What's the first thing you need to do when starting a business? (A lot of entrepreneurs get this part wrong.)  Now, I know... everything starts with "there's a problem that needs solving and I can solve it."  Then, if things go right, you reach a point where you have 25+ people... and all of a sudden, they're making decisions against the values your business stands behind - the core of the company.  Meaning, the first thing you should set in

A few weeks ago, I hosted a meetup with my SaaS Academy clients in Boston (including a private sit down with the Hubspot product team). Most of my clients are non-technical founders who noticed a gap in the marketplace and went all in to capitalize on the opportunity. And while product management tends to be a major blind spot for most non-technical founders, this group walked away armed with the best practices from some of the world’s top SaaS companies

Imagine a 12-year-old high-schooler who just came to the US, all the way from Pakistan. He barely speaks English and spends most of his time in the library. Basically, he's a total geek... all he wants to do is play computer games, but the library computers have their proxies blocked (because school's not meant to be fun!). So what does he do?

May I have your attention please? Will the real startup founders please watch this video? We’re gonna have a podcast here! Today is a special day! We’re announcing my NEW show, it’s called Escape Velocity. It’s a video podcast show where I interview the world's top SaaS CEO’s to deconstruct and learn what it took for them to succeed and grow. So let's kick things off with a question... Have you been wondering how to improve customer support for your

My first two companies FAILED hard. Sure, there were many factors at play. But when I take a sec to assess where things really went off the rails, it all came down to this… I had the wrong people on board. And it’s no criticism to them. As a founder (especially in the early stages), you’re ENTIRELY responsible for making sure that you have the right personnel for each position. Where most founders go wrong is that they hire by

Ready for a shocker? Stalled growth is rarely a product, marketing or sales problem… It’s a founder problem. And more specifically, it’s a failure to think strategically instead of tactically. Yes, tactics matter. But only if they’re guided by the RIGHT strategy at the RIGHT time. If you just keep repeating the same tactics over and over again (or adding random ones to the mix just because it "feels right" and "other people are doing it")...

I’ll never forget this one employee I had just hired at clarity.fm His first few hours went super smooth. But then at exactly 4:59pm… the guy BOLTED. Laptop packed. Door shut. Making a beeline straight to the front door. My jaw literally dropped. Here was this guy I had just hired… someone who was still getting onboarded to our team, our clients, and our company…

I recently had an unfortunate Growth Session with a SaaS founder who was running his company straight into an iceberg. … an unforgiving 25% churn rate … about 3 months cash runway … total mis-management of capital Instead of fixing the leaks (churn), he insisted on keeping the sales and marketing engines on full blast. Essentially a great way to crash into that iceberg even faster. 😬 While it’s usually great advice to maintain a growth mindset (I’m all about

Growing a tech company is hard. Growing a tech company with lawsuits being thrown at you left and right is nearly impossible. The good news is, most legal issues that startups face are HIGHLY preventable, and can be sidestepped with just a few simple measures.

In over 20 years in business, I’ve never met a single founder who hasn’t had to fire at least one employee. While the thought may create knots in your stomach, letting an employee go is actually a super valuable skill with further reaching implications than you might think. Because done wrong, It could crush team morale, compromise data, and even cost you valuable customer accounts. Breaking up isn’t fun… but it’s a skill that as a founder you need to