Ike Kehal is the CEO of Social27, a virtual event platform that has been helping businesses connect digitally throughout the pandemic and beyond.
In this episode Ike joins Ryan to talk about how he bootstrapped his way to a million dollar valuation, and then within three years grew to over $15 million through product-led growth with a sales team of only five people. It's an incredible story, and Ike's here to share it with you today!
KEY TAKEAWAYS

When you work at a large organization such as Microsoft, never discount the access you have to the amazing minds who have made that company what it is.
The best way to grow a business around a certain product is not to dream about it all day. You need to be out there in the field, building relationships and understanding the pain points of your prospective client base.
Overnight success is never quite that easy. The businesses that see explosive growth are the ones with a clear purpose and a solution that the market has been waiting for, but it's always built on the back of years of clarity of vision.
When you grow a company, you have to do so from a customer perspective, reigning in talent that will ignite and accelerate your customer experience in a positive way. The pandemic has meant that talented remote workers can be sourced from around the world.

BEST MOMENTS
'I got a good understanding of how you take strategies and you globalize them'
'I always had enterprise in my soul'
'We have one foot in the real world and one foot in the product development world'
'We had a very clear vision'
VALUABLE RESOURCES
The Scale Up Show - https://omny.fm/shows/the-scale-up-show  
Apply for a Revenue Growth Consulting Session With Ryan Staley - https://www.scalerevenue.io/4-schedule-page1611678914248
ABOUT THE GUEST
Ike Kehal is the CEO of Social27, a virtual event platform that has been helping businesses connect digitally throughout the pandemic and beyond. Ike started his professional career at Microsoft where he focused on partner programs and marketing. He went on to co-found and/or run four successful organizations, eventually starting Social27. Ike has been working in the B2B Marketing industry for over 13 years with a specialty working with virtual and hybrid events.
 
Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ikekehal/
ABOUT THE SHOW
How do you grow like a VC backed company without taking on investors? Do you want to create a lifestyle business, a performance business or an empire? How do you scale to an exit without losing your freedom?Join the host Ryan Staley every Monday and Wednesday for conversations with the brightest and best Founders, CEO’s and Entrepreneurs to crack the code on repeatable revenue growth, leadership, lifestyle freedom and mindset.This show has featured Startup and Billion Dollar Founders, Best Selling Authors, and the World’s Top Sales and Marketing Experts like Terry Jones (Founder of Travelocity and Chairman of Kayak), Andrew Gazdecki (Founder of Microacquire), Harpaul Sambhi (Founder of Magical with a previous exit to Linkedin) and many more.
This is where Scaling and Sales are made simple in 25 minutes or less.
ABOUT THE HOST
Ryan is a Founder, Podcast Host, Speaker, Loving Father, Husband and Dog Dad. He is a 18x award winner and grew a business unit from 0-$30M in Annual Recurring Revenue while he adding $30M in capital revenue in less than 6 years.  He did this all with only 4 sales people and without demand generation. 
Whether you are a new Founder,  VP or CEO who is already generating  6, 7 or even multiple 8 figures annually, you are going to gain knowledge about sales you didn’t know existed.
CONTACT METHOD
Ryan Staley - https://ryanstaley.io/podcast/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-staley/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ryanstaleysalesSaas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecretsSee omnystudio.com/list