Today, I’m talking with Tyler Tringas, General Partner at Earnest Capital, a new fund designed to provide early-stage funding for bootstrappers. I’ve been following Tyler’s writing for a while now when he was documenting his journey of starting and eventually selling his SaaS, Storemapper, but when I heard what he was up to at Earnest Capital, I knew I had to reach out. I’m trying to focus this show less about day-to-day hacks and more about what it actually takes to be an effective leader and build a sustainable business. I think the sustainable part is one of the most important pieces of the equation to listeners, it definitely is to me, but it’s typically seen as a negative when it comes to traditional venture capital. Like Rob Walling from TinySeed, who I talked to last week, Tyler is trying his hand at finding a way to invest capital in a way that allows founders and investors to benefit from profitability. In our chat, we dive into what that looks like and how Tyler sees Earnest fitting into the startup ecosystem.

Today, I’m talking with Rob Walling. As an entrepreneur, he has started and sold multiple companies, most recently Drip. Rob has written three books, co-hosts the Startups for the Rest of Us podcast, and co-founded the largest conference for bootstrapped entrepreneurs, MicroConf. Most recently though, Rob founded Tiny Seed, the first startup accelerator for bootstrappers. In our chat today, we’re going to talk about why Rob decided to devote his time to this new venture and dive into the details of what the program will look like, everything from how investments will be structured to the types of companies he is looking for. The startup world doesn’t need to have a sharp divide between bootstrapping and venture capital and Rob is helping to bridge that gap with Tiny Seed. If your startup could use a one-time capital injection to accelerate growth or you just want to hear great lessons from somebody who has seen it all, then this is the episode for you.

The first time I'm able to talk about a deal I've been working on the last few months to purchase a and my plans going forward.

Today, I’m talking with Wade Foster, Co-Founder and CEO of Zapier, the easiest place to sync data between web apps. I’ve been a big fan of Zapier for years. Not just their product and how much time it can save by automating what used to be tedious, manual tasks, but their story. I won’t spoil too much in the intro, but Wade and his team have built a Zapier into a business with 200 employees that is doing $10s of millions in annual recurring revenue and they did this on just one round of seed funding. In our chat, we dive into what it’s been like building Zapier into the company it is today, everything from Wade’s successes to his failures and how these lessons can help make you a better founder. It’s not common that a founder stays on with a company all the way up to over 200 employees, let alone as the CEO, and Wade has some unique insights into what has made his story different.

Today, I’m talking with Jake Jorgovan, the Founder of the B2B lead generation service, Lead Cookie. Lead Cookie launched less than a year and a half ago and in that time, Jake and his team have built it into a business doing more than $50k in MRR. From the outside, the results are impressive, but this was no overnight success. In our chat, Jake shares the early struggles he faced getting the business off the ground, how he overcame them, and what he is planning for in the future. I’ve known Jake for a few years now and he has always been somebody I’ve looked to for advice not just around lead generation and sales, but on building a successful business. Jake doesn’t hold anything back in this interview and I know you’ll get a lot out of it.

Today, I’m talking with Benjamin Dell, the Founder of MissingLettr, a social marketing automation company that automatically creates 12 months worth of social content for each blog post you publish. I first came across Ben when he was putting together an online conference with over 100 speakers. What blew me away wasn’t just the scale of the conference, but the fact that he put it together and built a platform to host it in just months. Ben is a great example of a founder who is not just productive but also effective. He has used tight deadlines to force him and his team to focus on what matters most and today he shares what that looks like behind the scenes.

On this first episode of The Effective Founder, I’m talking with Chris Krimitsos, a serial entrepreneur with a wide range of expertise, to say the least. One of the hardest, but most important, things to do as a founder is identify where you add the most value and then structure so you can focus as much energy as possible on those things. In our chat, Chris shares how he has done that in multiple ventures and how you can do the same in your business. Chris has a wealth of experience and doesn’t hold back the lessons he’s learned on hiring, training, and scaling, among many other topics.

After nearly 100 episodes, it’s time for a change. Going forward, we’re focusing on the challenges founders face as their team scales. From topics like hiring and training to building systems, we’ll cover what it takes to become an Effective Founder.

Today, I’m talking with Andrew Warner, the Founder of Mixergy, where the ambitious learn from a mix of experienced mentors through interviews and courses, and most recently the Founder of BotAcademy.com, a site built to teach marketers how to generate more leads and close sales with chat bots. Andrew was one of the pioneers of the internet startup scene, building and eventually selling a $30 million a year business with his younger brother. Not only does he have hands-on experience, but through Mixergy he has interviewed thousands of other founders and his startup insights are practically unmatched. This was a fun but intimidating interview for me because if you’ve ever listened to any of Andrew’s interviews, and if you haven’t you should immediately, then you know he doesn’t hold back. Today’s interview on chat bots was no different. In our talk, Andrew shares what it is about chat bots that has him so excited, how they fit into the traditional sales funnel, and how you can quickly test the waters with your own chat bot. If you’re like me and think chat bots are more hype than substance, then this is an interview you don’t want to miss.

Today, I’m talking with , the founder of and , two profitable SaaS businesses that he sold within the last few years and has since been working on content and communications at . In addition to all that, Patrick is also a prolific blogger and commenter who has shared mountains of valuable advice for startup founders. This interview was really exciting for me, because Patrick is one of the people who originally drew me into the startup marketing space and somebody I’ve always looked up to. He genuinely wants to help as many startup founders as possible build a better business and it was an honor to get him on the show. If there is one thing he is most famous for, it’s his rallying cry of “charge more” and today we’re going to big into everything pricing. We’ll cover where startups go wrong when it comes to pricing, why charging more is almost always a good decision, and how you can improving your pricing and make more money.