Episode 728 | Bootstrapping Gymdesk to a More Than $32.5M Exit

Startups For the Rest of Us

In episode 728, Rob Walling interviews Eran Galperin, founder of Gymdesk, about his incredible exit. Eran shares his journey of transforming Gymdesk from "Martial Arts on Rails" into a successful gym management software company. He discusses how they succeeded in a competitive market, the role of TinySeed in their growth, and how feelings of burnout eventually led to a majority buyout for the company.

Topics we cover:

• 2:02 – Gymdesk Announces a $32.5 Million Strategic Growth Investment
• 5:13 – How the investment will be used
• 6:38 – Eran’s projects before Gymdesk
• 9:21 – Sticking with one idea long enough to see success
• 12:45 – Entering a competitive market
• 16:37 – Rapid growth as a marketing leader
• 20:54 – Dealing with burnout and entertaining an acquisition
• 26:45 – Handling a stressful sales process
• 32:19 – The future of Gymdesk

Links from the Show:

• Apply for TinySeed
• Gymdesk Announces a $32.5 Million Strategic Growth Investment from Five Elms Capital
• Episode 727 | Gymdesk Sells for More than $32.5 million, Hiring Gets Easier, and More Hot Take Tuesday Topics
• Gymdesk.com
• Eran Galperin (@erangalperin) | X
• Eran Galperin | LinkedIn
• Eran’s Website
• Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) Explained: How It Works
• Discretion Capital

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify