Jordan Armstrong, CEO of Mr. Automation, left the corporate world for full-time entrepreneurship in October of 2019. In June 2020, amidst a global pandemic, he co-founded a tech startup without any background in technology. This pivot stemmed from Jordan’s previous ventures in digital marketing and virtual assistant staffing, where he recognized how valuable software and automation is for businesses looking to succeed in the current market. Automation allows organizations to reduce the time and cost required of business systems such as: customer acquisition, customer fulfillment, customer support, project management, and financial tracking. Since bringing on clients in Q4 of 2020, Mr. Automation has scaled quickly and will reach $100,000 in revenue by the end of Q1 2021.
In January of 2021, Jordan Co-Founded a second technology company, Platform Pioneers, which specializes in creating integration applications for SaaS Marketplaces such as Monday.com, Airtable, ClickUp, HubSpot, etc. Platform Pioneers will launch their first application in March of 2021 and aims to add 11 more apps to the marketplace by December 2021.
In addition to scaling Platform Pioneers and Mr. Automation, Jordan is extremely passionate about philanthropy and looks forward to being able to utilize automation to help impact-driven organizations solve bigger problems in the world.
What is Mr. Automation all about?
Mr. Automation is a Software Automation Consulting company that helps organizations by spearheading technical project planning, development, implementation, and management. Essentially, we automate business processes through connecting the different software using custom written iPaaS integrations.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I started working as an SEO specialist in 2017. In 2018 I was working as a digital marketing specialist for Grand Canyon University, while also acquiring clients for the agency I had started on the side. After investing heavily in myself and my business, I was able to bring on enough clients to replace my corporate income and go full-time as an agency owner. Within two months months I accepted an offer to be the CMO of a client of mine that ran a Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency. I elevated from the Chief Marketing Officer to the President of the company and began seeking ways to run the operation more efficiently. This led me to look into software automation. After a disagreement with the founder of the company, I decided to leave and start my own business. I had a conversation with Chris Packett (CTO of Mr. Automation) and another friend over dinner, which led to an agreement to partner on Mr. Automation. We agreed that there was a large opportunity in the marketplace to help organizations adapt to the automation age.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge that we encountered in our business has been achieving service/market fit. With such a powerful team and incredible value to offer the marketplace, we experienced some indecision with how to frame and communicate our value to the market. This, in addition to trying to establish an ideal client avatar was the most difficult problem we’ve dealt with thus far.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
One of the mistakes we made in starting our business was being indecisive about key objectives. Two of them that were most impactful were the decision to buy out a business partner who was not in alignment, and which types of clients we wanted to work with. With the partner situation, we learned that situations with people typically do not change significantly and quick enough to fix alignment issues. When it comes to taking on clients, you have to gain experience doing things you don’t like in order to more decisively determine what work you do like – therefore, as long as there’s no red flags, you should take on the client and provide as much value as possible, just make sure expectations are clearly and reasonably set.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I’m very dedicated to personal growth and in my opinion, one of the biggest perks of entrepreneurship is that you increase your compensation in correlation to your personal development. That being said my daily routine is very sacred and includes: meditation, journaling, affirmations, working out, eating healthy, intentional education (either reading or online courses), and cold showers.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
- Courses – Wake Up Wealthy, Top Producer Academy, SalesProcess.io
- Books – The E-Myth, Predictable Revenue, From Good to Great
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
I wish I knew how valuable it was to pay for speed. For so long I went through the frustration of trying to do everything myself and overcomplicating simple bottlenecks. When I finally invested into myself and my business for real, things really started to click.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
With automation being such a buzzword and there being such a knowledge gap between our organization and the organizations of our prospects and clients, a big part of our strategy is education. Simply having conversations with ideal clients around the power of automation and how it could work in their business has been our most effective form of marketing.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new startup, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
If I knew, what I know now I would save the money for just-in-time marketing/fulfillment costs.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Stay true to your passions and build from the ground up; meaning, don’t try to scale before you’ve laid the foundation.
What is your favorite quote?
“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”
– Tim Ferriss
Besides the obvious social media tools available, what are the top 3 most useful tools or resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
- Monday.com – We use Monday for our CRM, project management, customer support, and tracking/reporting
- Integromat – We use integromat to build custom automations between our different software platforms.
- OneNote – We store all of our internal documentation and client documentation in OneNote.
How is running a tech company different than what you thought it would be?
The biggest difference that I didn’t expect is just the lack of understanding most companies, even tech companies, have about how their software works and the best practices for using it.
How can readers get in touch with you?
Readers can get in touch with me on Instagram at @j0rdanarmstr0ng or via email at jordan@mrautomation.com.
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