ProfitLed Podcast

Season 2

Episodes from season 2 of the ProfitLed podcast.

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S2E27
S2E27: The 12 Most Shocking Surprises on Our Way to $1M ARR
The 12 Most Shocking Surprises on Our Way to $1M ARR

"Everything we thought would make a huge impact, did not."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E26
S2E26: 9 Most Important PLG Lessons Learned
9 Most Important PLG Lessons Learned

"Trying things that don't work is part of building a startup. You don’t need to be an expert."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E25
S2E25: What Lifestyle Business Means
What Lifestyle Business Means

"A lifestyle business chooses happiness over revenue to give everyone involved a great life."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E24
S2E24: 5 Pricing Decisions that Turned Out to be Costly Mistakes
5 Pricing Decisions that Turned Out to be Costly Mistakes

"Pricing is not easy to reverse. It requires dev work and delicate customer communication."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E23
S2E23: Why We Stayed Away from Enterprise
Why We Stayed Away from Enterprise

"Enterprise is not a way to a quick win, even if it seems like it."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E22
S2E22: 5 Wrong Hires that Ended Up Costing $450k
5 Wrong Hires that Ended Up Costing $450k

"The most expensive thing for all these hires is not money. It’s time."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E21
S2E21: When Our Startup Became a Real Business
When Our Startup Became a Real Business

"You never feel like you know what you're doing because you're facing new problems."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E20
S2E20: Social Selling and Personal Branding
Social Selling and Personal Branding

"If you're not building a personal brand, you are losing to someone who is doing that."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E19
S2E19: 12 $0 Marketing Strategies
12 $0 Marketing Strategies

"$0 marketing strategies, but a million dollars worth of effort."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E18
S2E18: The Customer is NOT Always Right
The Customer is NOT Always Right

"If the customer's always right, you're in a world of pain."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E17
S2E17: You Pay Peanuts, You Get Monkeys
You Pay Peanuts, You Get Monkeys

"Your products’ value doesn’t decrease based on someone's inability to pay for it or see your worth."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E16
S2E16: Our $130k Mistake in Affiliate Marketing
Our $130k Mistake in Affiliate Marketing

"We spent $130k in 10 months and only attributed $500/month of revenue."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E15
S2E15: How We Decided on Our Roadmap
How We Decided on Our Roadmap

"You can't make data-driven decisions when there aren't enough users and usage to measure."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E14
S2E14: 10 Go-to-Market Strategies that Didn't Work
10 Go-to-Market Strategies that Didn't Work

"You don't know what's going to work unless you try. What worked for someone else and their audience may not work for you."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E13
S2E13: Owning SEO When Marketing Agencies Suck
Owning SEO When Marketing Agencies Suck

"Most agencies can’t go from 0 to 1 which requires trial and error but can go from 1 to 2. It’s a very different skill set."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E12
S2E12: Staying Super Duper Lean
Staying Super Duper Lean

"Staying lean is not a thing you do, it's a philosophy of how you build your company every day, and how that trickles down to your team."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E11
S2E11: Leveraging Customers to Sell Our Product
Leveraging Customers to Sell Our Product

"All the content and language you need to market your product already exists within your customers."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E10
S2E10: Importance of Founder-Led Sales
Importance of Founder-Led Sales

"No salesperson you hire will respect a founder who can't figure out how to sell their own product."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E9
S2E9: Product Launched, Now What?
Product Launched, Now What?

"The biggest surprise was most people didn't understand the solution. Then we realized how hard selling was going to be."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E8
S2E8: Launching Our MVP and Converting 85% of Trials
Launching Our MVP and Converting 85% of Trials

"The most impressive thing was that we converted 85% of our trial users at the first billing date."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E7
S2E7: Coming Up With Our Business Model and Price Point
Coming Up With Our Business Model and Price Point

"You have to pick a price point you can justify. Someone will think it's too expensive or too cheap."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E6
S2E6: Going from Idea to Product Launch in 16 Months
Going from Idea to Product Launch in 16 Months

"Bootstrapped companies have no choice but to generate revenue from day one."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E5
S2E5: Recruiting a Top 1% Cofounder and CTO
Recruiting a Top 1% Cofounder and CTO

"You need so much more than equity to get the best CTOs excited and bring them on board."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E4
S2E4: Building a Founding Team with Limited Resources
Building a Founding Team with Limited Resources

"Find senior people who have financial stability and are willing to take risks because they want a career and lifestyle change."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E3
S2E3: Why Bootstrapping Over Venture Capital Funding
Why Bootstrapping Over Venture Capital Funding

"The biggest misconception about bootstrapping is that there is zero capital. Founders invest their own money and can raise from friends and family."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E2
S2E2: Picking 1 Idea Out of 1000
Picking 1 Idea Out of 1000

"Many ideas will make money. People should ask themselves first, What are the things that make me happy?"

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO
S2E1
S2E1: Welcome to Season Two - Our Journey to $1M
Welcome to Season Two - Our Journey to $1M

"I want to give you a window into what it was actually like for us to bootstrap a startup from $0 to $1M ARR in 36 months."

Melissa Kwan
Melissa Kwan
Cofounder and CEO