Melissa and Todd dive  into the thrilling and nerve-wracking experience of launching eWebinar's MVP.  While  many people see product launches as the end goal and celebratory occasion, Melissa explains why it's often more stressful instead because that's when the dreams you've sold become reality. They reminisce about getting stuck in a never-ending rabbit hole of features, how frustrated David (CTO) was, and how they ultimately had to choose a launch date just to get the product out the door.  Melissa recounts the fascinating experience of seeing users (webinar attendees ..read more

Melissa and Todd discuss how they established eWebinar's pricing model, focusing on aligning their business strategy with their lifestyle goals and market approach. Melissa shares insights from her past ventures, highlighting her shift towards a product-led strategy to ensure the business supports a hands-off lifestyle, avoiding the demanding nature of sales-led models. Melissa explains why she’s against freemium and opted for free trial instead, and the reason they chose a low cost pricing structure to temper customer expectations about service levels. They talk about how eWebinar’s automate ..read more

When Melissa first went to Todd with the idea of eWebinar, he wasn't immediately convinced the product was solving a much needed problem. She engaged him as a contractor to write the first version of the website which started with competitive research. During that process, he grew passionate about the idea because he identified a gap in the market for a product that could offer a superior automated webinar experience. On this episode, Todd describes the process he went through in doing market research and how he came up with the set of launch features. Melissa and Todd also discuss how they s ..read more

David, eWebinar's CTO and Cofounder, floated around for 2 years as a fractional CTO before joining the company. Previous to that, he was the cofounder for a New York telecomm startup that raised $10m, but shut down after they failed to find enough traction after 4 years to continue raising capital. Melissa shares David's story and what his mindset was after quitting Microsoft for startup life, and how his beliefs shifted away from gunning for "all or nothing" to "how do I not end up with nothing?" On this episode, Melissa talks about what founders should know when they're pitching an experie ..read more

Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to have a cofounder to start a company. But, that may work for or against you if you're a business cofounder, depending on whether or not you have the technical chops (or lead on your side) to manage a development team. After two previous startups, Melissa was sick of (not doing a good job) managing engineers and thought she could start eWebinar by hiring a dev shop to build their v1 before outsourcing to a team in Vietnam. That experience was a disaster, but it led her to her now cofounder and CTO, David, who's also her life partner. Melissa share ..read more

Hey there! It's Melissa, and I'm  the Cofounder and CEO of eWebinar. At the time of this recording, we’d just crossed $1m ARR, 36 months after product launch. In the last 1.5 years posting on LinkedIn about my experiences bootstrapping three startups, I noticed that the stories that get the most engagement are the ones that gave people a window into the reality of what it’s like to build a startup with very few resources. The feedback I’ve gotten has been about how relatable it was to hear from a non-unicorn founder. That got me thinking: There isn’t much original content that dives into ..read more

People think bootstrapping is a financial decision, when it's really a lifestyle choice.  Read that again. In this episode, Melissa talks about the reasons behind choosing to build eWebinar as a lifestyle company and how that shapes every decision they make from how they operate, to who they hire, to company culture. Melissa and Todd discuss the benefits of bootstrapping over venture capital, what it means to run a bootstrapped company, and misconceptions about bootstrapping which include things like: they raise zero capital, founders don't want to give away equity, they have smaller ex ..read more

In this episode, Thomas Vervik, Founder of seniordev.com shares: The benefits of working with dev shops How agencies recruit high quality talent and retain them What it costs to hire senior devs SeniorDev is a software development shop based in Norway with an office in Ukraine. ProfitLed host, Melissa Kwan and Thomas also discusses: Why wouldn't you just hire direct? What is the process of interviewing for great developers? What should companies know before building an outsourced team? Contact ProfitLed Tweet us at @profitledfm. Find show notes of each episode on ProfitLed.fm. Connect wit ..read more

In this episode, Devesh Khanal, Co-founder of growandconvert.com shares: Why most content sucks Why vast marketing budget is spent on things with no ROI How to create content that converts by focusing on customer pain points Grow and Convert is a content marketing agency and consultancy that helps growing businesses. ProfitLed host, Melissa Kwan and Devesh also discusses: What are some things content agencies do that have zero ROI? Why do you need to sell yourself in your own content? How do you hire a good writer or agency? Contact ProfitLed Tweet us at @profitledfm. Find show notes of e ..read more

In this episode, Amman Ahmed, Founder at MusicForPets shares: Why running a VC-backed startup turned Amman into a bootstrapper How he came up with the idea to make music for pets How he got the company off the ground as a non-technical solo founder MusicForPets has been making relaxing music for pets since 2011 to help with a range of anxiety issues. Their two main channels include RelaxMyDog and RelaxMyCat. ProfitLed host, Melissa Kwan and Amman also discusses: What was your go-to-market strategy for MusicForPets? What were the biggest challenges of being a non technical founder, and how d ..read more