Liviu Tanase is the founder and CEO of email validation and deliverability company ZeroBounce. As a serial entrepreneur, he founded five companies and has participated in three exits creating quadruple-digit returns.
The greatest challenge he faced in building the company was finding people to share his vision. He started ZeroBounce with just a handful of experts, and now the company employs 35 people.
Under Liviu’s leadership, in 2019, ZeroBounce took no. 851 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. One year later, ZeroBounce shot to no. 40 on the list, with a three-year growth of more than 7.000%.
What is ZeroBounce all about?
ZeroBounce is an email validation and deliverability platform. It helps your emails reach people’s inboxes. Having the best newsletter or email campaign means something only if the people on your list see it.
Millions of companies use email marketing, and for good reasons. It has the highest ROI of any marketing channel. Also, businesses rely on email for vital transactional communication. How would you feel knowing that an invoice a customer was supposed to get never made it to their inbox?
Our goal is to give you more confidence when you hit that Send button.
ZeroBounce validates email lists and weeds out bad data that may cause bounces, spam complaints, and other frustrations. On top of that, we have multiple email deliverability tools to further ensure your emails land in the inbox.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I’ve always loved technology and am fascinated with business. My first business was selling computers in my home country of Romania. I was 18, and it’s how I caught the entrepreneurial bug.
About six years ago I relocated to the United States. I started ZeroBounce because I saw a very pervasive issue – bad data in email lists.
Email validation services existed to attack this problem, but I felt they could be so much better. So I decided to create a product we could use but thought it would greatly benefit organizations and people around the globe.
ZeroBounce was born, and we’ve never stopped trying to make it better – every day.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
Without good people, you won’t go anywhere. Fortunately, I’ve found great people. It wasn’t easy, but persistence was the key. I looked relentlessly and didn’t compromise. Now that I have a great team, I try to make sure they have what they need to succeed and be happy.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
Perhaps the most impactful mistake I made was underestimating the rapid growth the business would experience coupled with the difficulty and long lead times in finding the top talent to manage the business growth.
While I was able to catch up on talent acquisition in the months that followed, it certainly caught me off guard at the time as the business grew so quickly.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
Every single day you have to think about your ultimate mission, your medium-term goals, and then what you hope to accomplish right now.
What you do every day should support the medium-term goals which are helping your business achieve that ultimate mission. It’s easy to get bogged down and distracted.
That’s why I write down every day what we accomplished and then I mentally reflect on whether it’s helping us get where we need to go. If so, could we do it even better or with more efficiency? In what areas can I improve myself?
Asking these questions is essential. Daily reflection is how you really grow.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
I can’t recommend The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey enough. You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to benefit. It’s a standing favorite.
So much of our success is in credit to the decisions we make. Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, by Max Bazerman, is a game-changer. Every entrepreneur or leader can get something useful from this book.
Also, entrepreneurs should consider taking the “Strategic IQ: Creating Smarter Corporations” course offered by Harvard Business School. Companies must evolve to make it today. If you’re a new entrepreneur, I would highly consider taking this course.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
That it all works out, or it doesn’t, but after I’ve done all I can, my worry, stress, and concern will not positively impact the outcome of the business. Also, it will most certainly negatively impact my well-being.
Easier said than done. In the early days, it would have been better to focus on the opportunities and problems I can solve and not let those I can’t have an undue impact on my well-being.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
In a nutshell: being of help. Whether through resources on our website and blog, guest posts, or interviews like this one, we focus on helping people overcome their email and business challenges.
Content creation and distribution are key. Effective content marketing involves researching the space you’re in, finding out what your audience wants, and then creating content that resonates with your audience.
It’s also important to make an effort to distribute that content using social media and emails. We use both, but email is our favorite way to share content. We’ve found it gets the best results.
If you only had 1000 dollars to start a new startup, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I would spend it on coffee and lunches with people I know and respect, and work to understand what creates unsolved problems or inaccessible opportunities for them. Then, I’d look to what is most common and creates an interesting challenge for me.
When I created ZeroBounce, it was out of frustration and need as a simple quality solution did not exist. The issue was pervasive, resulting in something I was passionate about, and creating a passionate customer following.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
This is my funny bit of advice for new entrepreneurs. Interestingly, it’s about advice itself. When someone gives you their advice or opinion, you should consider it. Be appreciative. However, always consider the source and their angles.
Many people don’t know all the aspects of your life. Some of them mean well, but usually, these are the people who are most inclined to give advice.
The smarter and more thoughtful a person is, the more reluctant they are to give out advice.
My best piece of advice is to keep your eyes and ears open, but don’t believe everything you read or are told. And just because you’re getting advice, it doesn’t mean it’s good advice.
What is your favorite quote?
Put an end once for all to this discussion of what a good man should be, and be one.
From Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
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?
First and foremost, it’s email. Maybe I’m biased, but it does yield incredible results.
Digital PR is also vital. We have a good relationship with the press and with our peers and realize the incredible value journalists bring to informing people about what we create and offer.
Search engine optimization is equally critical. You could have the best content or service, but if it gets buried in the search engine results, who would know about it? We use SEO to our advantage and strive to stay up-to-date will all best practices.
How is running a tech company different than what you thought it would be?
All I have ever done is technology-related. I’ve been a tech entrepreneur for half of my life. I was a kid when I started. It’s what fascinates me the most, and it’s what I know best.
The only thing that’s different than what I thought is the amount of energy it gives you in return. For everything you put in, you get back 10 times more – but that may be true for other industries, too.
How can readers get in touch with you?
That’s easy: you can find me through our website zerobounce.net Also, I’m a big believer in LinkedIn. Other than email, it’s where I find myself interacting with people the most.
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