MAPPED OUT
Ever feel like your marketing strategy and business plan is a maze of endless to-dos? MAPPED OUT is your GPS to breakthrough growth, minus the headaches. Think of us as your savvy road trip companions who've not only survived the marketing wilderness—we've mastered it.
Lauren and Aurrie here, battle-tested marketers who've built businesses from the ground up. We're ditching the fluff and corporate-speak to give you the real deal: strategies that actually work, stories from the trenches, and those "why didn't I think of that?" moments that'll transform your approach.
Every episode is like having coffee (or a stiff and needed drink) with that marketing friend who tells it straight, shares their secret weapons, and genuinely wants you to win. Whether you're dreaming up your next campaign or feeling stuck in the daily grind, consider this your official permission slip to simplify, amplify, and enjoy the ride. Buckle up—your marketing journey just got a whole lot more interesting.
MAPPED OUT
Stop #21: Josh Haynam on Building a 100M-Lead Product, 12 Years of Bootstrapping, and Why Speed Beats Perfection
Every industry has one person quietly powering the success of thousands of brands—and in the quiz-funnel world, that person is Josh Haynam, Co-Founder & CEO of Interact, the quiz builder behind 100M+ leads, 1.3B quiz views, and some of the biggest brands and creators online.
Bootstrapped, profitable, and still founder-led after 12 years, Interact has survived four waves of VC-backed competitors—not because it had the most features, but because Josh bet everything on relationships, product clarity, and human psychology.
In this episode, Josh shares how he built a tech company that refuses to chase shiny objects… and still wins.
✈️ GET THE FLIGHT DECK BREAKDOWN: www.mappedoutpod.com/newsletter
In this episode, Josh walks us through:
⚡ How Interact survived—and outperformed—VC competitors for 12 years
⚡ The psychology behind quizzes (and why we’re now in the “Instagram Age”)
⚡ Why the best founders move fast—and why perfection is killing your results
⚡ How Interact scaled to $3.3M ARR with only 9 team members
⚡ What 8,000+ customer conversations taught him about modern marketing
⚡ What’s coming next for Interact’s design updates
⏰ TIMESTAMPS
3:38 – Competing with VC-backed copycats and why Interact chose relationships over features
8:23 – The real history of quizzes (yes, it starts in 1700s Irish pubs)
12:41 – Why agency partners, copywriters, and designers (“the Rich Pauls”) became Interact’s growth engine
16:11 – The shiny objects they did chase—and why they walked away
17:46 – What “ROI” actually looks like for quiz funnels
21:09 – What Josh is learning from today’s top creators generating 140K+ leads
27:18 – Building a no-ego team and the role of coaching inside the company
30:30 – Why quarterly offsites changed everything for their remote culture
33:06 – What’s coming in Interact’s design refresh
35:01 – Where quizzes are headed in the next 5 years
41:00 – Why founders over 30 struggle with speed—and how to fix it
48:29 – Josh’s 90-Day Marketing Playbook if he were starting Interact today
52:48 – HIGH / LOW / STOW
🔗 CONNECT WITH JOSH HAYNAM
- LinkedIn: Josh Haynam
- Interact: tryinteract.com
👩✈️ MEET YOUR CO-PILOTS
Lauren Loreto
Founder, Brand Good Time
Instagram: @brandgoodtime
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laurenloreto
Aurrie Hicks
Founder, Hopson Rae
Instagram: @hopsonrae
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aurriehicks
🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
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