Matt Fiedler on planting the seed and growing a sustainable business at Hustle Con

About this video

Matt Fiedler, co-founder of Vinyl Me Please, recounts how he and his co-founder launched a record-of-the-month club despite widespread initial skepticism. Starting with just 12 paying subscribers from a 100-person email list in early 2013, they bootstrapped the business through word-of-mouth and eventually grew to over 2,000 subscribers across 35 countries by committing fully to the venture and pursuing media coverage.

Key takeaways

• Fiedler received substantial negative feedback from friends, family, industry experts, and a vinyl pressing plant executive before launching, but proceeded anyway—demonstrating how early validation rejection doesn’t necessarily invalidate a business idea.
• The initial 12% conversion rate (12 of 100 email signups) from a simple landing page validated that paying customers existed for the concept, providing enough momentum to continue despite slow early growth.
• Fiedler emphasizes that entrepreneurship requires ‘reckless abandon’ to push through self-doubt and critic pressure; he advises building and shipping rather than waiting for perfect timing, validation, or ideas.

Episode details: published February 10, 2015 · 1K views · 5:16 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The business ideas, figures and results discussed are the hosts’ and guests’ own claims, shared as brainstorming and entertainment — not verified facts and not investment advice.

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