#16: Growing from scrappy startup founder to scaling-up SaaS CEO - Brad Redding

Oct 7, 2022

Brad Redding, previous startup founder and successful CEO of a scaling SaaS company, talks about his experience with his first startup and the important lessons he learned. He then discusses the challenges of finding product-market fit and growing a profitable SaaS business. Brad emphasizes the value of investing in himself and his leaders for personal and professional growth. He also shares insights on the importance of data tracking, customer validation, and building a global team. Overall, the podcast highlights Brad's journey from a scrappy startup founder to a scaling-up SaaS CEO.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Product Market Fit, Evolving with the Market, and Maximizing ROI

02:08 • 2min

The Importance of Data Tracking and Customer Validation in Optimizing Conversion Rates

03:49 • 2min

Building Realistic Expectations and Making Sacrifices

05:40 • 16min

Finding the North Star Metric

22:07 • 5min

Reflecting on Growth and Learning from Failure

26:39 • 10min

Building a Global Team and the Challenges of Hiring

37:06 • 11min

Growing from scrappy startup founder to scaling-up SaaS CEO and sharing insights on the Practical Founders Podcast

48:07 • 2min

Brad Redding calls his first startup a "successful failure." It didn't end well, but he learned several very important lessons that helped him be more successful with his second startup, Elevar. Now the bootstrapped SaaS company is growing steadily with 45 remote employees. And Brad is learning fast to be a capable CEO of a larger SaaS software company.

Brad's deep experience with e-commerce advertising data and conversation tracking analytics helped him find a problem to solve. He and his cofounder funded the development of the first product by providing consulting services to the same customers they were trying to serve with their new software product.

It took three years before they found product-market fit and started to grow steadily and profitably. Now Elevar is a growing SaaS business that helps 6,500 e-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands that use Shopify to ensure the accuracy of their conversion tracking data and analytics. Brad has never raised outside funding and he has no intention of raising money or selling the company.

"I am certainly evolving as a leader through reading. Leaders are readers. And through coaching and through surrounding myself with other leaders who have grown companies to the size we are growing into.

"The way I look at is that no longer can I just assume that I'm going to figure it out on my own. I need to invest in myself, invest in my leaders, invest in my brain and my habits, and improve everything. Not necessarily all at once, but over time.

"It's all about the team. You build the people and bring in the right team and the team is going to build the business and that business is going to evolve. If you just stay in the game long enough and have the right team and the right people leading, you'll follow the customers and solve their problems."

In this episode, Brad explains:

The painful lessons of his first startup that he was able to apply and do differently with Elevar, his second startup
Why he bootstrapped Elevar instead of raising VC funding
Why he doesn't think of products and services as two different things when solving customers' problems
How he is intentionally investing in self-development to learn to be the CEO he needs to be to continue to grow the company
Why it took three years to find product-market fit despite being a domain expert in his industry

Learn more at practicalfounders.com.