Bootstrapping SaaS to Millions

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about the tired "do this every morning to be successful" routines that in reality look a lot different for us non-billionaires. You don't have to meditate, run 10 miles and cold plunge every morning to be successful! ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about a recent Nate Barry article on ladders of wealth creation and why they chose SaaS as a business model. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about the power of a singular focus. It's harder than ever to not chase the new, shiny object. What's the cost of spreading yourself too thin? ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) do a 2021 year in review for Spectora, what it felt like to give 175k in bonuses to the team and how talking numbers with your leadership team can help unlock their growth. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about what everyone else in the world is talking about - inflation. But more specifically the impacts on SaaS, valuations, pay and more. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about a recent Inc article that dives into the 5 things companies can do to make the leap from 2 to 10M in annual revenue. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about things they are doing well, and mistakes made, when building up a leadership team and culture at Spectora. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about the decision to promote from within your company vs. hiring more experienced external candidates. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about what they consider when doubling down on what's working vs. exploring other verticals and revenue streams. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about some of their life philosophies and ways of approaching life! ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about knowing when to move fast vs. move slow at all phases of your startup journey. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about self-care and wellness and how they approach it with themselves and their team. ----------

Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) does a mini-episode on how he added value as a non-technical founder and a few areas you can support your technical founder in the early stages of your startup. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about aspects to consider when choosing a co-founder, deciding whether to go at it solo or not, working with family and friends, and traits of a great founding team. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about recent industry announcements that they're reacting to and about how they're dealing with recent employee turnover. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about their culture of the customer isn't always right, having vision, failure and what free throws taught Kevin about life. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about money. MONEY?! You're not supposed to talk about money! It's taboo in the workplace. It makes most of us uncomfortable. And yet, everyone needs it. Everyone wants to get clarity on it. They dive into how to have conversations with employees about money, how they internally think about money and much more. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) is flying solo this week and talks about the 5 early mistakes that founders make on the technical and engineering side. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about their process of building up leaders within Spectora. It's one of the hardest things needed to grow a company past a certain level. Getting buy-in, incentive packages, mentoring, passing along a vision. They get into specific habits they are seeing working with their young leaders. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about where Spectora is at today and how the role of a founder and CEO change over time. Hustling to get your first 100 customers all the way to recruiting and spreading your vision, and everything in between is your job as a founder. They dive into what it looked like in the first 3 phases of going from 0 to 5M in revenue. ----------

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about doing $%&@ that matters.  Being a bootstrapper means being scrappy and focusing on what moves the needle for your business. That means lots of unsexy work and less time on social media. Harsh, we know. We also got to roast Kevin in the intro for his double whammy start to the episode

Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) WENT TO AN IN-PERSON CONFERENCE. And it was magical. They debrief and talk about the very thing many of us have missed over the last year and half - human connection. Many of your businesses will succeed or fail based on human connection. It's all around us and drives decisions daily. Hear about their takeaways and reasons to prioritize face-to-face meetings as soon as possible. ----------

Does the idea matter? Is it everything? Or nothing? Sometimes choosing the right game and rules you want to play by are everything when it comes to building a successful startup.  Mike (@MikeWagstaff_) and Kevin (@kevinwagstaff3) talk about how they thought about the space they got into, why and what they didn't want to deal with on their startup journey. ----------

If you're an entrepreneur that's on the fence about starting a business or you're early in your startup journey, this one is for you. Mike and Kevin dive into their backgrounds, upbringing and psychology to pull out the lessons, traits and characteristics that have led to some of their success with Spectora. ----------