Text Request’s Post

15 years in tech. Hundreds of millions in new revenue generated. But if I could only pass on three lessons to founders navigating go-to-market, it would be these: 1️⃣ Iterate or stagnate If you aren’t constantly refining your approach, you’re falling behind. Test, tweak, repeat. 2️⃣ Solve a real problem Your tech can be amazing, but if it doesn’t address a clear pain point, it’s noise. 3️⃣ The best strategy is clarity Whether it’s your ICP, messaging, or channel mix—clarity wins every time. Most startups think they need to collect the latest GTM software or massive ad budgets. They need focus, execution, and a willingness to learn fast. 💬 Which of these resonates with you most? Let’s chat in the comments. #StartupLessons #GoToMarket #EntrepreneurMindset

🚀 From Scattered Focus to 100+ Partners: The Hiration Story In the fast-paced world of startups, it's easy to fall into the trap of trying to do everything at once. At Hiration, we were no exception. But 1.5 years ago, we made a decision that changed everything: We cut the noise and laser-focused on one goal: closing B2B deals. The result? We've just crossed the 100+ partners milestone! 🎉 Here's how we did it: 1️⃣ Ruthless Prioritization: We shelved good ideas to focus on the best ones. 2️⃣ Team Alignment: Every team member understood our singular focus. 3️⃣ Optimized Sales Process: We refined our approach with each interaction. 4️⃣ Customer-Centric Approach: We solved real problems for our partners. 5️⃣ Continuous Learning: We embraced failures as stepping stones. The lesson? Sometimes, doing less allows you to achieve more. #StartupGrowth #B2BSales #FocusedStrategy #hiration

🚀 Huge thanks to our long-time friend Rob Reagan for revealing Text Request's extraordinary journey at Capacity's Tech Tuesday happy hour event in Chattanooga yesterday! Rob shared the backstory behind one of Chattanooga's most significant tech exits - proving again that high-growth tech outcomes don't always require traditional funding. A lack of early investor interest forced them to focus on customer revenue and business fundamentals, which paid off big. Rob's path from the original founding team to Commify's landmark acquisition is another example of Southeast founders creating high-growth companies and big exits without "chasing the alphabet" of investment capital. (Calendly, Intuit Mailchimp, Therapy Brands, ... it's a long list, and they rarely show up early on Carta, Pitchbook, or Crunchbase) This is the smart, disciplined scaling Capacity champions: founders who find a way for customers to fuel growth rather than endless fundraising. (BTW, an early investment in Text Request would have netted 60X!) Special thanks to Chattanooga Technology Council (ChaTech), Society of Work, Plain Sight for co-hosting, and BARQUE for the great food! 🌟 #ChattanoogaTech #CapitalEfficiency #EntrepreneurJourney #SoutheastStartups #StartupGrowth

A week is forever in startuplandia. If I'm catching up after a week or month or 3 months of seeing a founder and I ask "what's new?", the founder's response tells me everything about how the startup is going. Bad: "Oh, not much, just grinding." What? How is not much new?? Good: "So much progress and learnings. First, we realized we misunderstood X about our customers. Fixing that incorrect assumption. Second, we landed our biggest customer yet. We're still trying to nail down customer acquisition, but we're trying lots of stuff and it feels like we're getting closer." At pre-seed, we're really just trying to figure out some basic things like: - Do the founders move extremely fast? - Are the founders customer obsessed? - Do the founders have outlier levels of energy, ambition, curiosity, and speed of learning? Let’s go fast, friends.

We (first time founders) are like magpies when it comes to building tech. It’s shiny, it’s cool, it’s necessary, it can’t be that hard. I’ve had a few conversations recently with some amazing people in the first year of their startup journey. They all want to build tech to solve a problem in their industry. My advice has consistently been to make money first, then layer tech on top once you have a very long runway. If the business idea, marketing and your personal sales skills are good enough, that’s enough to get early revenue and traction. With that revenue and traction, you are in control and can decide the next moves. It took me 4 years of stubbornness and poor prioritisation to learn this.

We’re launching in a few weeks. Biggest thing on my mind right now: “How long will it takes us to get the first 10 paid & satisfied subscribers?” A week? A month? (Never? 💀 ) Most startups die because they fail at positioning and/or distribution. To get both of these right, we can either: 1) Guess correctly on the first try ( 🧠 big brain move, 100% going to happen) 2) Start experimenting and measuring as soon as possible, with or even without MVP. Make it easy to learn & iterate fast ♻ Guess which one we're betting on?

Startup Founders: Your $500K Innovation is Quietly Dying Ever wondered why brilliant products fade into digital obscurity? Harsh Truth: You have exactly 30 SECONDS to prove your product's worth. Not features. Not code. DESIGN. Your users don't care about your engineering marvel. They care about understanding it in a heartbeat. What if I told you that your design is either your greatest growth lever or your silent killer? I'm pulling back the curtain on how top SaaS founders transform confusion into conversion. 👀 Swipe to see the eye-opening breakdown that most founders never see. #SaaSTips #ProductDesign #StartupGrowth #Wubbl

Every successful startup hits critical milestones at each funding stage. Here are some milestones to guide your growth: 🧩 Pre-Seed: Idea, Founder Team, Validation 🚀 Seed: Product Launch, Key Hires, Early Revenue 📈 Series A: User Growth, Team Expansion, Market Penetration 🌍 Series B: Solid Financials, New Markets, Scalable Ops 🏆 Series C+: Product Expansion, Partnerships, Path to IPO Every step matters, and knowing your next milestone is key to attracting investors and scaling your startup. Which milestone are you working toward right now? Let us know in the comments!👇

Couldn’t help jumping on this trend ! As an investor, when founders ask me what they need to show other investors, I now always say: Traction. Previously, others metrics/decks/staff/marketing may had worked, but now it’s just traction in my opinion ! With everything that happened 2020/21, investors need even more reassurance that your startup has legs. Plus, it’s important to show them everything you are doing to make it work and to bring in revenue. And if you need money to build tech to build traction to get more money- try building it offline instead with as little tech as possible. I’ve seen this done and it’s a great route to success. It’s what we love to see as investors ourselves. Traction, traction, traction. Do you agree?

Do you have an idea 💡 you can't stop thinking about? Do you know how to take it from an idea into a reality? In this workshop, Sarah Bell, will be covering: - exactly what the startup journey looks like - the big mistakes first time founders make and why (and what to do instead) - how to find your first customers