Episode 631 | Re-writing Your Codebase, Stair Stepping, and Difficult Founder Decisions
Oct 18, 2022
Explore the tricky decision of whether rewriting your codebase could boost your company's valuation. Dive into the complexities of founder salaries versus reinvesting in growth. Discover the stair step approach to course creation and the clever idea of selling a Zapier-like connection as a minimum viable product. Finally, learn the nuances between a founder mindset and a developer mindset, and how balancing these perspectives is crucial for startup success.
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insights INSIGHT
Tech Stack Rarely Drives Exit Multiples
Exit multiples rarely depend on your tech stack if you use a standard stack everyone understands.
Rewriting purely to look 'more corporate' risks wasting time and damaging the business.
question_answer ANECDOTE
HitTail Rewritten From Classic ASP To Rails
Rob recounts acquiring HitTail which was written in classic ASP, a deprecated stack that made hiring hard.
He rewrote it in Ruby on Rails to reduce risk and improve future saleability.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Balance Salary With Reinvestment
Pay yourself enough to live comfortably but reinvest surplus to accelerate growth and increase long-term value.
Treat company dollars as potential future net worth through ARR growth and exit multiples.
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In episode 631, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers listener questions on topics ranging from when to rewrite your codebase to founder salaries and balancing your founder vs. developer mindset.
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Topics we cover:
2:32 - Is there any validity that rewriting our code and changing our tech stack will get us to a higher multiple at a future exit?
8:08 - Founder salaries
12:16 - Using the stair step approach to create a course
15:20 - Can you sell a Zapier-type connection between several products as an early MVP for your target market?
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.
Startups For the Rest of Us