#715 HearAndPlay.com: Turning $70 Into A Multimillion Dollar Instruction Web Site – with Jermaine Griggs

Update: based on the comments we’re getting, Jermaine sent this PDF about Automation.
How does a high school senior from the inner city turn $70 into a multimillion dollar instruction web site?
Jermaine Griggs is the founder of HearAndPlay.com, which trains musicians to play by ear, trains them to play by ear with online music lessons and piano video tutorials.
Jermaine Griggs is the founder of HearAndPlay.com, which trains musicians to play by ear, trains them to play by ear with online music lessons and piano video tutorials.

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More interviews - https://mixergy.com/moreint
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Andrew: Three questions before I fire you up with another great interview.

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All right. Let’s get started.

Hey there, freedom fighters. My name is Andrew Warner. I’m the founder of Mixergy.com, home of the ambitious upstart, the place where over 700 proven entrepreneurs, admired entrepreneurs have come here to tell you their story so you can learn from them, be inspired by them and hopefully, not hopefully, and go out there, built your own success story and hopefully comes in at this place, hopefully you’ll come back here and do an interview with me after you do, so that you can teach others what you’ve learned as you built your business.

And in this interview, I want to find out how does a high school senior from the inner city turn $70 bucks into a multimillion dollar instruction website? Jermaine Griggs, the man you see on your screen, he is the founder of HereAndPlay.com, which trains musicians to play by ear, trains them to play by ear with online music lessons and piano video tutorials.

Jermaine, welcome.

Jermaine: Thank you, Andrew. Pleasure to be here.

Andrew: It’s an inspiring story and people are going to watch in this interview, step by step, as you built this up but, I want them to know a little bit about you starting with where you came from. Can you tell them about that story where -, about the sneakers that you wanted your mom to buy for you?

Jermaine: Well, absolutely. I grew up in the inner city in Long Beach so I won’t say it was a war zone, but I won’t say we had green manicured grass, either. And, you know, we didn’t have the luxuries that my other friends had and one story that comes to mind was when I wanted these new Nike shoes by a football player named Rod Woodson.

All my friends had them. We went to Target and we found a rip-off, I didn’t know it was a rip-off. They looked just like those shoes. They were by Zoe. Some people don’t know what I’m talking about. And I remember I put those shoes on, I was so proud because I had the Rod Woodsons, so to speak and the next day I went to school and I got, I got the experience of a lifetime. All my friends, they laughed and poked fun at me.

I don’t know if I ran to the corner and cry, but I felt like crying and that was a learning point for me. There were many things like that but that’s something that 15 years later I still remember like it was brand new. [??] feel about changing things.

Andrew: I see that. Because of that, you said “I don’t want to have to be laughed at. I want the things that I want including what, really, today, looking back, is a pretty small thing.” They’re the sneakers that you loved.

Jermaine: Right, right. Yeah. Absolutely.

Andrew: And you’ve come a long way. We’re going to hear the whole story here but, as a sneak peak, can you tell people about the honeymoon that you took your wife on?

Jermaine: Absolutely. So we now juxtapose that story of being in so much want and so naive as a 12 year old to, you know, 13, 14 years later, now being on the honeymoon of our dreams, you know, on that small boat coming up to a private island in Fiji, where only 15 couples are invited and I remember, my wife who’s was my High School sweetheart, looking at me and saying “This is the life” and that was another moment on the other side of the tracks now, with blue glistening water, fishes and coral. I don’t even know how to swim and they’re talking snorkeling.

And so we just, compare that beginning to, and I won’t say this is the end. My Grandma said, “We’re not where we want to be, but, we got to be thankful we’re not what we used to be.” That story, is what keeps me fueling and going for the prize.

Andrew: And the two of you were 22 years old, and, financially the business at that year, hit a mile stone. Do you remember which one I’m talking about?

Jermaine: Absolutely. That was the year that we hit seven figures. And, incredible, I haven’t started with $70, and haven’t taking no capital or not even knowing that those avenues existed. Venture Capital? If you would have told me that back then, what is that?

If I didn’t make money, I didn’t survive. So, I [??] take that $70, and turned it into something, and turned it into something else and being there just a few years later, having a external reward for that hard work was just mind boggling.

Andrew: Well, congratulations. I want to hear how you did it. And this is the kind of story that we don’t hear much in the tech world. I mean, you and I talked about before the interview started. I said, “What’s a win for you in this interview?” And you said, “Andrew, your audience. Maybe I might get some people who will end up signing up for music [??] year. But, basically, it’s an audience of entrepreneurs. I’m here to help them, but I don’t have an ulterior motive in this. We even had to set up your Skype together, because you said you’re so web 1.0 that you don’t even like Skype. You use other, you use, what was it? You use MSN.

Jermaine: I use MSN. I’m your guy, up until two years ago, still using Frontpage. All that stuff that got me started when I was 17, I’m loyal to it, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. So, Facebook, Twitter, yeah, I’m there, but, you know, I don’t count on it.

Andrew: Jeremy Weiss, our producer actually sent me links to the way back, to the internet way back machine to show me what your site looked like. I could see the front page influence on it. Today, can you say what you told Jeremy Weiss, our producer, what your revenues were? Is that public, or was that something the two of you talked about in private?

Jermaine: It’s private, but, I don’t mind sharing it. So, since inception, we well hit the eight figure mark. Per year, that looks like about three and a half million dollars this year will do. We get about 15,000 subscribers a month. Now, our total listings is about three hundred thousand musicians that played by ear. And, out of that revenue, 10,000 paying subscribers is like our life blood, is our base in our various training centers. And, we [??] to keep going.

Andrew: When someone pays ten, when, excuse me, when the 10,000 people are paying you a subscription fee, what are they getting access to?

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