Navigating Strategic Decisions in Tech Startups

In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling catches up with Colleen Schnettler, co-founder of Hammerstone, about the progress her team has made since their initial check-in. 

Colleen describes the tough decision to focus on one product stack, and their recent pivot toward building a reporting MVP. They also discuss Colleen’s shift into a more managerial role.

Topics we cover: 

• (2:10) – Motivations behind building additional functionality
• (7:07) – Repositioning the reporting dashboard
• (10:08) – Focusing in on the successful part of the product
• (14:30) – How shifting focus affects the team dynamic
• (16:19) – ”Hiring is horrible”
• (22:20) – What has management been like?
• (26:11) – Growing as a manager

Links from the Show: 

• Invest with TinySeed
• Colleen Schnettler (@leenyburger) | X
• Colleen Schnettler (@leenyburger.bsky.social) | Bluesky
• Refine by Hammerstone
• Hello Query
• Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell 
• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, Tahl Raz

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

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