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E4: Brendan Schwartz - Building Wistia for 18 years to ~200 employees after buying out investors
Manage episode 416305157 series 3552988
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(0:00) Intro
(1:55) Early entrepreneurial influences
(5:20) Starting Wistia
(8:11) Shredding business plans and burning thru savings
(11:02) The portfolio website for artists that didn't pay the bills
(12:44) The first business customer
(15:22) Going up against YouTube and Vimeo
(18:50) The Starbucks barista healthcare backup plan
(21:00) Raising an angel round
(24:50) Closing a $12/month deal after a summer of sorrow with no sales
(27:15) 5 years of work with just 4 people to get to profitability
(33:59) Growing the business more aggressively while having trouble reinvesting the profits
(38:54) One of their biggest mistakes building Wistia
(48:24) Getting 3 offers to buy the business
(55:55) Raising debt to buy out investors and early employees
(1:04:50) Switching from options to profit sharing with employees
(1:12:36) Switching back to options away from profit sharing with employees
(1:18:30) Wistia today and what's next for Brendan and Wistia
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