The Effective Founder

This habit costs more than you think

I'm (finally) restarting the show. Tune in to discover what's changing...

The Effective Founder isn't going anywhere, but I am making some changes to the show next year. Tune in and discover what's next for the pod...

Today, I'm talking with , a Vice President of SBA lending at , where he specializes in goodwill transactions, which are especially relevant to internet businesses. Jordan has been in banking for 18 years and is well-known in the SBA industry for his public speaking, and that's actually where I first came across him. Jordan co-hosted a great webinar with FE International (a business broker that specializes in mid-market SaaS, e-commerce, and content businesses) on how to use the SBA lending program to buy a business. That presentation was a crash course on the ins and outs of SBA loans, so if you're at all interested in this subject, go check that out. I'll link to it in the show notes. In our chat today, Jordan and I are going to build on that presentation and walk through more of the details on what the loan application and approval process looks like.

Today, I'm talking with , the author of , and the Executive Partner at Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), the company of ethical hackers famous for hacking cars, medical devices, and password managers. Ted has helped hundreds of companies fix tens of thousands of security vulnerabilities, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, and more. In our chat, we're going to talk about the security risks SaaS founders need to be aware of and how to protect their applications.

Today, I'm talking with , the Co-founder and CEO , an online marketplace that connects homeowners with Local lawn care professionals. Before starting GreenPal, Bryan founded Peachtree Inc. one of the largest landscaping companies in the state of Tennessee growing it to over $10 million a year in annual revenue before it was acquired in 2013. In our chat, we dive into how he's grown GreenPal to more than 100,000 active users as a self-funded company over the last 6 years, everything from their successes to their failures and how these lessons can make you a better founder.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO at , an online community and content provider for daily fantasy sports. I always enjoy talking with other founders in the industry, especially people like Brandon who take unconventional approaches to building their businesses. Gup's Corner has thrived in a crowded market by truly putting members first and building a strong community of subscribers.  This is no easy task which is why I'm excited to have Brandon on today to share how he and his team have pulled it off.

Today, I'm talking with , the Co-Founder and CEO of , where he and his team are modernizing the barbershop experience. Before we jump into the episode, I've just got a quick plug for a great project I wanted to mention. Last year, Rob Walling and the MicroConf team launched the 1st annual State of Independent SaaS to give our community of more data so we can make better decisions as we grow our company. The first report was eye opening, to say the least. As of yesterday, October 6th, the survey for the 2nd annual State of Independent SaaS is live at and I just finished filling it out myself. It takes less than 10 minutes, it's all anonymized, and your responses will help make this year's report even more valuable. So take a few minutes to head over to and fill out the survey. Now let's jump back into today's episode. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, barbershops across the country were closed practically overnight. But rather than sit on the sidelines, Obi and his team adapted and actually grew their business during this challenging time. In our chat, Obi shares how theCut managed to grow in an industry struggling to stay afloat and how he's navigated the new challenges of managing an ever-expanding team.

Today, I'm talking with , the founder of where he helps startups by matching them with tried & trusted tech teams from Eastern Europe. Offshoring is something a lot of founders in our world turn to because you can get great talent at affordable rates, but it's also caused a ton of horror stories. At SaberSim, our team has all been based in US and Canada, but it's getting more and more expensive to do that so we're looking at all of our options, including offshoring. Being right in the middle of this made it seem like a great time to have Victor on the show. In our chat today, Victor walks through his unique approach to offshoring, how he helps companies avoid the all too common mistakes, and how you can apply the same lessons in your business.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO of , where he and his team help founders, investors, and executives install the habits, systems, and processes necessary to reach the next level in their business. Chris is also one of the world's top online poker players and uses the same frameworks that propelled him to the top of the game to help others achieve world-class performance in their own fields. In our chat, we dig into what those frameworks are and how you can apply them in your business. Chris is one of the most thoughtful and deliberate people I've met and the lessons he shares today are ones you don't want to miss.

Today, I'm talking with , the President and CEO of , a cloud-based bookkeeping, management accounting, and controller service. Having successfully navigated six recessions as an entrepreneur, Stephen knows a company's in trouble before the owner and has developed a framework for managing cash flow through times of chaos. For my company, SaberSim, revenue went to $0 for 4 months and while we've come out of it stronger than before, I cannot tell you how much I wish I had Stephen's framework at the start of this. As founders and CEOs, it's our job to make sure there is enough cash in the bank for the business to stay alive and that's been an incredible challenge with everything going on in the world.  In our chat, Stephen breaks down the 5 steps to take during a crisis—but COVID aside, managing cash flow is never easy and Stephen's advice today applies in times good and bad.

Today, I'm talking with Adam Springer, the founder of StartupSales.io where he helps founders develop the sales processes and strategies to scale beyond $1mm ARR.  Before founding Startup Sales, Adam was the first sales person for 3 companies, taking them each from $0 to more than $5mm ARR. With thousands of books, blog posts, and podcasts out there on sales, it's tough to even know where to begin.  Adam breaks it all down for you today and shares what makes a sales process successful and how to build an effective sales team for your business.

Today, I'm talking with , the CEO at , a curated online retailer that provides a platform for consumers looking to discover the coolest and most innovative fashion, accessories, art, and gadgets from emerging brands and artists across the globe. By building a strong brand and audience, Fancy raised well over $100 million but wasn't able to find enough traction to sustain the sky-high valuation. Greg was brought in to turnaround the company and in the 18+ months since he's been there, they're back on the right track. In , Ben Horowitz talks about the difference between a “peacetime” CEO and a “wartime” CEO. Being a CEO is never easy, but being a CEO when your back is against the wall and you need to turn things around is a special kind of hard. In our chat today, Greg shares how he was able to right the ship, get buyin from the rest of the team, and what the future looks like for Fancy. The way Greg thinks about business and values the people inside is something every founder can learn from.

Today, I'm talking with , the founder of where he helps B2B SaaS companies book more demos & trials. I've shied away from covering tactics on the show because I know there is so much of that out there, but after seeing Marc's approach, I knew I had to have him on because he “gets it.” While we cover the key elements of building a SaaS website optimized for conversions, our conversation goes way beyond that and we discuss how those principles can be applied throughout a business. Whether you want actionable tips on CRO or cold email or you're looking for a deep dive on what makes a sales process work, we've got you covered.

Today, I'm talking with , the Co-founder and CEO at where they empower customer-centric businesses to serve people in the most human, helpful way. After spending two years at Groove, a competitor of Help Scout, I was obviously aware of them and their brand but we were so focused on our own mission that I never dug too deep into their story. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to change that as I prepared for this interview. Help Scout is a fully remote company with more than 100 employees and while they've raised some money, they're profitable and operate as a certified B Corp. B Corps are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. As every founder knows, it's never easy to grow a business and Nick's story is no different. The part of the journey we focus the most on is hiring—what went wrong in the early days and how they got it right.  There is a ton of practical advice in here that any team can act on right away, I know it's changed my thinking about hiring, but the bigger message Nick shares is that when it comes to diversity and inclusion the right thing to do is also the best thing for the business. Especially now, so many companies talk a big game when it comes to diversity and inclusion but few actually back it up. Help Scout is one of those rare exceptions that put their money where their mouth is.

Today, I'm talking with , the CEO at where he and his team help SaaS businesses increase revenue through Revenue Operations, or RevOps. I'll be honest, before preparing for this interview, I wasn't so sure what RevOps actually was. Even as I dug into it, it seemed like something only megacorps needed to care about. After talking with Jason, I've completely changed my mind on this.  While you probably don't need a dedicated RevOps team in the early days of your startup, you do need to be thinking about and acting on the principles driving this movement. In our chat today, Jason gets rid of the jargon to explain what RevOps actually means and how to implement these concepts in an early-stage startup.

Today, I'm talking with , the CEO at , the retail operations platform for retailers, wholesalers, and brands. Brightpearl was in bad shape when Derek took the helm, but since then he's led the retail operations platform from stagnant growth to more than $12 million in revenue, nearly 1,400 customers worldwide, and managing more than $3 billion in orders. In our chat today, we dig into this 2-year transformation and cover everything from how he diagnosed the problems to how he got the buyin to solve them. Successful turnarounds are so hard to pull off and whether you're struggling or thriving Derek's insights will help you build a better, more durable business.

Today, I'm talking with , the CEO and Co-Founder of , a simple yet powerful CRM for small businesses selling B2B. I love talking with CRM founders to dig into how they're standing out in one of the most competitive spaces in SaaS—especially when they haven't gone super niche with their positioning. Jeroen's insights today did not disappoint. In our chat, Jeroen shares how he and his team built a “Customer Value Machine” that fuels Salesflare's rapid growth and how he's navigated the challenges of scaling a company.

Today, I'm talking with , the CEO of which makes modern task and project management software for teams. Before Flow, he was the Head of Design at Square and has worked for brands like Apple, Nike, Disney, and Target. The project management space is one of the most competitive out there and Flow has stood out by taking an opinionated stance on what they will and won't build and avoiding bloat. You want to continue improving your product but you also don't want to fall into the trap of adding feature after feature because it's what customers are asking for. Finding the right balance is crucial to growing your company, but it's also incredibly hard. In our chat today, Daniel shares his approach to product and design and how that helps Flow strike the right balance. As every corner of SaaS gets more and more competitive, your product development process becomes increasingly important not just to thrive but to survive. Regardless of what your process looks like today, this is an episode you don't want to miss.

Today, I'm talking with , the Co-Founder and CEO at , a SaaS startup that helps marketing agencies scale. I first heard Ryan on where he shared that his company was at $25k MRR and growing at more than 30% month-over-month. That was a bit more than 6 months before the time of our chat here today and I wanted to have Ryan on to see what's happened since. In our chat, Ryan shares where this growth came from, how they're maintaining it, and how his own role has evolved along the way. While Cloud Campaign's recent growth has been amazing, this wasn't an overnight success as it took a year of iteration before finding that initial traction. Wherever you are in your journey, I'm sure you'll take something valuable out of this interview.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO at , where he and his team help their customers send targeted emails, push notifications, and SMS to lower churn, create stronger relationships, and drive subscriptions. In our chat, we dive into what it's been like building Customer.io to more than $10M in ARR and a team of more than 50 people over the last 8 years, everything from their successes to their failures and how these lessons can help make you a better founder. What most stood out to me from this interview was not just how thoughtfully and deliberately Colin and his team have built this business, but how realistic they've been along the way.  This wasn't a journey of overnight success, nor did he expect it to be and the way Colin has been able to stay the course and build a successful business is something every founder can learn from.

Today, I'm talking with John Kutcher, the Founder of and most recently where he and his team partner with and acquire small and mid-sized software businesses, providing resources and expertise to accelerate growth and enhance operating performance. John launched DICORP in 1985 and in the years since grew the business organically and through acquisition, eventually leading to an acquisition of his own in 2019. After the sale, John started DICORP Equity Partners and they recently launched a program they're calling which offers immediate funding opportunities for the companies who apply and are accepted. This is a program I think many of you will be interested in and applications for the first round of Win Now end on May 31st, so I wanted to get this episode out ASAP so you have a chance to apply. Beyond the new program, we dive into what was like building DICORP over the last 35 years and how those lessons have shaped the vision for DICORP Equity Partners. I love talking acquisitions, everything from the deal itself to what happens after the close, and John's incredible depth of experience made for a great conversation.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO of , where they make ideo marketing software that makes it easy to find, engage, and grow your audience. I missed last year and was kicking myself after hearing rave reviews about the talks, especially the one Chris gave about taking on $17mm in debt to buy back the shares of Wistia and build the company on his own terms. Luckily, the talk is now on , I'll link to it in the show notes, and after watching it I knew I had to get him on the show. We don't rehash all of those details, because he covers it much better in that talk than we could here, but these are the Cliff's Notes:  They were on the venture track that valued revenue growth above profitability. While their company was scaling quickly, going from 25 people to 50 in one year and then to 80 the next, they didn't like what they saw...  They were losing money (at the peak they were losing $300k/mo) They weren't confident they were growing faster than they would with a smaller team They weren't taking the creative risks they enjoyed They were stressed beyond belief. After getting serious offers to sell the company, they rethought everything and decided to instead fix what was broken and get profitable. Since executing the stock buyback in 2017, they've been able to do just that. I strongly recommend checking out that talk, because that journey is something every founder can learn a lot from. In our chat today, we're going to continue that story by digging into what it means to build a business on your own terms and what that looks like for Wistia in practice.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO of , which offers everything you need to sell online courses, downloads, webinars, and memberships without worrying about the tech. We mention Len Markidan in the show, a mutual friend of ours who was my boss at Groove and is now the CMO of Podia. When he joined the team a couple years ago, I started digging into their story more and after seeing they're incredible trajectory, I knew I had to get Spencer on the show. In our chat, we dive into what it's been like scaling Podia to a team of 20, when to add more process to the business, and how the role as CEO evolves as your team grows. Spencer is a 4-time founder and has been an entrepreneur his entire life. He'd tell you that he hasn't seen it all, but I can say he's seen enough to share some valuable lessons you won't want to miss.

Today, I'm talking with , the CEO and Co-Founder of , a simple CRM built just for small businesses. Tyler also co-hosts , where two founders talk about what it takes to build sustainable software companies.  One of the things I've struggled with as I've grown SaberSim was this guilt about not having more balance in my life and running the business like it's a sprint instead of a marathon. I ultimately want a business that gives me that balance in the long run but right now, it really feels like I need to sprint to get there. Some of that urgency is self-imposed, but I don't think all of it is. This conversation with Tyler helped me come to terms with the fact that a startup needs different things at different points in the business, and that's ok.  If you don't want to sprint forever, make sure you're working towards your ultimate goal, but don't feel bad about sprinting if that's what you have to do to get to the next stage. Tyler has built Less Annoying CRM into a multi-million dollar a year business and has learned a ton along the way. He has strong opinions but knows that they don't apply across the board and doesn't preach as though they do.  This was incredibly refreshing because everybody else, from DHH on one side to Tech Crunch on the other, makes it seem like it's all or nothing. We cover everything from how Tyler is building his dream job at Less Annoying CRM, to how he intentionally works around his weaknesses, to what the future of the company looks like.

Today, I'm talking with , one of the founders of , a SaaS startup that tracks feedback to help you build better products. What Sarah and her team have built at Canny is incredibly impressive. Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but while I have culture (and a dozen other things) in the back of my mind, right now I'm focused on growth even if it means sacrificing in those other areas.. At Canny, they've grown rapidly while maintaining the culture and balance they want as a fully remote and bootstrapped company. To top it all off, Sarah has been able to do this not only as a first time founder, but as a first time manager. In our chat, we dig into how Sarah and her team have done this and how you can apply those lessons in your business.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO of , a SaaS startup helping customers send cold emails that get replies. Guillaume and his team have grown lemlist to more than $1m ARR in less than 2 years and they've done it while remaining bootstrapped and profitable. In our chat, we dive into how he's handled this rapid growth—everything from hiring to building processes to prioritization. What stands out to me about Guillaume's story isn't just the incredible growth, it's how he and his team have managed to scale without everything falling apart.  Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of tough lessons learned along the way, but Guillaume's foresight got them through all of that and today you'll learn how. 

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO at , a self-funded startup that solves the hardest parts of subscription growth. Patrick has been on the show a couple of times before and I'm super excited to have him back on, but the circumstances this time are a bit different. We recorded this interview in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and Patrick shares how he and his team are handling it internally as they go fully remote for the first time, as well as what they're doing to help others with the . I personally can only handle so much COVID content, so don't worry, this conversation is much more than that as we dive into a wide range of topics from Patrick's decision to relocate to Salt Lake City and open an office to building out a media network. If you've heard Patrick before, you know this is an interview you don't want to miss. If you haven't, then don't go anywhere because you're in for a treat.

Today, I'm talking with , a co-founder of , the best remote pair-programming app on macOS, and co-host of . Ben was a developer at thoughtbot but left to start Tuple to fill the gap in the remote pair-programming market after Slack shut down Screenhero. They launched just two years ago and in that time have grown to a place where the 3 co-founders have all replaced their developer salaries and are able to build out their team. They've done all of this while remaining bootstrapped and profitable and their growth is accelerating from here. In our chat, we dig into Ben's evolving role as CEO and focus on two crucial topics: how he developed his enterprise sales skills, landing huge clients like Shopify, and how he's navigating the challenges of hiring. I was introduced to Ben by a previous guest of the show, , and I'm glad he connected us because we had a great conversation that you won't want to miss.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO of where they offer simple, secure domain management. Not only is Anthony and his team doing well into 7-figures a year of revenue, but they're completely bootstrapped, fully remote, and only have 12 employees. Staying lean as a growing remote company is incredibly challenging and in our chat today Anthony walks through what makes DNSimple such an effective company. We cover how they handle management and meetings, where they've used automation to become more efficient, and how they use OKRs to keep everything on track. I can't speak for you, but Anthony and his team have built the sort of company I aspire to build because they strike an amazing balance between growth, profitability, and having a life along the journey. It was great having the opportunity to pick Anthony's brain and I know you'll get a lot out of it, too.

Today, I'm talking with , the founder of —a financial planning SaaS startup. Prior to Summit, Matt founded , a predictive intelligence tool for the whole supply chain. Matt was on the podcast about a year ago when he was first launching Summit, then called SimSaaS, and we talked about alternative financing options for startups. Since then, Matt sold RiskPulse to DHL, joined the first batch, and launched the podcast with Peter Suhm. In our chat today, we talk about the value of forecasting and how to do it right (regardless of the stage of your business) and we also dig into navigating product decisions and how to know if what a customer is asking for is really what they want. Even though Matt and I serve completely different markets, our core products have a lot of similarities so this was a fun chat for me and I think you'll get a lot out of it as well.

Today, I'm talking with Einar Vollset, a General Partner at TinySeed, the first startup accelerator designed for bootstrappers, and the Managing Partner at Discretion Capital, a technology enabled Investment Bank focused on M&A, due diligence and strategic partnership development. We've had this call scheduled for today, Wednesday, March 18th, for a while and planned to talk about TinySeed Fund 2, but obviously a lot has changed recently. We still get into what's to come with the next, larger TinySeed Fund, but Einar is one of the most thoughtful investors I know so I wanted to get his perspective on the Coronavirus pandemic and what founders should be thinking about. My company, SaberSim, has been hit pretty hard by all of this. We serve the daily fantasy sports market and with all major sports leagues suspending operations, we decided to pause all billing for our customers, putting a stop to revenue until play resumes. It sucks, to be honest, but we're fortunate enough to be able to strengthen our cash reserves so we can weather this out without any layoffs and keep building in the meantime.  Many companies won't be as fortunate as we are while others will actually benefit, but every company will feel this in some way. Our chat is realistic and I can't say we painted a rosy picture, but it's not all doom and gloom. Einar draws on his experience to offer a unique perspective on what the Coronavirus pandemic means for your business. You won't want to miss this…

Today, I'm talking with , the founder of , an agency that helps SaaS companies scale with pay-per-click ads. It is so hard to find advice for Facebook ads that actually applies to SaaS companies. It seems like everybody out there is selling a course on “How to Get Rich with Facebook Ads” with scammy tactics that I don't want my brand associated with and aren't going to fly in B2B. Aaron's advice stands out from the crowd not just in terms of strategy but also because of his hands on experience applying it with SaaS companies. In our chat today, Aaron lays out how to evaluate the different PPC channels, what goes into effective ads, and how to put all of it together for your first successful campaign. I even got him to share the exact image his clients have been having huge success with in their ads. This is one you won't want to miss.

Today, I'm talking with David Abrams, the co-founder and CEO of Demio, a webinar platform built for marketers to engage and convert their audiences through live conversations. We get into numbers on the show, but Demio has seen some serious growth recently and their team has dramatically expanded. I'm in the early stages of growing our team at SaberSim and jumped at the opportunity to have David on the show to pick his brain on hiring and handling growth in general. I got a ton out of David's “behind-the-scenes” look at a growing bootstrapped SaaS company and the lessons he shares will help any founder level up.

Today, I'm talking with Chris Ronzio, the Founder and CEO at Trainual, a B2B SaaS startup that makes it easier than ever to onboard, train, and scale knowledge for growth. I first heard about Chris on The SaaS Podcast with Omer Khan and was blown away after hearing that Chris and his team scaled Trainual from zero to $2 million ARR in just 18 months using Facebook ads. The allure of paid advertising is obvious—put a dollar in and get two or more back. If only it was that simple. We know how hard it is because of how many horror stories there are out there about failed attempts. Most of us have moved past the old “Facebook ads are dead” cliche, but what's replaced it isn't much better—”Facebook ads don't work for B2B” or “Facebook ads don't work for my business.” I wanted Chris to come on the show so we could dig into what he did differently to make ads work and how other founders, especially B2B SaaS founders, can do the same. The success Chris and his team had was no mistake and in this episode you'll learn exactly what he did.

In a recent interview on Startups for the Rest of Us (), Rob Walling and I talked about my thoughts on SaaS growth. I shared a lot of specific examples in that episode but I wanted to expand on my growth framework and how those tactics fit in. In this episode, I break down the framework I use to think about growth and share the steps you can take to start implementing it. If you have any questions along the way, I'm happy to help so please don't hesitate to reach out.

Andy shares an end-of-the-year on what's happening with his SaaS startup, SaberSim, which makes .

Today, I'm talking with , the Co-Founder and CEO of , an all-in one app for parents to easily capture and privately share photos of their children, keep track of milestones in an organized and safe space, and print baby albums straight from their phone. There were two important areas I wanted to really dig into in this chat with Eddie: the role values play in Tinybeans and the system that Eddie and his team uses to run their business. We hear the word values thrown around all the time, but it's rare to see a company truly prioritize living up to those values each and every day. Tinybeans is one of those rare companies so it was great to hear how they've done this and why it was so important to them. On the operations side, we talk about how Tinybeans uses as an operating system to keep their business running, and growing, smoothly. Too many entrepreneurs ignore the value of systems to begin with, but even those that “get it” often try to reinvent the wheel. Eddie shares why you don't need to do that with The Great Game of Business. This was a wide-ranging conversation that I know you'll get a lot out of.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO at , the fully remote company behind and . Todoist is the top-ranked productivity app that helps millions of people organize life and Twist is a communication app for teams who want a calmer, more organized, more productive workplace. Doist is a multi-million dollar a year bootstrapped and profitable company with more than 60 full-time employees and despite being able to command huge valuations, Amir has no plans to sell the company. In our chat, we go behind the scenes of launching, growing, and maintaining Twist when they already had a successful product in Todoist, but where we really dive in is how Amir has balanced profitability and growth along this more than a decade-long journey. I'm not even close to the heights Doist has reached, but this balance is still something I think a lot about.  While we all have different goals with our businesses, even with deep savings and a supportive partner, almost all of us need to have the business financially sustain us at some point and that means taking money out of the business—but every dollar we take out is one less dollar we can use to grow. There's no right answer to this question, but hearing Amir's philosophy had a real impact on my approach and I think you'll get a lot out of it to.

Today, I'm talking with , the Co-Founder and CEO of , a leadership development company built on principles of psychology and management best practices. Leaders aren't born, they're bred.  Sure, some people may naturally be more inclined to exhibit leadership skills, but nobody becomes a great leader without real work. A certain amount of that needs to come from hands-on experience, but anybody learning exclusively through their own experience is make the journey harder than it needs to be. This is where coaching can be invaluable--it's never an easy journey, but with the right coach you'll be able to make faster progress and go further than you could on your own. Unfortunately, finding the right coach is anything but easy. Cameron and his team at Torch hope to change that by not only using technology to find you a coach, but also to bring accountability to the process and make sure you're heading in the right direction. In our chat, we dive into what it takes to get the most out of coaching and we go behind the scenes to talk about the challenges of rapidly scaling the company to more than $12 million in funding and dozens of employees over the last 2 years.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO of , a podcast PR and production agency that helps brands like Freshbooks, HubSpot, and Four Sigmatic grow through podcasting. Erik and I first crossed paths a couple years ago when he was starting Be My Guest and had somebody he thought would be a good fit for my show. His email stood out to me because it was truly personalized; not just putting in my name and the name of my show, but making it clear he had done his research on me. There are tons of podcast booking agencies and I'd be surprised if any of the others out there spent more than a minute or two personalizing their emails, let alone actually seeing if their client is a good fit. It's so frustrating getting these emails when it's clear the sender has no idea what the show is about or when I get dozens of cold emails a week from some SDR who has no idea what my business is about. Erik's preparation and attention to detail made him stand out to me and is why I've continued having clients of Be My Guest on the show over the years. What has been most impressive to me though is how Erik has been able to build a team that places the same amount of value on doing the job right. I've personally tried to hire people to do similar roles and know just how hard this is to get right so I'm excited to have Erik on the show to learn how he did it. In our chat, we dive into what it's been like building Be My Guest while maintaining the quality of the service, everything from his successes to his failures and how these lessons can help make you a better founder. This episode is about much more than podcasting and cold email--it's about how to build a high quality team, so you don't want to miss this.

Today, I'm talking with Dan Martell, a 5x founder with 3 exits and currently a coach to high-performing SaaS founders, through The SaaS Academy. Dan knows what it's like growing a SaaS company and how hard it can be to answer all the questions that I'm trying to address with this podcast. Questions like… Who should I be hiring next quarter? How do I build a productive sales process? What types of things should I be looking for from a CTO? How should I be leading my team? Over time, he found the right mentors, books, and advice to build up a bank of knowledge that he's refined through years of experience in the trenches. Now he shares that knowledge with his students in the SaaS Academy. In our chat, we talk about Dan's framework for building a SaaS business, what the biggest levers are for fast growth, and where founders often get tripped up. This is a wide-ranging, high-energy chat that you don't want to miss.

Today, I'm talking with , Co-Founder and General Partner at , a year-long, remote accelerator designed for early-stage SaaS founders. Rob is also the Co-Host of , Co-Founder of , and Co-Founder of , which he successfully exited, along with a long list of other businesses and projects over the years. Rob has been on the show a few times before and this time around I wanted to dig into a new project he's working on to give non-venture track founders more data to help them make better decisions as they grow their company. The project is called and to put it together, hundreds of revenue generating SaaS companies were surveyed and the result will be an epic report filled with benchmarks, growth rates, demographics, validation approaches, and more. When Rob was last on the show back in episode 6, he had just opened the doors for TinySeed's first batch of founders and I also wanted to follow-up and see how things went. After receiving hundreds of high quality applications, the TinySeed team narrowed it down to 10 lucky founders and today we'll hear what Rob and his team have learned and what is in store for the second batch, which will be accepting applications on November 1st. Most of my listeners are very familiar with Rob and have probably already skipped over this intro to get right to the good stuff, but if you're still listening, stop and dive in. This is an interview you don't want to miss.

Today, I'm talking with Tim Campos, the founder and CEO of Woven, a startup making powerful scheduling tools built into a smart, collaborative calendar. Prior to Woven, Tim was the Chief Information Officer at Facebook for more than 6 years where he was responsible for the productivity of the entire workforce. That workforce was over 17,000 in his last year on the job and in his tenure he doubled the revenue per employee from $900,000 to $1.8 million. Those are insane numbers and it was great digging into them on the show. In our chat, we talk about how he approached productivity in such a large organization, where the biggest gains came from, and how to apply those lessons to smaller teams. Tim is an insightful entrepreneur with a ton of experience in teams of all sizes, and this is an interview you don't want to miss.

Today, I'm talking with Nigel Eccles, the Co-Founder and CEO of FanDuel and now Flick, an app that helps podcasters build a community of loyal, invested listeners. Two weeks ago, I had Albert Chen, author of , on the show to walk us through the crazy story of the daily fantasy sports market. That interview lays out the backstory in much more detail, but here are some key points: Hubdub launched in 2007 as a news prediction game In 2009, the team pivoted to the daily fantasy sports space and rebranded as FanDuel DraftKings entered the market in 2012 In total, DraftKings raised $776 million while FanDuel raised $363 million In 2015, the two companies spent a combined $750 million on marketing DraftKings was the largest advertiser in the country one month, beating Johnson and Johnson as well as Geico The next month, FanDuel was the largest advertiser FanDuel eventually sold to Paddy Power Betfair in a deal worth $465 million The founders and early employees got nothing in the deal Last week, I had Lesley Eccles, another co-founder of FanDuel, on the show to go behind the scenes on this journey. She was in charge of marketing and scaled their spend from $0 to over $300 million dollars a year. This week, Nigel rounds out the story with his perspective as the CEO and the impact his journey is having on his new company, Flick. In our chat, we talk about Nigel's customer-focused approach to business, how he navigated pivots at both FanDuel and Flick, how he's approaching fundraising the second time around, and much, much more. As I said in the other interviews, even if you have no interest in sports, gambling, or venture backed startups, there are a ton of lessons in these talks that will apply to any founder. And it's just a great story :)

Today, we're continuing the dive into the world of daily fantasy sports by interviewing Lesley Eccles, co-founder of FanDuel and currently the Co-Founder and CEO of Relish. Last week I had Albert Chen, author of , on the show to walk us through the crazy story of the daily fantasy sports market but today we're going to go behind the scenes. Lesley Eccles was a co-founder of FanDuel and in charge of marketing, including scaling their spend from $0 to over $300 million annually. She built FanDuel from a concept to a household brand name with 80%+ brand awareness in the target demographic in 6 years, growing the user base to 3 million active paying players. She also hand built a high-performing marketing team of approximately 50 people in offices around the world. Albert's interview lays out the backstory in much more detail, but here are some key points: Hubdub launched in 2007 as a news prediction game In 2009, the team pivoted to the daily fantasy sports space and rebranded as FanDuel DraftKings entered the market in 2012 In total, DraftKings raised $776 million while FanDuel raised $363 million In 2015, the two companies spent a combined $750 million on marketing and advertising DraftKings was the largest advertiser in the country, beating Johnson and Johnson as well as Geico The next month, FanDuel was the largest advertiser FanDuel eventually sold to Paddy Power Betfair in a deal worth $465 million The founders and early employees got nothing in the deal Since leaving FanDuel, Lesley has started Relish, which is now the #1 relationship training app. In our chat, we cover how Lesley navigated seemingly insurmountable challenges, from FBI investigations to insane ad wars, what she learned from the experience, and how she's using those lessons in her new venture.

Today, I'm talking with Albert Chen, a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and the author of . Albert isn't a founder and frankly, the story of two companies that raised a combined $1.1 billion dollars probably isn't that applicable to your business, at least not directly. That being said, it's an incredible story and as a former professional poker player who now operates a SaaS company in the daily fantasy sports space, I thought this would be a great opportunity to share a bit more of that world with you.  In our chat, we walk through the major events leading up to an advertising war where both companies spent a combined $750 million dollars in a single year, dig into the cautionary tale of FanDuel's acquisition where the founders got nothing, and talk about what's to come as the US opens the way for legal sports betting. Whether you have an ounce of interest in sports or not, you're going to enjoy this conversation. So without further adieu, here's Albert Chen, the author of Billion Dollar Fantasy!

Today, I'm talking with , the founder of , a Chrome extension that gives your Gmail account email marketing capabilities. Ajay grew his first business, JangoMail, for 10 years before selling it to a private equity firm. This time around, he is still looking for an exit, but also wants to leave an impact on the software and digital marketing when all is said and done. And 3 years in he is well on his way with a 7-figure ARR and 10s of 1000s of users. In our chat, we dive into what it's been like building GMass to this point without hiring any W2 employees, why he has taken this approach, and how his strategy will evolve going forward.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO of , a SaaS that helps their 3,000+ customers develop relationships by building beautiful, personalized, and interactive developer hubs. They also recently announced that they raised a Series A round of financing, lead by Accel. In our chat, we focus on two key areas of any business: productivity and culture. When it comes to productivity, there is an obsession to getting more and more done and it's why you can find thousands of “ultimate productivity hacks” out there. Greg values productivity, but has taken a unique “No Guilt” policy towards it which has had unexpected results. On the culture front, we break down what “culture” actually means, why it's so important to the success of a startup, and how to maintain it as your company grows. This was a wide ranging conversation and I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it. So without further adieu, here's Greg Koberger of ReadMe!

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO of , email marketing software designed to help creators connect with their audience. I first came across Nathan years ago when I stumbled upon his book, Authority, and I've been following his story since.  He launched ConvertKit in early 2013 as a challenge to build a web app from 0 to $5k MRR in 6 months and diversify away from his less stable income from his self-published books. 6 months later and ConvertKit was at $2k MRR so Nathan shifted his focus back to his other products. A year later, Nathan had a conversation with who told him he should either shut down the app or double down on it, but not to continue in the middle like he had been. While it wasn't an easy decision, Nathan doubled down on ConvertKit, putting $50,000 of his own savings into it and giving it a full-time effort. Since then, ConvertKit has grown significantly. At the time this was published, in early September 2019, ConvertKit had $1.5 million in monthly recurring revenue, giving it an ARR of over $18 million. And the company is bootstrapped and profitable. Very profitable. While the business is insanely valuable, Nathan doesn't have plans to sell and is truly enjoying the ride along the way. This is an easier decision to make when you remove a few couple zeros from the ARR, but when your business is worth over $100 million dollars, I don't think many of us would have the same conviction. For Nathan, that conviction comes from building a business where he truly loves what he's doing, the people he is doing it with, and the people he is doing it for. Building a business like that is no easy task, which is a massive understatement, but in our chat we peel back the layers and really get into how he made this work. This is not a tale of overnight success. It's a story of building the business of your dreams and overcoming the obstacles along the way that are constantly trying to pull you off course. Whatever your goals are as an entrepreneur, Nathan is somebody we can all learn from, and I know you'll get a lot out of this interview.

Today, I'm talking with , the Founder and CEO of , where he and his team are working to create social, professional and economic infrastructure for individuals and teams who work remotely. The last job I had that wasn't remote was when I worked at Best Buy in high school (and that was a long time ago) so I've had a lot of experience working remotely but that doesn't mean I've figured it all out by any means. I'm still trying to figure out the best way for me to maintain productivity and sanity, and it's tough. Now that I manage a remote team, I not only have to figure out what works for me, but I also have to help support the rest of the team and I still have a ton to learn there. Darren has thought about remote work more than just about anybody, and he has lived it himself as an employee and boss, so I was excited to have him on to pick his brain and see how we all can improve. In our chat, we dive into being an effective leader of a remote team, everything from how to support your team to the ins and outs of management. The future is remote, but we have to make sure we approach it the right way and Darren's talk today will help us all do that.