In this episode, Nadia Odunayo, CEO and founder of The StoryGraph, discusses her journey from investment banking to founding a disruptive book tracking technology company through bootstrapping instead of venture capital.

Nadia shares insights into her bootstrapping philosophy, avoiding venture capital, validating product ideas, and building a dedicated user community and building incredibly lean -- with over 4 million users, StoryGraph is only a team of 3!

Nadia provides valuable lessons on maintaining founder-product fit, the importance of customer feedback, and sustaining growth without external investments. Learn how her reflective practices and clear vision led to the successful scaling of The StoryGraph.

In this episode, we dive into:

00:00 The Journey to Bootstrapping

00:30 The StoryGraph Origin Story

01:22 Building the Reading App

05:39 Validating the Idea

10:46 Early Entrepreneurial Ventures

16:00 Forming the Right Partnerships

23:27 Weekly Reflections and Personal Checkpoints

24:24 Balancing Speed and Responsibilities

26:59 Navigating Fundraising Decisions

31:33 Defining and Measuring Success

36:37 Managing Viral Growth and Community Engagement

42:05 Reflecting on the Journey and Key Resources

🎧 Don’t miss this insightful conversation on building a bootstrapped technology company on your own terms.

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