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Practical Founders Podcast

#137: Her Amazing Story of 0-$30M ARR with No Outside Funding - Rebecca Shostak

Mar 28, 2025
In this insightful conversation, Rebecca Shostak, co-founder and chief brand officer of Flodesk, shares her impressive journey of growing the email marketing platform to over $30M in annual recurring revenue—completely bootstrapped. She delves into vital topics like product design, the innovative unlimited pricing model, and maintaining profitability without outside funding. Rebecca also highlights the significance of understanding challenges before hiring and discusses how AI is enhancing their services. Prepare for an inspiring tale of entrepreneurship and creative problem-solving!
01:04:57

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Flodesk achieved remarkable growth by focusing on beautiful and user-friendly email marketing tools tailored specifically for small businesses.
  • The company's unique flat pricing model fosters customer loyalty by avoiding tiered costs, which often burden growing businesses.

Deep dives

Explosive Growth with No Funding

Flowdesk has achieved remarkable success in the email marketing space, generating nearly $30 million in annual recurring revenue with around 100,000 paying customers in just six years. The co-founder, Rebecca Shustak, attributes this success to the company's focus on creating beautiful and straightforward email marketing solutions tailored for small businesses. Remarkably, Flowdesk has maintained profitability since shortly after its launch, largely due to its effective product design and a viral marketing strategy driven by satisfied users. This bootstrapped growth showcases the team's ability to identify and address a significant gap in the market without relying on external funding.

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