#153: Bootstrapper Killed His First Company to Scale Up Bigger - Chris Brisson

10 snips

Jul 18, 2025

Chris Brisson, CEO and co-founder of Salesmsg, shares his transformative journey from shutting down his first company to launching a successful SMS platform. He emphasizes the shift from one-way to conversational texting, enhancing customer engagement. Chris discusses the importance of reinvesting profits for growth without outside funding, navigating business transitions, and driving innovation. He delves into sustainable strategies for thriving in the SaaS industry, highlighting the benefits of SMS communication and strong partnerships, all while maintaining control and fostering a robust team dynamic.

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ANECDOTE

Pivot From Audio Tool to SalesMessage

Chris Brisson pivoted from an unwanted audio conferencing product to launch SalesMessage after pre-selling it via a webinar.
This pre-sale generated early revenue and validated market interest before full development began.

ANECDOTE

Lesson From Selling First Company

Chris was advised that withdrawing all profits from his first company stunted its growth.
This lesson inspired him to reinvest fully in SalesMessage and bootstrap without profit withdrawal.

INSIGHT

Technical Limits Kill Innovation

Building a software product is frustrating when you can't build features customers are willing to pay for.
Technical limitations in your platform can stall growth and kill innovation.

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Chris Brisson is the CEO and co-founder of Salesmsg, a conversational two-way texting platform that enables businesses to engage with their customers through opt-in SMS. When his first software company stalled, he shut it down and developed the Salesmsg product for a different SMS use case that served his previous customers.

Salesmsg now provides secure SMS texting across all departments in the company, integrated directly with Hubspot CRM. It includes voice calling, sophisticated SMS automation, opt-in management, analytics, and deep CRM integration.

Salesmsg has grown rapidly, exceeding $10 million in revenue with 65 employees, leveraging its deep integration with HubSpot and promoting through agency and affiliate partners. The company is independent and has no outside investors.

Quote from Chris Brisson, the CEO and founder of Salesmsg

“In 2015, I wrote this post to our email list of 36,000 called The Death of Call Loop. I shared the story of how I created a business I secretly despised. We were shackled and couldn't innovate. I wanted to create a better company and reinvent the business from the ground up. My second chance startup became Salesmsg.

“When you start a company and it stalls, at what point do you say It's not the horse to ride? I've been there. At what point do you say, Enough is enough? Because you're only going to get older.

“I've always gone after solving problems, but some problems were worthy of the adventure, others not so much. Make sure you're choosing the right opportunity because it will take seven years of your life. And you can pivot along the way, but man, you want to find out early if it's worthy of the adventure.”

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