In this Getting Real series, Bill sits down with Mike Birdsall to learn more about his entrepreneurial journey. Mike is the co-founder of DateBox Club, a monthly date night subscription box.

Prior to DateBox Club, Mike launched Birdsall Interactive, a web design firm, and FanConneX, an in-venue sports fan experience. Mike has been an entrepreneur all of his life, but how did he get from his start to here? Let’s find out.

Mike and his wife started his most recent business in business 2015 when they had become empty nesters. In the beginning, the journey was tough. They were putting their heart and soul into it and weren’t sure if the payoff was there yet. They were struggling in this business for four years. The bank accounts were just slowly being drained.

One of the challenges within the business was that they’d come up with a new date night idea, get the samples, and realize that they were awful. This meant they were forced to pivot into a new idea almost immediately as they had to get something out to their clients within a week. Mike calculated that they walked 9 miles around their table during “launch week.”

What was it like working with a spouse? Bill did it and there were a lot of challenges that they had to overcome as a team. Mike had to learn how to stick to his lane and let his wife run in hers. Both of them are pretty alpha and driven people, so it was important to set clear boundaries in the very beginning of the relationship.

 

Interview Links:

Dateboxclub.com

Sponsored by: Eonetwork.org

Resources:

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Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.

We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).