The Top Podcast
Nathan Latka was a Virginia Tech architecture student when insecurity struck. After overhearing fifth-year students upset about job prospects in the post-2008 financial crash, he decided to take action. Sitting in his dorm room under his bunk bed, wearing his ex-girlfriend's red Christmas boxers, he started cold-calling executives with Facebook pages and pitching them Facebook contests. This scrappy move launched HEO, a SaaS platform helping small businesses launch Facebook campaigns.
The company moved fast. In the first three months, HEO hit $30k per month in revenue. The business grew significantly from there, eventually raising $2.5M in funding, creating over 25 high-quality jobs, and acquiring 10,000+ paying customers. This entrepreneurial success gave Nathan the credibility and experience he'd need for his next venture.
Nathan's initial customers came from direct outreach—cold calls to executives with Facebook pages. His willingness to hustle and solve their problem (running Facebook campaigns) made the pitch work. This direct, straightforward approach established early traction that validated the business model.
Nathan realized early that he couldn't work in corporate (his Target cashier job taught him that). What worked was diving deep into learning—attending Bob Berg's $20,000 keynote conference, investing in himself through books and qualified events, and building a product that solved a real problem. His rational, data-driven mindset (facts and figures over emotion) shaped how he built HEO and later how he'd approach The Top.
Now Nathan is launching The Top podcast, inspired by three key gaps he saw: John Dumas's Entrepreneur on Fire sticks too rigidly to script and doesn't go deep on real numbers; NPR and Harvard Business Review lack personality; Tim Ferriss overwhelms listeners with too much information in one hour. The Top airs seven days a week with 15-18 minute episodes featuring top entrepreneurs. Each episode includes Nathan's "Famous Five" questions about favorite business books, CEOs being studied, favorite tools, sleep habits, and advice for younger selves. The podcast is produced by Asian Recording and sponsored by Eddie Communications and Grandin CoLab.
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