Apr 23, 2020
I want you to meet someone who I have huge respect for:
Natalie Nagele.
Not only has Natalie been working in the SaaS and software space
since her late teens, but she’s been courageous enough to
experiment with optimizing her team.
…even if it means asking them to work less.
She is the CEO of WildBit, a tech company with 3 big
products:
Beanstalk: Code revision and deployment
software
Postmark: Transactional email service
Conveyor: Task management for software
teams
I had the pleasure of interviewing Natalie on the latest episode of the Escape Velocity
Show, and you can tell that she truly loves her team.
In fact, she loves them so much that she’s willing to
try anything to make their lives better.
She saw a boost in productivity by moving them to a 4-day work
week, she onboards all her staff by giving them 2 books she swears
by, and she’s experimented with many different productivity
apps.
Her team is largely remote but she’s managed to make that their
strength, not a weakness.
Listening to her experiences is like spying on a test lab training
the perfect SaaS team.
If you’ve ever wanted to build a deeply loyal
remote team, then you’ll get a lot out of this interview, so
check it out.
I’m grateful for Natalie’s willingness to share her biggest lessons
from 16 years in the tech industry. In this interview, she talks
about:
- Why “If you build it they will come” is a bad strategy
- Learning how to pay yourself <- HUGE
- How to avoid getting screwed in an acquisition
- The 2 books she gives to every WildBit employee
- How hiring a business coach was like marriage counseling
- The company value: “Don’t be an @sshole”.
- Whether Slack helps or hinders your team
Natalie’s journey to
success doesn’t follow the conventional bravado that many
businesses try to project.
Even on WildBit’s website, they list their company timeline,
including shutting down products that just didn’t work. It’s not
embarrassing… it’s history.
The company that is willing to innovate even if it’s risky is the
company that will find diamonds. And WildBit is living proof that
not all innovations work on the first try.
Plug in your headphones, and get your dose of SaaS wisdom right here.
Digging what you hear? I’d love it if you left a review in your
favorite podcasting app.
--
Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown
has people and teaches startup founders like you how to
scale. He previously created, raised venture funding
for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and
Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets
that are actually awesome.
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