Practical Founders Podcast

Chris Savage, co-founder of Wistia, shares insights on bootstrapping Wistia to profitability, turning down acquisition offers, and aligning the team for long-term growth. They discuss the evolution of Wistia's video marketing platform, balancing profitability and growth, and embracing a remote-first approach for small to medium-sized businesses.

Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz, shares the struggles of VC funding and the shift towards practical funding for his new venture. Discussions on the challenges of big VC funding, work ethic in startups, angel investing, and navigating growth hurdles in the SEO industry. Emphasis on the harsh realities of VC funding, organic audience building, and modern marketing strategies.

Nathan Hirsch, co-founder of FreeUp, shares his journey of building and selling the company, highlighting niche targeting, software-people combo in operations, and organic marketing strategies. FreeUp grew to $12 million in revenue before being acquired. The podcast delves into the challenges and successes of scaling a tech-enabled marketplace, strategies for rapid business growth, and operational excellence in Amazon seller business.

Ian Brodie, the co-founder and CEO of Levanta, shares his journey of building a successful SaaS company in the affiliate marketing space. Levanta is an affiliate marketing platform for Amazon sellers, enabling them to connect with content creators, publishers, and influencers to drive sales and traffic to their Amazon storefronts. The company has experienced rapid growth, with over 700 brands and 3,000 affiliates on the platform. Ian discusses the challenges and opportunities of the affiliate marketing industry, working with Amazon, and the importance of building credibility and confidence as a young founder. He also discusses his experience of successful selling his previous company, Grovia, an affiliate partner recruiting services company that was acquired by Acceleration Partners in 2022. Learn more at practicalfounders.com. 

Gregg Scoresby founded CampusLogic in Phoenix in 2021 to provide software for colleges and universities in the US to make it easier for students to apply for college loans and grants online. Initially self-funded, CampusLogic raised investment and grew faster, becoming a leading provider of software to universities with $50 million in revenue. In 2022, CampusLogic was acquired by Ellucian for an undisclosed amount.  In 2023, Gregg launched PHX Ventures, a $27 million seed-funded supporting early-stage B2B SaaS founders in Phoenix, Arizona. Unlike the traditional VC approach, PHX Ventures supports startups that are growing fast with a capital-efficient approach. PHX Ventures also helps the larger software community in Phoenix with educational events and networks to connect founders, talent, experts, and capital. In this expert episode, Gregg answers common questions about when practical venture funding can be useful for founders and what it means to be capital efficient.  Learn more at practicalfounders.com. 

Esben Friis-Jensen, founder of Userflow, sold his profitable SaaS company with $4 million ARR to Beamer for $60 million. Insights include benefits of a buyout deal, efficient communication, AI assistant integration, and lessons for bootstrapped founders in the SaaS industry.

Antony Ceravolo shares his journey as a successful two-time founder, from Lovefilm.com to founding Sine. He discusses the benefits of bootstrapping over VC funding and the challenges of working with institutional investors. The podcast dives into pricing strategies, international expansion, company growth, and the acquisition by Honeywell. With insights on strategic investments, post-exit reflections, and evolving business value.

Raj Khera, experienced practical SaaS founder, explains the basics of SEO for SaaS founders, tactics for identifying search terms, gaining authority from Google, and useful search engine marketing tools. He also discusses calculating ROI with SEO investment and the importance of SEO for startups and founders.

Justin Hewett started in the software business as a territory sales manager for an education software company in Utah. The company grew and Justin eventually led the sales team as the senior executive. When the company was acquired by PE investors, Justin moved on in 2020 and thought about ideas for a new software business to serve K-12 schools in the US.  Flashlight Learning helps K-12 teachers in the US to quickly assess the speaking and writing progress of multilingual students who are learning English. The software captures data for teachers to provide students with improved feedback to accelerate language development. Flashlight Learning grew 300% in 2023 to $4 million in revenue, with a growing team and an outsourced development partner. Justin raised some angel funding to get started and move fast, but they are expecting to be profitable this year with continued growth. Learn more at practicalfounders.com.

Morgan Katz is the founder and CEO of Ticketnology. Morgan was an enthusiastic athlete with a degree in sports management who started her career in ticket sales for sports teams and front-line venue management. Morgan saw how companies with season tickets had difficulty managing their digital tickets after COVID, so she started her own company to solve it with a software solution.  Ticketnology is a fast-growing leader in the new category of season ticket management software. Started with a mix of hands-on concierge services and a software solution, Ticketnology is now a complete platform that helps season ticket holders manage and distribute tickets to maximize the value of their season ticket investment.  Ticketnology is a bootstrapped and profitable software company with just over $2 million in revenue, four full-time employees, and an outsourced development team. They doubled revenues this year and expect to double each year for the next few years. Morgan is a member of a Practical Founders Peer Group.  Learn more at practicalfounders.com.