Connor Gillivan

10 Free SEO Courses to Check Out:

(Level up your SEO w/out spending a dime)

1. SEO Training Course Moz)
2. Free SEO Course (ClickMinded)
3. SEO Training Course (HubSpot)
4. On-Page and Technical SEO Course (Semrush)
5. SEO Specialization (Coursera)
6. Free SEO 6-Part Video Series (Moz)
7. Keyword Research for SEO (HubSpot)
8. Content-Led SEO (Semrush)
9. Local SEO Course with Greg Gifford (Semrush)
10. SEO Foundations (LinkedIn for Learning)

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SEO is an ever evolving industry.

And you need to “always be learning“.

Whether you have 1 month, 1 year, or 10 yrs of experience.

It's critical to learn new tactics and strategies.

I'm 10 years in & I still take free courses.

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What's your fav?

Repost ♻️ so others can learn SEO too!

P.S. I'm hosting a free SEO training on Aug 29th. Come join: https://lnkd.in/g-My3sMZ

How to Rank on ChatGPT Cheat Sheet:

(How I rank my business on ChatGPT for traffic & leads)

Founder: "How do I rank on ChatGPT?"
Me: "It boils down to AUTHORITY & PRESENCE. Let me explain:"

ChatGPT and LLMs rely on the Internet to make "inferences" to your questions.

If you ask it, "What's the best B2B SEO service online?", it's going to scour the Internet for data specific to that topic.

Then it compiles that data, parses it, and spits out their best judgement.

Here's a WINNING Strategy to Follow:

#1: Prompt Research

- Brainstorm a list of prompts your ICP is asking ChatGPT.
- Ask ChatGPT to come up with similar prompts.
- Search them and see what's provided.

#2: Results Analysis

- Analyze the answers and who's being mentioned.
- Search similar queries on Google & see what's ranking.
- Find content ideas & "best of lists" to get added to.

#3: Create Content

- Create new Service pages & blog content.
- "Steal" from competitors ranking top of ChatGPT & Google.
- Replicate content they have, but make it your own & better.
- Publish the content on social media & tag your brand.

#4: Build Authority

- Reach out to "best of lists" & pitch to get yourself included.
- Write your own "best of lists" to get them ranking on Google.
- Build high DR backlinks to create "authority" for your brand.

#5: Track Results

- Every 2-4 weeks, search the prompts on ChatGPT again.
- Take note of changes to the results & look for your brand.
- Repeat for 3-6 months until you're ranking on ChatGPT.

Ranking on LLMs & ChatGPT comes back to SEO.

You won't "magically" rank on ChatGPT w/out content & authority.

I dare you to try.

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What you think?

♻️ REPOST if you found this useful.

P.S. I talk about AI's impact on SEO & marketing every week. Follow me for more.

10 SEO Claude Prompts (I use every week at TrioSEO):

Save this. You'll use all of them.

1. Keyword Research
"You're an SEO expert with 10+ years of experience. Give me 20 long-tail keyword ideas for [main keyword] with search intent, estimated difficulty, and why each one matters for a [ICP] audience."

2. Content Brief
"You're a senior SEO strategist. Build a detailed content brief for [keyword]. Include H1, H2s, H3s, target word count, primary and secondary keywords, FAQs, meta description, and a recommended CTA."

3. SERP Analysis
"Analyze the top 10 Google results for [keyword]. What topics do they cover? What are they missing? Give me 5 angles I can use to write something stronger."

4. Internal Linking
"Here is a list of 20 blog posts from my website. Recommend an internal linking structure that builds topical authority around [main topic]."

5. Meta Data
"Write 5 title tag and meta description variations for the keyword [keyword]. Make each one compelling, under the character limit, and aligned with search intent."

6. Content Upgrade
"Here is an existing blog post. Identify the 5 weakest sections and rewrite them to improve depth, readability, and SEO performance."

7. FAQ Schema
"Create 8 FAQ questions and answers for a blog post targeting [keyword]. Make the answers concise, accurate, and optimized for featured snippets."

8. Competitor Gap Analysis
"Here are 3 competitor blog posts targeting [keyword]. What topics, data points, and sections do they all include? What are they missing that I can add to outrank them?"

9. Content Repurposing
"Take this blog post and repurpose it into: 1 LinkedIn post, 1 email newsletter, and 5 short-form social captions. Keep the core insight but adapt the format for each channel."

10. Monthly SEO Report Summary
"Here is our SEO data from this month. Summarize the key wins, areas of concern, and recommend 3 actions we should prioritize next month."

The prompt is only half the equation.

The context you give Claude determines the quality of the output.

Be specific. Give it your ICP, your industry, your goals.

Garbage in, garbage out. Clarity in, results out.

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Which prompt are you stealing first?

♻️ Repost if you want more SEO practitioners using AI the right way.

P.S. I run SEO with AI for 30+ clients at TrioSEO. If you want a team that already knows how to use these tools to grow your traffic and leads, book a call: https://lnkd.in/gYccSVY8

New Opportunity: I'm hiring for a Growth Manager (Paid Ads + Cold Email):

Someone to be my right hand "Growth" brain.
& help scale 5+ companies owned by my HoldCo, Hirsch Gillivan.
- EcomBalance
- AccountsBalance
- TrioSEO
- CFO Expertise
- EcomBalance Tax

The two BIG areas you'll run:

1. Paid Ads: Meta and Google campaigns. Test, iterate, find the winning funnel, then scale it.

2. Cold Email & LinkedIn Outreach: Build ICP lists, write sequences, deploy, and optimize until meetings get booked consistently.

Who am I looking for?

- You use Claude or ChatGPT daily. Not occasionally. Daily.
- You've run successful ad campaigns and can show me proof.
- You've built outreach workflows before and can show them to me.
- You have case studies that you can share and show me results.
- You think in systems, not tasks. Always tweaking to find the best.
- You want a long term role where you can be an AI Marketer.

Logistics:

- Fully remote.
- Anywhere in the world.
- 40+ hours/week full time, exclusive.
- Rate discussed in the application process.

This role is NOT for you if you talk about AI but can't actually demo your workflow.

Sound like you?

Apply today: https://lnkd.in/gB6WyznC

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Know someone who fits this?

Tag them or Repost ♻️ so they can find it.

P.S. I'm building a Marketing Superteam for my HoldCo, Hirsch Gillivan. This is just the start. If you're interested, reach out!

I’m hiring an SEO Strategist for TrioSEO 🥳 Will it be you? (rare opportunity)

That’s right! Trio is growing and we’re seeking an ambitious SEO that wants to learn and grow with us to help our 30+ SEO clients.

Are you ready for the role? Here’s what we need:

1. A passion to learn SEO keyword research and strategy from SEO pros
2. SEO experience in Ahrefs keyword research
3. Able to work 20-40 hours per week
4. On a flexible work schedule

Does that sound like you?

Then apply here: https://lnkd.in/g8Yv8NXX

Here’s what we’re offering:

- A chance for you to join a rapidly growing SEO agency
- Intensive training on SEO research and strategy
- The ability to run SEO strategy for 10+ clients
- A vibrant and encouraging remote work environment
- Direct access to SEOs w/ 15+ years experience
- Opportunities for raises, bonuses, and additional responsibility and training

So, who’s the best fit for the role?

You do NOT need extensive SEO strategy experience.

It’s honestly better if you don’t.

Most importantly, you need an open mind to training, learning, and mastering the TrioSEO way.

We have a method that works. You simply need to learn and master it.

Again, if this resonates with you, apply today and we’ll be in touch: https://lnkd.in/g8Yv8NXX

Will you apply?

P.S. This is RARE. I don’t often post for job openings. If this sparks your interest, act today.

P.P.S. If you know someone that would be a great fit fof this role, please share the post with them 🙏

Reddit is now the most cited source in AI search results.

And most brands are ignoring it completely.

Here's how to optimize Reddit for SEO and AEO.

Reddit accounts for roughly 40% of all AI citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.

Read that again. 40%.

It's also the second most visible website in Google search results behind Wikipedia.

Search "best CRM for startups" on Google.

Count the Reddit threads on page 1.

In 2023, zero. In 2026, three to five.

Often outranking G2, Capterra, and the SaaS companies themselves.

Same thing in AI search. Ask ChatGPT for a recommendation.

Watch how often it pulls from Reddit threads.

For "is X worth it" queries, 89% of Google AI Overviews cite Reddit.

Reddit citations on ChatGPT grew 73%+ from October 2025 to January 2026.

This is not a social media channel anymore. This is search infrastructure.

And most marketing teams have no strategy for it.

I run SEO and GEO across 6 businesses.

I use Semrush One to track visibility on Google and AI. Here's the Reddit playbook I follow:

1/ Find the subreddits that rank on Google for your keywords
→ Search your top keywords on Google and note which Reddit threads show up on page 1
→ Use Semrush to identify which subreddits consistently rank for terms in your niche

2/ Contribute value-first answers in high-ranking threads
→ Write detailed, experience-based replies that actually help people
→ Threads with 50+ upvotes are 3.2x more likely to rank on Google

3/ Monitor brand mentions on Reddit
→ Track what people say about your brand across subreddits
→ Semrush One tracks brand mentions across both Google and AI search platforms

4/ Get cited in "best of" and comparison threads
→ AI pulls heavily from Reddit threads with titles like "best X for Y" or "X vs Y"
→ Contribute authentically to these threads early before they rank

5/ Track your Reddit-sourced AI citations
→ Reddit threads you appear in get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews
→ Semrush One shows where your brand gets mentioned in AI results and which sources AI pulls from

6/ Keep contributions fresh and relevant
→ AI citation preferences shift fast. Reddit citation share dropped 23% in a single month in late 2025
→ Consistent monthly contributions outperform one-time pushes

7/ Never spam. Always disclose.
→ Reddit is quality-sensitive. Spammy posts get suppressed and can hurt your entire brand
→ Disclose affiliations. Lead with value. Be a real human in the thread.

Google ranks Reddit threads.
AI cites Reddit threads.
Your brand needs to be in those threads.

Not with promotional posts.

With genuine, helpful contributions that earn upvotes and trust.

Semrush One tracks both sides. Where you rank on Google and where you get cited by AI.

One dashboard. So you can see exactly which Reddit threads are driving visibility and where competitors are showing up instead of you.

Start tracking: https://bit.ly/473eyr0

♻️ Repost to help others

#SemrushPartner

My Monthly SEO Analytics Strategy:

Every month, I run a full SEO analytics review for my companies and clients.

Here’s the exact system I use — and the 7 metrics that matter most.

1/ Organic Traffic Growth

- Check total sessions and users from Google.
- Segment by page type (blog, service, homepage).
- WHY: It’s your top-level indicator that SEO is actually driving results.

2/ Keyword Rankings

- Track top 50–100 target keywords in Ahrefs or GA4 Search Console.
- Look for upward movement month-to-month.
- WHY: Rankings reflect visibility growth before traffic follows.

3/ Click-Through Rate (CTR)

- Pull from Google Search Console.
- Improve titles & meta descriptions for low CTR pages.
- WHY: A small CTR lift = huge traffic gain without new content.

4/ Backlinks & Referring Domains

- Review new links via Ahrefs.
- Filter by authority and relevance.
- WHY: High-quality links = authority, which fuels long-term rankings.

5/ Top Landing Pages

- Identify which pages bring in the most organic users.
- Double down on the content type and topics that win.
- WHY: This tells you what the market values most from your site.

6/ Conversion Rate from Organic

- Track leads, calls, or purchases coming from organic traffic.
- WHY: SEO isn’t just visibility—it’s sales and customer growth.

7/ Technical SEO Health

- Audit page speed, mobile usability, and crawl errors.
- WHY: Technical issues quietly destroy ranking potential.

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SEO analytics aren’t about vanity metrics.

They’re about direction, consistency, and compounding results.

I’ve scaled multiple businesses by obsessing over these numbers.

When you know the story behind your data, SEO becomes predictable.

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Find this useful?

Repost ♻️ to help others master SEO reporting.

P.S. Steal my 50+ SEO & Marketing Processes: https://lnkd.in/gETbvXjq

My Winning Shopify SEO Funnel Strategy (BOFU, MOFU, TOFU):

To win in Ecom SEO, you need to go after the right keywords.

And you need to understand how the SEO funnel works.

So you go after keywords that actually create revenue.

Here's the breakdown:

TOFU

→ “Top of funnel”
→ To build awareness.
→ People learning a topic. Not looking to purchase.
→ Builds authority w/ educational content
→ Most impacted by Google’s AI Overviews
→ Ex: “surfboard research guide”

MOFU

→ “Middle of funnel”
→ People researching + comparing options.
→ Best for comparisons, “how-to’s”, case studies.
→ Ex: “best surfboard companies in california”

BOFU

→ “Bottom of funnel”
→ People searching for a solution
→ Ready to buy. High intent.
→ Ex: “white surboard midsize”

STRATEGY

→ BOFU 1st until you’re out
→ Then MOFU to fill the funnel
→ Leave TOFU for AI
→ 5+ pieces of content per month
→ Aim for Collection & Product pages
→ Build links to BOFU pages

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Are you following this Shopify SEO strategy?

♻️ Repost if you think this could help someone else.

P.S. Want my team growing your Shopify store SEO? DM me for details.

Video is eating everything right now.

LinkedIn is pushing it. X is pushing it. Google is indexing it.

AI overviews are pulling from YouTube transcripts.

Every algorithm in 2026 rewards the person on camera.

And founders are sitting on the biggest untapped advantage.

That’s exactly why I use Riverside

Your face. Your voice. Your story. Your expertise.

No one can replicate that. Not AI. Not a ghostwriter. Not a marketing agency.

A founder on camera builds more trust in 90 seconds than a blog post does in 2,000 words.

Prospects show up to calls already knowing your voice.

Recruits feel like they know your culture before applying.

Partners reach out because they've watched 10 of your clips.

Video compounds in a way that nothing else does.

But here's why most founders don't do it.

The process is a mess.

One tool to record. Another to edit. Another to clip. Another to distribute.

A freelance editor. A 3-day turnaround. Files going back and forth.

By the time the video is ready, the momentum is dead.

Here's my full workflow:

1/ I batch record 4-5 videos every Monday in Riverside
2/ I edit the video by editing the transcript
3/ I generate shorter clips inside the same tool
4/ One recording becomes 5+ pieces of content
5/ Record, edit, clip, distribute. One place.

I run 6 businesses from Denver.

If I can produce consistent video content weekly, any founder can.

The window for founder-led video is wide open right now.

Most founders in your space aren't doing it yet.

The ones who start now will own the trust layer in their industry for years.

Text gets you followers. Video gets you customers.

And the process has never been this simple.

Are you doing video yet? What's holding you back?

Try Riverside for yourself using my link: https://lnkd.in/g2DNeSCW

♻️ Repost if you think every founder should be on camera in 2026.

#RiversidePartner

Engineers have Claude Code.

Creative teams have this tool:

My creative team used to redo the same edits 50 times a week.

Now they save it once and run it on everything.

Here's the tool that changed it: Air Skills.

I run 6 businesses. Each one has its own brand assets.

Social graphics. Blog images. Team headshots. Product visuals. Slide decks.

Every week, the same edits happen over and over.

Resize for LinkedIn. Remove backgrounds. Crop headshots consistently. Mock up ads.

Someone on the team knows exactly how to do it right.

But that knowledge lives in their head. Or buried in a Slack thread.

Every time someone else needs the same edit, they start from scratch.

That's the loop that destroys creative teams slowly.

Same work. Repeated daily. Never saved. Never shared.

Air just launched Skills. And it solves exactly this.

Here's how it works:

1/ Save any creative workflow as a Skill
→ Define the edit, the format, and what a good output looks like.

2/ Run it on anything with one command
→ Type / followed by the Skill name. Air executes it exactly how you set it up.

3/ Batch run across multiple assets at once
→ Select 10 images. Run the same Skill. Consistent output across all of them in seconds.

4/ Share it across your entire team
→ Skills live at the workspace level. Anyone can access and run them.

5/ Start with pre-built Skills or create your own
→ /rotate for 360 product animations. /headshot for consistent team photos. /remove-background for clean cutouts. /screen-mock for case study visuals.

6/ Your best creative decisions stop being one-offs
→ The teammate who always gets the edit right? Now their process is saved, named, and repeatable by everyone.

Most AI tools are built for individuals experimenting alone.

Skills is built for teams that need consistent, on-brand output every day.

It lives inside Air where your content already is.

That's what makes it stick.

Your standards. On repeat. Across your entire team.

Check out Air Skills today here: air.inc/skills

♻️ Repost if your creative team deserves better AI tools.

P.S. What repetitive creative task would you save as a Skill first?

#AirPartner

You're not slow because you're lazy.

You're slow because your tools don't talk to each other.

I run SEO for 4 B2B companies and 35+ clients at TrioSEO.
Last quarter I timed how long our prospecting workflow actually took.
From finding a lead to sending the first email.

47 minutes per lead.

Not because the work was hard.
Because every step lived in a different tool.

Find the prospect in one platform.
Enrich their data in another.
Export a CSV.
Import it into the CRM.
Write the email in a third tool.
Schedule the send.
Manually log the activity.

Seven steps. Five tools. Zero of them connected.

My team wasn't prospecting. They were copy-pasting.

So I stripped the whole workflow down and rebuilt it inside

HubSpot using their Prospecting Agent.

Now it looks like this:

→ Agent researches the account inside the CRM.
→ Monitors buying signals automatically.
→ Drafts personalized outreach based on real engagement data.
→ Follows up when prospects interact.
→ Everything logged. One system. One source of truth.

Same lead. Same outreach quality.

4 minutes instead of 47.

No exports. No enrichment tool. No CSV gymnastics.

The bottleneck was never my team. It was the space between our tools.
When your systems don't connect, your people become the integration layer.

And that's the most expensive middleware you can buy.

Less tools. Less friction. More pipeline.

You can achieve this with HubSpot’s AI Prospecting Agent here: https://lnkd.in/gEUZa4Ww

What's your current time-per-lead from discovery to first email?

P.S. I share SEO and growth strategies like this weekly. Grab my 50+ processes free at connorgillivan(dot)com.

#Ad #HubSpotMediaPartner

This Granola recipe completely changed my Post Call workflow!

As a new dad, it gave me back more time with my son.

Now, most of you already know how Granola works.

It transcribes your audio and summarizes around your notes.

Like an intelligent assistant all of us needed.

That part everyone knows about at this point.

What changed everything for me was this sweet recipe I built.

I call it /PostCallSystem.

Here's exactly what it does:

The second a call ends, I type /PostCallSystem into Granola's chat. It runs a custom recipe I set up that does 5 things in sequence.

First, it extracts every action item from the conversation. Specific tasks with who owns what (major win for client and big team calls)

Second, it identifies any decisions that were made. Things the team agreed on that need to be documented, not just remembered (a great one for my social media team)

Third, it drafts a follow-up email in my voice using the actual words from the conversation just like I would (if we talked in the last month, the email you got was from this)

Fourth, it flags anything that was left unresolved. Open questions. Things that need a second call. (great for closing prospects on follow-up calls)

Fifth, it creates a one-paragraph context block I can paste into Slack so my team has the full picture without me writing a separate message.

Building the recipe took me just 15 minutes. I wrote out exactly what I wanted each section to include in plain English.

Now it runs every single call. Same structure. Same quality.

If like me you ever thought: “Would be nice to have a second brain”

Now you actually can!!

Last week I was writing my newsletter and remembered someone shared a brilliant insight on a call months ago. Couldn't remember who. Couldn't remember when.

Asked Granola. BOOM!! Found it in 5 seconds. The exact words.

BONUS: Connect Granola to Claude via MCP and now your second brain resides in your favorite LLM, everything a prompt away.

If you're already using Granola but haven't built custom recipes yet, start with one. Build your own. Define exactly what you want extracted. Give it your tone. Save it.

I don't say this about many tools.

But this time I’m gonna say it, Granola earned it!

It’s the best tool for marketers and founders like me who have a ton of meetings.

Want to build your own second brain too?

Comment “Granola” or check the 1st comment.

♻️ Repost if your brain is tired of being the only notetaker in the room.

#GranolaPartner

You wasted 40 hours last month rewriting the same resume over and over.

Yet recruiters rejected your resume in less than 4 seconds.

All rejected resumes have one thing in common:

They struggle with signal.

They have the background.
They have the results.
They have the skills.

But when everything is included,
nothing stands out.

That’s why resumes often fail to communicate value.

Not because the person isn’t qualified.
But because relevance gets buried.

This is where a more strategic approach matters.

Instead of asking “How do I fit everything in?”

The better question is:

“What does this role actually need to see?”

That’s where tools like Teal become useful.

Teal helps you think in versions, not documents.

Here’s the framework:

1. Start with a complete source of truth
→ Every achievement, metric, and role captured once
→ Nothing filtered prematurely

2. Let the role define relevance
→ Use job descriptions to surface priority skills
→ Align your experience to what matters most

3. Show the right 10 percent
→ Create focused resume versions per role
→ Highlight signal, not volume

4. Strengthen clarity without changing substance
→ Improve structure and framing
→ Keep your voice and experience intact

5. Pressure-test before sharing
→ Review alignment and gaps
→ Submit with confidence in the narrative

This isn’t about gaming systems.

It’s about communicating value clearly.

Thanks to Teal for partnering on this post.

Try Teal free at https://tealhq.co/4jkfNH8

and take control of how your exphttps://lnkd.in/gxrUkYAf is presented.

#TealPartner

60% of searches now end without a click.

Let that sink in for a second.

I run SEO for all my portfolio companies and 35+ clients at TrioSEO.

A year ago, ranking on page one meant winning.

Today? Google's AI Overview answers the question before anyone clicks.

The rules are changing fast.

Traditional SEO still matters. But there's a second game now.

It's called GEO. Generative Engine Optimization.

Getting your content cited by AI. Not just ranked by Google.

By ChatGPT. By Perplexity. By AI Overviews. By Bing Copilot.

Here's what we're seeing across our clients:

→ AI traffic is growing 165x faster than organic search traffic.
→ ChatGPT now sends more referral traffic than Reddit or LinkedIn.
→ Pages at position 1 have a 58% chance of being cited by AI. Position 10 drops to 14%.
→ AI referral visitors convert at higher rates than traditional organic.

The SEOs who figure out GEO first will have a massive advantage.

But nobody has definitive answers yet.

What actually drives AI citations?

What content structure do LLMs prefer?

How does link building change for AI search?

What signals matter and what doesn't?

That's what Serpzilla is researching right now.

They're running a global study on AI SEO and GEO.

Gathering data from SEO professionals worldwide.

The survey takes 10-15 minutes. First 30 respondents get a bonus and $100 in credits.

If you work in SEO, your input shapes the data we'll all reference this year.

Here is the link to participate in it: https://lnkd.in/gPtQvwRi

Repost if your SEO friends need to see this.

P.S. I share SEO strategies like this every week. Grab my 50+ SEO and marketing processes for free at connorgillivan(dot)com.

#Serpzilla

Buffett has Berkshire. Munger had Wesco. Nathan and I have Hirsch Gillivan.

Meet Hirsch Gillivan: The Hold Co behind my 6 companies (and growing).

For 10+ years, Nathan and I built businesses the hard way.

One at a time. Endless nights. All our focus on a single bet.

Then in 2019, we sold FreeUp at $12M ARR.

And everything changed.

We started studying Buffett and Munger.

Asking different questions:

- What if we owned a portfolio instead of a company?
- What if we weren't the CEOs running daily ops?
- What if we acquired profitable businesses instead of building from zero?

That's how Hirsch Gillivan was born.

Here's what we own today:

1. EcomBalance: monthly bookkeeping for ecommerce brands

2. EcomBalance Tax: tax filing and planning for ecommerce

3. CFO Expertise: fractional CFO services for ecommerce and D2C

4. TrioSEO: SEO content & growth agency for ecom, b2b, & saas

5. HG Media: the media arm running our personal brands

6. Interlace Digital: our newest addition, ads for shopify brands

The mission is simple:

Build the suite of service businesses we WISH we had when we were running our own ecommerce company back in the Portlight days.

Bookkeeping. Taxes. CFO. SEO. Marketing.

All under one roof. All B2B. All cash flow positive.

The goal: 10 companies through acquisition in the next 2-3 years.

Not by grinding 80 hour weeks building from scratch.

But by buying profitable companies, hiring great CEOs, and helping them grow.

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What would you add to the suite?

Repost if you're building (or thinking about building) a hold co too.

P.S. Follow me for daily updates on growing Hirsch Gillivan from 6 to 10 companies.