How many founder stories have you heard about grinding hard for a long time and then finally selling their company to “win a big prize?” But choosing your business OR your life is just one way to do it.
Practical SaaS founders have another choice: a great business AND a great life at the same time.
Getting there requires a deliberate and disciplined approach.
It takes effort to create enough leverage in your business, with enough systems and structure to run it efficiently, and a managed pace that doesn’t require all of your time.
Jordan Samuel Fleming is doing it right now. He tells his story on the Practical Founder Podcast this week.
Jordan is the CEO of smrtPhone App, a profitable $5M ARR software business with 45 employees and a serious growth rate above 50%.
Their core product is smrtPhone.io, a specialized internet phone system for key vertical industries.
I talk to Jordan a couple of times a month as a member of one of my Practical Founders Peer Groups with 7 other amazing SaaS founders with between $1M-$12M ARR and no big VC funding.
At our offsite in Park City, Utah last month, Jordan presented his vision to our group and famously told us, “We are getting bigger fast, but I’m still not stressed.”
Jordan is smart, process-oriented, laser-focused, leverages a specialized global community, and is proactive about people and culture.
As Jordan puts it:
“When I say I’m not stressed, I really do mean it. Yes, there are times when I have to do things or I have to focus on things. But the truth is, we are all not only operating and growing a great business, but we are having the best lives we can possibly have right now, which kind of negates any stress.
“For me, and for the four of us who own our company, we place a very, very high premium on our personal lives and what is going to make us the happiest as human beings right now.
“How am I living my best life right now? Not in five years when I sell the company or ten years, but now. That is one of the core parts of our company culture. It’s the way we develop people and we build opportunities for our staff and for ourselves.”
This “great business AND great life at the same time” approach is very possible for practical founders who make it a priority and are very deliberate about it.
Jordan is also a Canadian who lived in Edinburgh for many years before moving to Poland with his wife and kids. His cofounders and most of his team are in Romania.
Jordan and his co-founders designed their company to support the best lives of his entire team right now. That’s one way to do it that is very possible for practical founders.
Check it out on the Practical Founders Podcast.
Thanks for sharing your story, Jordan!
#practicalfounders
