SaaS founders stay on about 10% of the time, just two years after they sell their companies to private equity investors or strategic acquirers. That's what I've seen and experienced in …
Last week, I hosted 25 SaaS CEOs at our first Practical Founders Summit, which lasted two days in Phoenix. It was awesome to meet in person with Practical Founders Peer Groups …
When my son graduated from university with a degree in electrical engineering in 2017, he didn't join a big company for his first job. He created a tech startup with …
About half of the 40 SaaS founders I work with have shared that they are getting tired and can't shake their grumpy moods as quickly. Is this a mid-summer dip or …
Being the CEO of a growing SaaS company can be lonely, even with 15 or 50 employees. This is especially true when the company is bootstrapped or lightly funded without big …
Here are a few memories of my Dad on Father's Day. Jim Head was a lanky kid from Dearborn, Michigan. He grew up to serve as a Navy pilot for a …
“Our SaaS product works, we have happy customers, and we have enough leads—but our demo close rate is too low.” Every day, B2B SaaS founders tell me about the hard problems …
It can be overwhelming for SaaS founders to deal with so many different and complicated things every day. Some entrepreneurs run out of energy and get stuck on their startup …
Entrepreneurs tend to be generalists, but our talents and interests are not evenly distributed. We channel our superpowers to power our early startup progress. Most times, we are unusually good at …
This SaaS founder bootstrapped his first company and did pretty well when he sold it, but he didn’t want to go back to stressful 80-hour weeks again. So when he started …
Corporate refugees can make great entrepreneurs, especially when they were the frustrated doers who didn't fit the corporate mold. They are the ones who ask too many questions, break the rules, …
I talk to 500+ software founders and CEOs a year all over the world. I'm amazed that every entrepreneur's story is different. Different founder personalities and backgrounds Different times and …
Startups are glamorized. They can look pretty cool from the outside. This is not helpful to serious new founders. Sure, there are occasional breakthroughs and flashes of good fortune. But mostly it’s …
It's lonely being a software startup founder. Even when you have a leadership team and 15 or 50 employees. Your family and neighbors don't have a clue what you really …
Many of the practical SaaS founders I interview every week have never been on a podcast before. Only a few are podcast pros. Here are the 5 things I recommend to …
How much of your health, your family and marriage, or your sanity would you sacrifice for the chance to win big with your crazy startup? Practical founder Lloyed Lobo describes this …
So you have an idea for a software product and you're thinking of starting a company to build it. I talk to hundreds of these folks a year, year after …
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 …
In the last year, I interviewed 44 amazing SaaS founders and 6 expert guests on the Practical Founders Podcast. When I talk to founders now, I recommend specific podcast interviews that …
Most founders who sell their companies eventually start another company or create a new project. Old habits die hard for most former founders. But there’s also a type of software company …
Successful software entrepreneurs are just abnormal people who do abnormal things. That’s not better or worse than anyone else. We just do things that “normal” people don’t do. That’s usually where the …
Every time I talk to a successful practical SaaS founder I hear about a different way to start, build, and scale a modern software company. Unlike the VC "Get Big Fast" …
In the last three weeks, I talked to 56 practical SaaS founders from all over the world about their products, businesses, and their visions. Since they aren't trying to raise outside …
There was a hidden secret in the rooms of two startup funding events I attended last week in Phoenix. The richest people in the rooms of both events were the founders …
Practical founders often tell me something that they don't talk about much: It's lonely being a software startup founder. Your family and neighbors don't have a clue what you really do. …
I hosted a dinner with 15 founders last night at the SaaSOpen conference in New York. After an hour of great conversation, I realized I was talking with founders from Poland, …
Many new entrepreneurs hesitate to ask for help from experienced founders and savvy mentors. They are missing out on POWERFUL INSIGHTS that can help them overcome their big challenges or learn …
I interview successful SaaS founders every week on the Practical Founders Podcast. Every founder story includes the savvy bets by the founders, the extreme hard work for long years, and the …
February is here and it's reality time for our 2023 New Year's personal resolutions and the quarterly plans and goals in our businesses. I make personal and business plans, but I …
The best founders I know get the best advice from experienced entrepreneurs and other experts. Great advice is usually the result of the founder's investment of time in their network of …
I talked with a young startup founder who was more than a little panicked by the sour financial news in tech recently. Venture investment is down by almost 50% this year. …
It takes confidence to start and grow a company. It also takes a healthy dose of humility. It's strange how experienced founders can do both at the same time. Confidence helps you …
What if your first startup didn’t go anywhere and it ate your life savings? Would you do it again? If you are like Brad Redding, you’d start another software company five years …
Twenty years ago, entrepreneurs used different words to describe what we now call mental health challenges. Stress, depression, anxiety, burnout, and nervous breakdown were the words we used back then. We didn't …
Here's how I think founders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs should take any business advice, including any advice from me: Consider everything you hear as an interesting POSSIBILITY to consider, including that which …
The startup game for investors is pretty much about this: "What do we know and what do we not know yet about this founder, their team, their product, the business model, …
Two years ago I started a new habit during the COVID lockdown that I haven't stopped. It has made a huge difference in my business and in my life. The COVID lockdowns …
When a startup founder creates a software company that another company acquires, they become members of an elite club: founders who have sold their companies. Here are a few reasons second-time …
Multiple practical founders this week have shared something with me that they don't talk about a lot. It's lonely being a software startup founder. Your family and neighbors don't have a …
The role that good luck plays in startup success is usually overestimated by founders as they are building… and underestimated after they have achieved some success. I wrote that as a short post …
When my son graduated in 2017 with a degree in electrical engineering, he didn't join a big company for his first job. He created a tech startup with a friend. For the …
I was in Phoenix last week and hosted 80+ software startup founders and SaaS CEOs on Tuesday night. I know most of these founders, but there were plenty of new faces. …
Show me something that is changing in our world… And I’ll show you a crazy person behind it all. Crowds don’t change on their own. There’s always a “crazy” person and their team …
I talked to a startup founder this week whose business is growing steadily. But he has issues with a cofounder. It's killing his hope for the future of the business. Cofounder problems …
I talked to a software startup founder in London yesterday who was in a bit of a mess. His MVP software was late, they are running out of money, not sure …
I didn't think about my own luck when I was in the midst of my career. Most things didn't go my way and I worked almost all the time. Where was …
A lot of social debate in the last week about using Calendly and other scheduling links. Here are 9 ways I have used Calendly to schedule 3000+ meetings in the last …
The people who succeed are the ones who say no to the things that don’t help them succeed.
A startup founder I talked to this afternoon was in a bit of a panic. "Is it going fast enough? Should we be doing different things?" So I asked her what she …
For 30 years I have been an avid student and practitioner of time management systems, planning approaches, productivity software, and mental approaches. It's mostly to help me manage my procrastination …
I have this conversation 10 times a week: Me: How’s it going over there? Software startup founder: Great! Me: How’s it really going? (pause) Founder: We’re f*cked. It’s all hard. Me: Welcome to the club. That’s …
I talk to hundreds of SaaS startup founders and software CEOs every year through mentoring, networking, speaking, advising, consulting, investing, events, and now the Dallas Software Podcast. I'm amazed that every …
How long will it take to get to your next big startup goal? Here's my rule of thumb when estimating how long a venture or project will take to make real …
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