Startups For the Rest of Us

Episode 705 | From Bootstrapped to Mostly Bootstrapped to Venture Backed


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In episode 705, Rob Walling interviews Braden Dennis, co-founder and CEO of FinChat. They discuss Braden’s journey going from fully bootstrapped, all the way to taking venture capital as FinChat scaled. Braden shares his experience in initially launching to an audience, how they successfully launched a second product, and how FinChat operates well with multiple co-founders.

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Topics we cover: 
  • 2:55 – What does FinChat look like today?
  • 4:00 – Starting with an audience and building a SaaS
  • 6:40 – Formulating the product and moving upmarket
  • 8:35 – Launching a second product
  • 12:25 – The common pitfall of launching a second product
  • 16:25 – How FinChat found explosive growth
  • 19:27 – Deciding to take venture funding 
  • 26:13 – Making hard decisions with incomplete information
  • 30:31 – Working with multiple co-founders
  • Links from the Show: 
    • Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024
    • Apply for Director of Marketing and Operations for MicroConf
    • MicroConf YouTube Channel
    • TinySeed
    • Braden Dennis (@BradoCapital) | X
    • FinChat (@finchat_io) | X
    • FinChat
    • Episode 681 | Why Launching a Second Product is Usually a Bad Idea
    • If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

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      Startups For the Rest of UsBy Rob Walling

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