MBA2153 Extended Interview: Laura Roeder – Lessons Learned From Growing & Selling Her Business and Starting Again
Oct 10, 2022
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Laura Roeder, an entrepreneur who founded the successful social media scheduling app MeetEdgar, shares her journey of launching and selling her business before starting a coaching platform, Paperbell. She discusses valuable lessons learned, such as the pitfalls of chasing the wrong metrics and the importance of trusting your instincts. The conversation touches on navigating the coaching industry's landscape, ethical marketing practices, and the impact of personal insights on business decisions, offering a candid look into the entrepreneurial world.
Laura Roeder's early exposure to entrepreneurship shaped her belief in the accessibility and fulfillment of starting a business on her own terms.
Challenges faced while scaling MeetEdgar highlighted the importance of team efficiency, influencing Roeder's more streamlined approach with her new venture, Paperbell.
Through her commitment to ethical marketing practices and community engagement, Laura emphasizes building trust and authenticity as essential for sustainable business success.
Deep dives
Laura Roter's Entrepreneurial Journey
Laura Roter emphasizes the significance of her entrepreneurial upbringing, being influenced by her father, a self-employed architect. Her early exposure to entrepreneurship shaped her understanding of business as a viable and accessible path. By starting her career as a freelance graphic designer at 23, she quickly recognized that working for herself was not only possible but also fulfilling. Influential books like 'The Four Hour Workweek' instilled confidence in her decision to pursue her own business ventures, making her aware of the flexibility and freedom entrepreneurship can provide.
Building MeetEdgar and Navigating Challenges
While building MeetEdgar, Laura Roter encountered a myriad of challenges related to team management and the dynamics of running a startup. Initially aspiring to follow the traditional paths of established businesses, she hired full-time employees instead of freelancers, ultimately leading to inefficiencies and a bloated team structure. Learning that not every full-time role was necessary prompted her to reevaluate team requirements for efficiency and productivity. This experience later influenced her approach to Paperbell, helping her create a more streamlined and focused operation.
Transition to Paperbell and Embracing New Opportunities
The transition from MeetEdgar to Paperbell signified Laura's strategic pivot towards a more promising and growing industry: online coaching. Recognizing the constraints imposed by social media platforms, she aimed to build a product with minimal dependency on external technologies. As coaching continues to gain traction, Laura’s commitment to creating a simple yet effective tool for coaches manifests her understanding of niche markets. This fresh focus has allowed her to leverage her entrepreneurial experience while adapting to the needs of a burgeoning clientele.
Empowerment and Principles in Business
Laura Roter places considerable importance on ethical marketing practices and empowerment through transparency in business. She advocates for a straightforward approach that prioritizes honesty, stating that all promotional claims should be truthful to maintain integrity. Navigating the often murky waters of marketing can be challenging, but she believes that leveraging genuine scarcity and authenticity leads to sustainable success. By setting clear and honest expectations, businesses can foster trust with their customer base and create a lasting relationship.
Public Speaking and Community Engagement
Laura's experience in public speaking has allowed her to connect with wider audiences, sharing her knowledge and journey in entrepreneurship. While she excels in this area, she prioritizes maintaining a healthy balance between her personal and professional life, opting to limit travel for engagements due to family obligations. This commitment to a more focused lifestyle reflects her understanding of the importance of mental health and well-being in sustaining long-term business success. By focusing on meaningful community engagement rather than frequent travel, Laura fosters deeper connections with her audience, reinforcing her role as an influential figure in entrepreneurship.
If you had to start your business all over again, what would you do differently?
Some entrepreneurs actually get to answer that question.
Take Laura Roeder, who created the social-media scheduling app MeetEdgar, built it into a top marketing tool, and ultimately sold it. Now that she’s out of the social game, Laura has turned her focus to a new business, the coaching platform Paperbell.
How well have the lessons Laura learned at MeetEdgar transferred to Paperbell?
Today, Omar sits down with Laura for an extended conversation about the entire journey, from creating her first business to growing her current one. In this wide-ranging interview, Omar and Laura discuss everything from applying hindsight, to ethical marketing, to trusting your own instincts and defining success in your own way.
Laura’s road to multiple successful startups wasn’t mistake-free. Of particular value in this conversation are the lessons learned the hard way, like chasing the wrong metrics and allowing your business to depend on someone else’s.
Get an inside perspective on navigating entrepreneurship, with the clarity only experience can bring. Click play at the top of this page!