
The next one is compelling content creation, and that’s the special sauce, in that if you have it, the readers/clients will find you, and that is always a good thing.
The last one is the one where nearly everybody fails, which is being able to monetize the above two. Can you sell? Can you make “the rain come?” Just finding an audience is impressive, but if your goal is to be a for-profit venture, actually establishing a revenue stream of significance is no small feat, but wonderful when you finally get the rock rolling in the right direction.
You mentioned the concept of “keeping up with the Joneses” in SEO. Can you explain what this means, and how a startup can use this strategy to their advantage?
The basic premise of Google when it came to market was “why is one website better than another?” The answer was: the ones with the most/best links get the highest rankings. That is a gross over-simplification today, as there are over 200 elements to a successful site, ranging from issues of duplicate content, site speed (mobile only) and beyond.
Don’t let anybody fool you into thinking that you don’t need more and quality links (.edu and .gov being the Holy Grail of links), because you do.
Keeping up with the Joneses is doing an analysis of the best incoming links for your top competitors, and then manually seeking those links. The competition has them. They are coming up above you, and now you have them, thus you incrementally caught up.
This SEO strategy is how I found Home Theater Magazine (now defunct) had a link from The Library of Congress (LOC.gov), which is a 100/100 regarding the power of its domain. I was able to find the librarian, explain why we deserved to be on her list. She added us and WOW was the result powerful. At my last big site, we could review anything, even really mainstream products like a soundbar, and have it come up organically in the top one, two or three results in an hour. That’s hard to accomplish, but very, very valuable. Keeping up with the Joneses is a solid SEO strategy for you or your SEO consultants to work on. There are software solutions that can help you manage these projects, too, which is a new and modern change that is very positive.
Your businesses have navigated several economic cycles and technological changes. How do you stay adaptable and ensure your companies remain relevant?
Keep more cash on hand than you think you need. In a perfect world, having 12 months of cash flow is a true luxury, but very hard to accomplish.
We’ve been without a formal recession for about 16 years now. One will come eventually and, for those with cash, a recession is an opportunity to grab market share quickly and more affordably than ever. Most view a down economy as a major negative, but there is also strong upside if you play your cards right.
As someone who has sold businesses for millions, what’s the one thing you wish you had known about the acquisition process before you went through it?
Big piles of money allow for bold financial decisions that can range from smart to foolish. Protecting your pile of money is paramount for future success.
Beware of going long periods of time with zero income. Embrace a side-hustle to keep a modest income stream working as you incubate a new business.
Looking back, is there a piece of advice you received early on that shaped your approach to business, or a lesson you learned the hard way that you now consider crucial for success?
A dear friend of mine has a great quote on this front that ties in to finance…
“You don’t know freedom until you wake up in the morning and realize that you don’t work for the bank!”
That’s something that I try to remember every day. A tax-free municipal bond makes you money when you sleep. A solid affiliate program makes you money while you work during the day without actively focusing on those sales. Running up massive debt on your AMEX Platinum Card at 29.99 percent has the exact opposite effect, but is sadly also sometimes needed.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
