#859 Building a $6.5M Remote Agency in 5 Years — LevelUp Leads

Dan interviews John Karsant, founder of Level Up Leads, a 73-person outsourced SDR agency doing about $6.5M/year revenue, built while living abroad (Argentina, now Barcelona). John shares how he found remote work early via Craigslist, then spun out a list-building service that nearly failed due to one-off sales before pivoting into full appointment setting—eventually cold calling, which raised value, doubled average sale while keeping churn steady, and enabled $15K–$20K/month packages. He explains why radical honesty wins deals, how a strong ops leader and an in-house client dashboard improved transparency, and which metrics matter most (dial-to-connect, meetings booked, show rate, and pipeline movement).

In this episode:

John discusses hiring ahead of the curve

How he compensates reps based on client retention

The decline of email outreach

John’s inbound engine that drives 80–90% of leads

Practical AI uses for role play training, transcript analysis, playbooks, and script generation

The value of an experienced CEO coach

John’s approach to investing and family life

Thanks to this week's sponsor Wayfront — the AI-ready operating system for productized agencies. One client portal. One team dashboard. All your data, AI-accessible. TMBA listeners get an extra free month on top of the trial at wayfront.com/tmba.

Links:

Level Up Leads