Dec 31, 2020
When I launched my
company Clarity.fm in 2010, I gave a live demo to an audience
showing how the service works.
It was my Steve Jobs
moment.
From stage, I
demonstrated how Clarity enabled me to call high-profile,
successful entrepreneurs and get business advice from them over the
phone instantly.
For the live demo, I
had to call someone notable… someone the audience couldn’t
reach.
I called Mike
McDerment, the CEO of
FreshBooks, a super successful accounting SaaS.
Mike was my example of a successful CEO.
He’s smart, committed
to growth, and has scaled FreshBooks from humble beginnings in his
parent’s basement back in 2004…
...to a team of over
300+ employees, raising over $75M in funding and earning over $50M+
annual recurring revenue.
Now it’s a pleasure to
hand him the microphone once again by inviting him on the Escape
Velocity podcast to share his infinite wisdom about leadership and
growth in the SaaS space.
If you’ve ever wondered
what kind
of a CEO you are (or could be),
then you need to hear this interview.
In this episode, we’re
discussing:
- The 3 types of CEOs
(which one are you?)
- The 3 core functions of a CEO
- The 3 stages of leadership growth in a
scaling SaaS
- Why Mike hired an external COO with shared
responsibilities
- Dealing with inevitable growth
- Scaling a remarkable culture
- How a CEO’s gut instinct is your best weapon…
if you train
it!
- Building an executive board
- Why Freshbooks resisted VC investors for over 10
years
- How to train and sharpen your CEO mind
- Pattern recognition as a method of business
intuition
- Why he thinks Freshbooks, at 16 years old, is still in its
infancy
Even now, there is
still glorification of the struggling startup.
“Dude, I’m
launching a startup, then I’ll be my own boss and escape the
9-to-5!”
But as any
business achieves the success it sets out for, many founders
struggle to morph into the person they need to be to lead a growing
business at scale.
That’s why I think it’s
incredibly important that you hear the experiences of CEOs like
Mike and the inevitable steps that they had to take as their
companies grew.
It’s better to learn
this in advance before you back your business into a corner.
So I encourage you: put
your earphones in and fire up the episode. It’s
eye-opening.
--
Dan Martell has advised more
startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders
like you how to scale. (Get the free 3
videos to grow your business here.)
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.
+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm
reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell