A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

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Mar 25, 2024 • 39min

Alex sold couches online before IKEA did. He grew to $40M in revenue and exited for millions. | Alex Back, Co-Founder of Apt2B

Alex started Apt2B in 2010. He sold couches online before IKEA did. It took him over 3 years to make as much money as he used to as a furniture salesperson. But it paid off. After growing the business to $6M in revenue, he sold the company.Post-acquisition he grew the company to $40M in sales. In this episode, we dive deep into what Alex did to get started, how he closed his first few customers and what he did to grow to $1M in revenue.From landing a Super Bowl ad to selling couches at Costco, this episode is full of sales and marketing anecdotes you can steal. You don't want to miss it.Following the sale, Alex is now back at it as the founder and CEO of couch.com, a platform to help people find great furniture.Send me a message to let me know what you think!
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Mar 18, 2024 • 13min

My Last Startup Failed With 30 Employees… It Might've Worked if we'd Kept it to 5.

Exploring the differences between pre and post-product market fit, focusing on the value of simplicity and clarity. Case studies of Fullscript and Shopify highlight the journey towards finding true product market fit through experimentation and feedback.
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16 snips
Mar 11, 2024 • 41min

For 5 years he struggled to get traction. Then with AI he grew 12x— in 1 year | Scott Stevenson, co-founder of Spellbook

Scott Stevenson shares the journey of Spellbook, a legal tech platform, from struggling for 5 years to rapid AI-driven growth. He discusses running experiments, testing product-market fit, and leveraging AI to grow 12x in one year.
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Mar 4, 2024 • 38min

Every VC Rejected Him. So He Bootstrapped From $0 to $10M in 3 years | Kyle Braatz, founder of Fullscript

Kyle Braatz is the founder of Fullscript, a $900M revenue company that started by helping health practitioners recommend supplements to their patients. It's like the Shopify for doctors, nurses and nutritionistsEven though he captured 50% of the Canadian market in one year, early-stage VCs didn't see the opportunity. So he bootstrapped his way to success. He cracked open the US market and quickly scaled from $0 in 2012 to $25M in revenue by 2016.Today, Fullscript has grown to a profitable company that makes it easy for health practitioners to prescribe and manage treatment plans for whole person health, through their market-leading tech platform.If you're struggling to raise but know you have a huge opportunity ahead of you, you won't want to miss this episode.Send me a message to let me know what you think!
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Feb 26, 2024 • 46min

How Shopify Found Product Market Fit w/ Aydin Senkut (Managing Partner at Felicis & Series A Investor in Shopify)

Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner at Felicis. He invested in Shopify's Series A in 2010 at a $25M valuation. He joins us to tell the story of how Shopify found product market fit.Shopify is now a $100B company. But as Founder & CEO Tobi Lutke said, in the early days, his goal was "to build a 20-person company". Shopify is not a story of explosive, 10x growth and massive funding rounds. Shopify is a story of consistent growth. Of doubling year after year, from 0 to over $7B in revenue and a $100B valuation.If your goal is to build a generational company,  you won't want to miss this episode.Send me a message to let me know what you think!
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Feb 20, 2024 • 28min

How to Raise a Round in 2024 w/ Lee Silverstone (3x Founder)

Learn how to navigate the challenging fundraising landscape in 2024 with tips and tricks from successful founders. Discover the impact of market conditions, the power of creating a strong narrative, and leveraging relationships for successful introductions to investors. Explore strategies for securing investment, power dynamics in fundraising, and the role of transparency and storytelling in fundraising success.
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Feb 12, 2024 • 22min

How Shopify & DollarShaveClub got more views than the Super Bowl for under $10K

The Super Bowl is the best place to get in front of customers—if you have $10M to spend. Which means for virtually all startups, it’s 100% useless. So I decided to look into some of the best campaigns early-stage startups used to drive millions of leads. Shopify used a $100K Build A Business Competition in 2010  when it was a bootstrapped business. The campaign drove 1350 new businesses and was paid back in under a month.https://shawngraham.me/blog/shopifys-kickass-build-a-business-contestDollarShaveClub launched with a YouTube video about its $1/mo razors. The video was everything a GIlette ad was not. The company was ultimately acquired for $1B.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI&t=1sPurple had the famous Raw Egg Goldilocks video that compared its mattress to others by seeing which one broke raw eggs. For less than $10K it got 200M views, more than the Super Bowl itself.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BvwpjaGZCQSend me a message to let me know what you think!
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Feb 5, 2024 • 48min

He Almost Went Bankrupt TWICE...Then exited for $30M. w/ Canvaspop CEO Nazim Ahmed

This isn’t a unicorn fairytale. It’s a story about what it really takes to build a company and get to an exit.Nazim takes us through how he nearly went bankrupt, took years to turn things around, and ultimately sold his business for $30M all cash. Send me a message to let me know what you think!
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Jan 29, 2024 • 37min

How a Viral Ad drove Millions in Revenue and $55M In Funding w/ Walnut CEO Yoav Vilner

4K likes, 365 re-shares and over 1M views, without any marketing spend.  For an ad promoting your product, that sounds too good to be true-- and yet that's exactly what Yoav did.  He leveraged it to get tons of press, more customers than he could manage, and raise a $15M Series A in under a year after incorporating. Here's the story of how Yoav got started with Walnut and how he ultimately found product-market fit. Yoav goes deep on tactics you can use to drive inbound traffic, generate leads and fundraise.Viral video: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yoav-vilner_weareprospects-weareprospects-activity-6960959679111778304-nOrW?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_iosViral video 2: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yoav-vilner_weareprospects-weareprospects-activity-7006660780150427648-P4vD?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_iosSend me a message to let me know what you think!
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Jan 22, 2024 • 19min

Why you shouldn't chase unicorns; 3 Big VC Myths; and how to keep control of your startup

$1B startups get all the hype. But for 99% of founders, it’s the wrong goal. You’re better off building a sustainable business with consistent growth. Raising big rounds won’t make your company big and staying lean won’t make your company small.  That's just VC Myth 1. Raising round after round does not equal success. That's just VC Myth 2.Just because you raise more money, doesn’t mean you make more money. That's just VC Myth 3.Send me a message to let me know what you think!

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