How to Bootstrap to $1.2 BILLION
Access the Playbook from Liz Elting, founder of TransPerfect
Meet Liz Elting—founder of TransPerfect. She bootstrapped her business to over $1.2 billion in annual revenues, with operations in 140+ markets worldwide, and an internal sales team of 600+ people. That’s not just growth—that’s category domination.
While Silicon Valley was chasing funding, Liz was chasing sales. And her discipline around building a revenue-first machine is exactly what made her one of the 0.8% of women who have built and exited a billion-dollar business.
Here’s what you’re going to take away from today’s episode—and what we’ll break down step-by-step in this week’s Growth Playbook for our paid subscribers:
💡 Here’s what you’ll learn in this playbook:
How 300+ cold calls a day in the early days to land her first clients—and turned a 3-page translation job into a $1M+ client relationship and the framework for you to get it done.
How to scale a sales team: You’ll learn how Liz scaled her sales team to 600+ reps globally by setting performance-based thresholds—each rep had to generate $120K+ in revenue before earning headcount support. Access the framework to do it.
How to structure sales commission: How her commission structure created high-performing sellers—paying 10% uncapped, lifetime commissions, which helped retain top reps and build a $1B+ revenue engine
How to Expand to New Markets: Learn how she expanded into 140 markets without VC by using a goal-driven model—each new office had to hit revenue targets before expanding headcount or operations.
How to ensure you are legally protected - learn how skipping a $5K legal agreement cost her $50M during her exit—and the exact legal framework she recommends every founder put in place before launching with a partner.
Let’s get it!