BUILD with Blake Bartlett

Latest Episodes:

Andrew Gazdecki (MicroAcquire): How to Sell Your Startup May 25, 2022

Show notes

There is a dearth of good advice on how to sell or exit your startup. Most people use outdated slogans like “companies are bought, not sold” but offer little practical advice to navigate a daunting M&A process. Andrew has sold two software companies previously, and now is building MicroAcquire, the founder-friendly marketplace for selling startups. He shares everything he knows about selling companies.

Key Takeaways:

[1:17] Andrew talks about Bizness Apps—his first company—and the experience of being a founder

[3:01] What selling his first company was like for Andrew

[4:09] Paths available to folks considering selling their startup outside huge IPOs and unicorn acquisitions

[6:25] What does it take to sell the company?

[8:35] The role of marketing in telling the story of your company for someone else to believe in and buy the company

[10:39] Addressing myths about selling, and the reality that founders aren't trained to sell their businesses

[16:03] Understanding why you want to sell, and setting it up for success

[18:33] What is MicroAcquire, and how can startup founders leverage the service?

Mentioned in this episode:

Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of MicroAcquire

MicroAcquire

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Yaw Aning (Malomo): Productizing Services May 18, 2022

Show notes

Services-based startups are often dismissed as unscalable “body shops.” But agencies and consultancies are often where product ideas hatch. Yaw reveals his pro tips for how to identify *which* product ideas are worth building as an agency.

Key Takeaways:

[0:08] Advice for an agency, consultancy, or freelance operation on knowing which idea to go after and build

Mentioned in this episode:

Yaw Aning, Cofounder and CEO of Malomo

Malomo

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Podcast produced by OpenView.

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Yaw Aning (Malomo): Services Founder vs. SaaS Founder May 11, 2022

Show notes

Many SaaS startups are launched out of services companies. Yaw was running an agency building apps, and kept seeing a consistent pain point in his ecommerce clients’ workflows. So he built a SaaS product to address the need, and boom💥, his startup Malomo was born. This is a common founding story, but it’s often underappreciated as an entrepreneurial path. Hear Yaw’s story, and what other services founders can learn from his journey.

Key Takeaways:

[3:56] Best practices for building products that Yaw has learned as an agency founder and a SaaS founder

[11:36] Yaw's path from building products for others to building something of his own

[17:25] Validating a solution before building

[20:36] A walled garden between Malomo's product and services teams

[25:18] The role of services in a SaaS company

Mentioned in this episode:

Yaw Aning, Cofounder and CEO of Malomo

Malomo

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Podcast produced by OpenView.

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Peter McKay (Snyk): The CEO’s #1 Job May 04, 2022

Show notes

A company is only as good as its people. And if a company is growing fast, then it’s only as good as the last hire. CEOs should set the tone by striving to be the top performing recruiter at the company.

Key Takeaways:

[0:10] "People, culture is the top job for a CEO."

Mentioned in this episode:

Peter McKay, CEO of Snyk

Snyk

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Podcast produced by OpenView.

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Peter McKay (Snyk): Leading Through Hypergrowth Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

Hypergrowth is hard. Sustaining hypergrowth is even harder. Leaders need to constantly bring new talent into the organization to avoid plateaus. The tricky part? New talent almost always entails changing roles for existing team members. Peter says the answer is to embrace the pain of difficult conversations to maintain speed.

Key Takeaways:

[2:54] What makes hypergrowth hard for a startup leader?

[5:48] Anticipating plateaus to guide company success, and answering "What could go wrong?"

[9:42] The time to anticipate plateaus is when things are going really well.

[13:56] Early indicators of problems, and staying ahead to scale talent with the organization]

[17:07] Adding specialized talent rather than replacing people

[20:02] How to approach tough conversations

[24:51] Choosing the pain of difficult conversation, and the context of delivering bad news

[27:32] Understand what you're good at and be proactive in finding talent who can do the things you don't like to do

Mentioned in this episode:

Peter McKay, CEO of Snyk

Snyk

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Podcast produced by OpenView.

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May Habib (Writer): AI Primer on GPT-3 Apr 20, 2022

Show notes

GPT-3 is a deep learning language model from OpenAI, and it has taken the developer world by storm. May Habib is the Co-Founder and CEO of Writer, an AI writing assistant for teams, and she unpacks what GPT-3 is and why it’s so promising for SaaS companies.

Mentioned in this episode:

Maya Habib, CEO at Writer

Writer

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May Habib (Writer): Why Founders Should Focus on Distribution Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

Founders often obsess over product, and for good reason. It’s hard to have a good business with a terrible product. May Habib argues that is only half the solution for founders. It’s equally important to obsess over product distribution. After all, it’s hard to achieve and maintain hypergrowth with terrible distribution.

Mentioned in this episode:

Maya Habib, CEO at Writer

Writer

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Podcast produced by OpenView.

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Alex Bilmes (Endgame): The PLG Funding Boom Explained Apr 06, 2022

Show notes

PLG companies are raising larger rounds than ever, at higher prices than ever. Seeing this prompts two BIG questions. Why is this happening? What are these companies going to do with all that cash? Alex works directly with these companies and their GTM teams, and tells us what he has been seeing.

To hear this interview and more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or search for BUILD with Blake Bartlett in your favorite podcast player.

Mentioned in this episode:

Alex Bilmes, Founder and CEO at Endgame

Endgame

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Podcast produced by OpenView.

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Alex Bilmes (Endgame): Product-Led Sales Mar 30, 2022

Show notes

Product-led sales is selling to companies that already use your product. How hard can that be? Very hard, it turns out. PLG companies need to think about sales in a fundamentally different way in order to succeed. Alex has dedicated his career to solving this problem, and he shares his expertise with us.

To hear this interview and more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or search for BUILD with Blake Bartlett in your favorite podcast player.

Mentioned in this episode:

Alex Bilmes, Founder and CEO at Endgame

Endgame

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Podcast produced by OpenView.

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The Bottom Line on PQLs Mar 23, 2022

Show notes

PQLs are a hot topic, but they are very tricky to define and implement correctly. Jesus helps clarify and illustrate the role of PQLs in a broader PLG analytics stack.

Mentioned in this episode:

Jesus Requena, Vice President of Growth Marketing at Figma

Figma

Unity

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Podcast produced by OpenView.

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