AI can now write the comments, the posts and the welcome messages. But members can tell when nobody is really there, and trust is the first thing to go.

Andy spent around seven years at GoDaddy before Glide, and he builds through personal outreach and collaborative projects. He explains where AI really earns its place, why he treats other communities as partners instead of rivals, and why "start a new community" is usually the wrong answer to criticism.

In this episode:

• How to use AI for community operations, like gathering context, understanding members and matchmaking
• Why auto-generated comments and posts erode trust, and how to use AI as a "blank canvas" helper instead
• How gamification can backfire when it rewards volume over thoughtful participation
• Why a complementary mindset beats a competitive one, and when to send people to a better-fit community
• How to start a partnership small with a joint event, then build on what works
• Why a new community won't fix problems in the product underneath it
• Whether public support forums still deserve your community's time, or belong with AI support agents
• Why product communities only work when teams close the feedback loop

Plus how AI and no-code tools have cut shipping a landing page from weeks to hours.

Key takeaway: Let AI handle the admin, and keep the human moments human. AI can't replace real connection or the accountability that comes from people who know each other.

Find Andy:

• Andy's site: https://andymci.com
• Glide: https://www.glideapps.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andymci

Join the next live recording and ask your own questions: https://swarm.to/community

Unscalable is brought to you by:

• Swarm (https://swarm.to): the video-first home for communities of practice. Every episode is recorded live inside Swarm.
• StoryPrompt (https://storyprompt.com): collect stunning video testimonials from your customers with one magic link.

Subscribe to Unscalable on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts for conversations with the people betting on the human stuff: trust, community, and real relationships.

AI is flooding feeds and forums with content nobody asked for. Real conversations between people who know each other are the one thing it can't fake.

Rosie has been building community for nearly 20 years. Ministry of Testing started as an online forum in 2007 and now has six figures in members, a team of seven, and around a million in revenue. She explains why she came back to lead it in 2023, why she chose to build her own platform, and how one small change wiped out almost all of their moderation work.

[Apologies for the poor audio quality from my mic in this recording.]

In this episode:

• How to show you care in practice, by listening and treating your community as research
• Why Rosie stepped out from behind the scenes and onto the stage as a community leader
• How putting a paid layer on participation cut moderation to almost zero
• Tthe content that AI can't fake, and how it helps members grow
• How to start a community without a community tool
• How to build a business model by borrowing what works from social platforms, like chapters, job listings, and ads
• How tracking community behaviour by hand for months shaped a feature that now scales itself

Plus how Rosie matches members with jobs, and why in-person chapters and events still matter.

Key takeaway: Don't start with a tool. Start by showing up, having conversations, and building on ground you own, because social platforms will always serve their own agenda first.

Find Rosie and Ministry of Testing:

• Ministry of Testing: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/p/rosie
• Rosie's writing: https://rosie.land

Join the next live recording and ask your own questions: https://swarm.to/community

Unscalable is brought to you by:

• Swarm (https://swarm.to): the video-first home for communities of practice. Every episode is recorded live inside Swarm.
• StoryPrompt (https://storyprompt.com): collect stunning video testimonials from your customers with one magic link.

Subscribe to Unscalable on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts for conversations with the people betting on the human stuff: trust, community, and real relationships.

Chapters:

00:00 How communities survive the AI age

03:16 Meet Rosie Sherry

07:21 Why listening is community research

08:19 Stepping up as a community leader

10:10 The scale and story of Ministry of Testing

12:37 How AI changed the community landscape

13:58 Turning community data into better tools

15:26 Why Rosie built her own platform

17:49 Where AI helps and where it doesn't

20:37 How a paid layer ended AI spam and moderation

22:36 Why human conversations can't be faked

25:24 How conversations help members grow

28:35 Advice for new community builders

30:32 Measuring impact you can't put in a survey

32:55 Building a sustainable community business

34:21 Expanding into a community for tech people

35:19 Matching members with job opportunities

37:15 Why offline events and chapters still matter

40:55 Designing interactions beyond the platform

42:22 Where to find Rosie

#communitybuilding #onlinecommunity #ai #podcasting #unscalable

AI is making it harder to tell what's real online. That's exactly why in-person rooms are worth more than ever.

Based in New York, David has hosted 70+ live podcast events, mostly in his own apartment, and has produced 500+ podcast episodes. He explains how one hallway conversation turned into a recurring mixer series, and how a newsletter and podcast keep people connected between events.

In this episode:

• How to start your first event with friends, low stakes, and about 10 people
• David's two-hour mixer format: four 30-minute blocks of arrival, short attendee talks, small-group mastermind, and meeting someone new
• Why attendee stories beat paid speakers, and how to pick a theme people will open up about
• How to fill your first event by attaching it to a conference where people are already travelling
• How a newsletter, podcast, and video build trust before people ever meet you
• How to think about podcast ROI when the return is relationships, not revenue
• Why personal video messages have been David's most unscalable habit for eight years

Plus a quick-fire round: the ideal mixer size, the name tag debate, and the fastest way to ruin a live event.

Key takeaway: Start small with people who already know, like, and trust you. Keep the cost low, watch how people respond, and let them tell you when to run the next one.

Find David and A Chief of Staff:

• Website: https://www.achiefofstaffpodcast.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidnebinski/

Join the next live recording and ask your own questions: https://swarm.to/community

Unscalable is brought to you by:

• Swarm (https://swarm.to): the video-first home for communities of practice. Every episode is recorded live inside Swarm. 
• StoryPrompt (https://storyprompt.com): collect stunning video testimonials from your customers with one magic link.

Subscribe to Unscalable on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts for conversations with the people betting on the human stuff: trust, community, and real relationships.

Chapters:

00:00 Why human connection matters in the AI era

00:29 Meet David Nebinski

01:28 What chiefs of staff do and why they need community

02:55 How David's mixers got started

04:52 Adding a newsletter and podcast after events

06:42 Using video and YouTube to build trust

11:02 Why niche content wins on YouTube

12:28 How to structure a mixer for engagement

14:25 Why in-person rooms matter for learning

15:22 How one connection can change your career

17:15 The two-hour mixer format, block by block

20:16 How to host your first in-person event

22:40 Using fast feedback to improve your events

24:36 Why behind-the-scenes content works

28:56 Building trust through personal stories

34:38 How to measure podcast ROI

39:34 Niche audiences and trust in the AI age

45:15 Being human as a competitive advantage

47:10 The emotional reward of hosting

48:36 Why you should do the unscalable things

#communitybuilding #communityevents #podcasting #networking #unscalable

In this episode, we talk about:

* How to grow an audience when you're starting at zero

* The big marketing mistakes you’re probably making

* What an effective marketing system looks like

* The Tiny Marketing Framework

* The best AI prompts to use in your marketing

* How to adopt video in your marketing strategy

🎁 StoryPrompt Giveaway 👉 Get a FULL YEAR of StoryPrompt for free!

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple, or search “Unscalable” in your podcast app, or watch on YouTube.

Links mentioned on the show

* StoryPrompt Giveaway: Get a FULL YEAR of StoryPrompt for free!

* Tiny Marketing

* Sarah’s LinkedIn profile

* Gavin’s LinkedIn profile

Thanks to StoryPrompt (our sponsor).  StoryPrompt helps you boost customer loyalty and engagement using asynchronous video. Capturing stories, testimonials, and attention is as simple as sharing a link. Sign up to get 20% off all plans.

In this episode, we talk about:

* How Vista Social got started

* How they leveraged community to boost their growth

* How they position themselves in an extremely crowded market

* How they’ve been able to iterate so quickly on new trends like AI and TikTok

* AI and its impact on the future of social media

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple, or search “Unscalable” in your podcast app, or watch on YouTube.

Links mentioned on the show

* VistaSocial

* AgencyVista

* Brittany’s LinkedIn profile

* Alexus’s LinkedIn profile

* Gavin’s LinkedIn profile

Thanks to StoryPrompt (our sponsor).  StoryPrompt helps you boost customer loyalty and engagement using asynchronous video. Capturing stories, testimonials, and attention is as simple as sharing a link. Sign up to get 20% off all plans.

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple, or search “Unscalable” in your podcast app.

Links mentioned on the show

* EVD Analytics

* Jonathan’s LinkedIn profile

* Gavin’s LinkedIn profile

Thanks to StoryPrompt (our sponsor).  StoryPrompt helps you boost customer loyalty and engagement using asynchronous video. Capturing stories, testimonials, and attention is as simple as sharing a link. Sign up to get 20% off all plans.

In this episode, Martine talks about:

* What inspired her to write a children’s book.

* What message she hopes to convey through her book.

* Why she decided to self-publish.

* The process of writing a book, from idea to bookstores.

* The challenges she faced during the process and how to avoid them.

* Resources you can use to write your own book.

Links mentioned on the show:

* A Little Piece Inside Me Is Missing

* StoryPrompt: Video Engagement Platform

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple, or search “Unscalable” in your podcast app.

▶️ Or, watch on YouTube.

Full Transcript:

Gavin Hammar: Martine thanks for joining us on the show. So you're a mom,…

Martine Hammar: Thanks for having me.

Gavin Hammar: you're helping me build story prompts and you start up from the ground up. I'm just curious.

Martine Hammar: Well, for me,…

Gavin Hammar: What inspired you to write a children's book in the first place?

Martine Hammar: it kind of had nothing really to do with working together and sendable, you know, and story prompting that type of thing. It's just a kind of feel that sometimes in life, we go through things that We might not even realize at the time that can actually help people. And I think it's only when you actually stand back and…

Gavin Hammar:  You.

Martine Hammar: reflect on things that and speak to people that you realize that You'll experience can actually help someone else and that's exactly what I went through. And that's what led me to create this book. Should.

Gavin Hammar:  So what message are you hoping to convey to the book? Then I mean Obviously you have some sort of story you want to tell some underlying theme to the book so maybe for listeners who haven't seen the book which most of them. Haven't, what's, what's the main sort of messages message that you're trying to give across in the story?

Martine Hammar:  Okay, well, let me go back a little bit. So, basically, what happened with with me in my life so in 2020, we were in lockdown, obviously a bit and everything. Now, I mean, you obviously know the story being my husband, but basically so Gavin and I moved from South Africa, our families win South Africa. And we were based in the UK. So we were really far and I think lockdown and covid, made people feel a lot further suddenly we couldn't just go, it wasn't overnight to see our families. So anyway, we got through the year and it was amazing and like we all reached December and I remember even saying to you We've nailed it. You know, this was a challenging year, we've done it, we managed homeschooling working from home have you know, transforming sandable into a remote company. We nailed it. And then basically I got a phone call to say that my mum had started coughing.

Martine Hammar:  Didn't think anything of it. You know, I remember talking to her and her saying, Oh, I must wash my vegetables. When I do any grocery shopping and they say to, you know, what? UBS neurotic as you want, we're fine. Whatever but please be, as neurotic as you want. So there she was, ironically washing her, you know, bags and vegetables and deliveries and everything and me laughing behind her back, but at least she was looking after yourself. So anyway, she started coughing right around her birthday, 69th birthday. And basically what happened was the next day, she was, unfortunately asthmatic, and the next day, she went into hospital because her sets weren't great and the doctor was concerned and even at the time we were like, It's fine, you know, you're being, you know, you're in the right place, you're with the doctors, they'll keep an eye on you. Now, granted, this was, I went to the beginning of covid, but it was the beginning of a new wave, especially in South Africa. My dad also head coach at the time, but thankfully, he was able to stay home.

Martine Hammar:  So she went into hospital and the whole time, you know, we had such an amazing relationship, she had and she was incredibly close to you and I she was incredibly close to our children, her friends. You know, she had an amazing support system. Very very well-loved member of the community in South Africa and you know, in our lives. So she kind of carried on the same, the same optimism, the same sense of humor. Everything she was sending me videos and photos of the cardboard. She said that she was eating in the hospitals, you know, the same banter. This everything was the same just unfortunately she was in hospital but it didn't let her spirits never never dropped at all. So so we were chatting all the time and then suddenly we got a message to say she needed to spend more time on her stomach. So then messages slowed down a bit, then she was moved to hide opinion see and was on a fast flow. I think it was called messages dwindled. A little bit that way and slowly slowly slowly.

Martine Hammar:  This person who was so much in my life, every minute of every day, I used to call her in traffic just to talk about nonsense or I would call her because the kids had some silly thing. They wanted to say, you know, this person started Unfortunately, vanishing from my life, like, you know, I didn't kind of know which way to turn. I was just so used to her being there for me and sharing things and having involved in our lives. Especially in lockdown. She was despite the the distance. So then, unfortunately she was moved into the ICU and they had to put on a ventilator. And suddenly, I went from this person who I spoke to every minute of every day, even in hospital to suddenly nothing, just no communication whatsoever. And for me,

Martine Hammar:  It just was, everything was all wrong. Not only should I have been there. I hadn't seen her, since December, 2019. I should have been there with her. I wasn't, I couldn't even speak to her. I was stuck in the UK, she was in South Africa. I couldn't get on a plane. Everything just wasn't right. As I said a world love member of the community should have been surrounded by people. She was on her own just it wasn't right. Nothing was right. And then unfortunately so basically three weeks after she started coughing, we got a message to say that she had passed away all on her own. I mean, this is like, if I had to think to myself, what I would never ever wish on anybody, it's this because it was just so black messed up. Basically, like I even remember saying to you, like this is not the way this is, can't be the right way. This can't be the way it happens. It just wasn't right. Like, this person was so crucial in my life this just wasn't right and obviously my

00:05:00

Martine Hammar:  Rathers. I have two brothers. Also, they weren't with her. My dad wasn't with the best friends, no one. So, So basically, it was like this. You know, it's kind of what I explain this. It's basically the Jewish religion allow...

In this episode, Tim talks about:

* How DMs helped Pallyy grow by 10X after 2 years.

* His approach to acquiring new customers.

* The importance of knowing your customers, not just listening to them.

* Why you don’t need a unique idea to start a business.

* How staying small he helped him grow Pallyy.

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple, or search “Unscalable” in your podcast app.

▶️ Or, watch on YouTube.

Links mentioned on the show

* Pallyy

* Tim’s Twitter profile

* Gavin’s LinkedIn profile

Thanks to StoryPrompt (our sponsor).  StoryPrompt helps you boost customer loyalty and engagement using asynchronous video. Capturing stories, testimonials, and attention is as simple as sharing a link. Sign up to get 20% off all plans.

Melissa has spent twelve years in startups and built three successful companies without venture capital backing. Her previous startup, a real estate tech company, was acquired in 2019.

In this episode, Melissa talks about:

The lessons she learned from her last company, Spacio, that she's bringing with her to eWebinar.

Building a business as a non-technical founder.

The reason she's choosing to stay bootstrapped.

How she went about bringing on her first 100 customers at eWebinar.

Why she believes you need to work more creatively.

The future of sales.

Links mentioned on the show

eWebinar

Melissa’s LinkedIn profile

Gavin’s LinkedIn profile

Thanks to StoryPrompt (our sponsor).  StoryPrompt is the easiest way to send and collect personal videos. Capturing stories, testimonials, and updates is as simple as sharing a link. Sign up for free.

In this episode, Jeremy talks about:

How he went about getting case studies for uSERP in the early days.

How his agency increased Monday.com's traffic by 1,570% with SEO.

The new marketing trends he's most excited about.

How SEO and short-form video works together.

Links mentioned on the show

uSERP

Jeremy’s Twitter profile

Gavin’s LinkedIn profile

Thanks to StoryPrompt (our sponsor).  StoryPrompt is the easiest way to send and collect personal videos. Capturing stories, testimonials, and updates is as simple as sharing a link. Sign up for free.

In this episode, Kate talks about:

How Lately uses AI to help customers produce content.

How she helped Gary Vee get a 12000% increase in engagement.

How Lately achieves a 98% sales conversion rate.

What she would do differently if she were starting a new tech company now.

Her thoughts on the future of AI.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or search “Unscalable” in your podcast app.

Links mentioned on the show

Lately.ai

Kate’s Twitter profile

Kate’s LinkedIn profile

Gavin’s LinkedIn profile

Thanks to StoryPrompt (our sponsor).  StoryPrompt is the easiest way to send and collect personal videos. Capturing stories, testimonials, and updates is as simple as sharing a link. Sign up for free.

He is now focused on the human side of business and how we can make our work lives not only successful, but also sustainable and meaningful.

In this episode, Tobias talks about:

• Where the idea for Tower came from and why he decided to sell
• The benefits of selling your company through a broker vs going direct
• What he means by the human side of business (and why he’s so obsessed with it)
• How to build a culture of trust in a remote-first world
• Why small companies are such beautiful places to work
• Why Gavin wants to keep StoryPrompt small
• Why we struggle so much as founders as our companies get bigger
• How to hire for cultural fit in a smaller organization

Links mentioned on the show

• Tobias.co
• Culture Code 
• Reinventing Organizations 

Connect with Tobias

• LinkedIn

Connect with Gavin

• LinkedIn

In this episode, Shaun talks about:

• The pros and cons of white labelling your product
• The impact white labelling has had on High Level's success
• Advice for other SaaS founders considering white labelling their products
• The challenges of white labelling and how to overcome them

Connect with Shaun

• LinkedIn

Connect with Gavin

• LinkedIn

Links mentioned on the show

• HighLevel
• Sendible's Social Media White Label Solution
• StoryPrompt

In this episode, Farzad goes deep into SEO strategies and talks about:

• How to determine whether SEO is the right acquisition channel for you
• How to discover “opportunity” keywords for SEO using the "Farzad formula"
• How to write content that’s optimized for SEO
• The podcast outreach strategy he uses to get backlinks
• How to get a particular content piece to rank
• His advice for founders who are considering whether to invest in SEO

Plus, he walks me through the step-by-step process I can use to help StoryPrompt rank for “video testimonial software”.

Connect with Farzad

• LinkedIn

Connect with Gavin

• LinkedIn

Links mentioned on the show

• Outreach Strategy Hub
• Visme Marketing Strategy
• Respona
• Visme
• StoryPrompt: Collect video testimonials in seconds

• Cultural efficiency and how to measure it
• How to bring true happiness to your teams
• How to hire for the right cultural fit
• Where to begin when it comes to revamping your culture
• How to develop systems that produce results
• How much time you should allocate to culture

--

Connect with Kelly:

• https://www.kellycardenas.com
• https://instagram.com/therealkellycardenas

In this episode, I talk about: 

• My approach to announcing StoryPrompt
• Why I underestimated the response
• Why it's getting harder to attract new customers to your business
• How to use storytelling to capture your customers' attention
• Trust-based marketing and how it works
• How to produce high-converting content at a low cost
• How to bypass the StoryPrompt early access queue

--

Connect with Gavin on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinhammar/

• How your business can stand out in a crowded space using video
• Why video is the best vehicle to connect with your customers
• How to get comfortable on video
• The storytelling formula that "just works" on video

Plus, Rob shares his process for coming up with new video ideas every week.

--

Connect with Rob on LinkedIn and YouTube
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbalasabas/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfqqB7r1PEOaLVY43i-KEfA

• How he's ensuring that his bootstrapped startup keeps up with Hubspot
• The most successful thing he did to propel Vonza forward
• How your businesses can sell without selling and cut through the noise

Plus, Uyi shares the unscalable tactic he used to achieve a $10 million valuation as a bootstrapped company – in just 15 months.

--

Connect with Uyi on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/uyiabraham/

Vonza
https://vonza.com/ 

In this episode, I chat to Martine about: 

• The sacrifices she had to make as my wife
• The moment I told her my idea for Sendible
• Why she insisted that I spend all our savings to buy back the company
• When she started helping out part-time
• What she'll miss most about Sendible
• What she'll be doing next

--

Connect with Martine on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinehammar/

Connect with Gavin on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinhammar/

In this episode, we get tactical about: 

• How Tim was able to generate millions of impressions on Unsplash
• The exact steps you need to take to generate brand awareness using Unsplash
• How non-photographers can take good photos that do well on Unsplash
• The framework you can use to discover other growth tactics like this
• General advice for other early stage founders trying to find traction

--

Connect with Tim on LinkedIn.

The Growth Lab:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1puJDv4MNjg05AqCgIqFGNRqAIAM_Et1U0gzFaq1-H-Q/edit?usp=sharing

In this episode, Mike talks about: 

• How to avoid the same hurdles and failures he suffered while building Zoona
• Why he left Canada to build an ambitious startup in Africa in the first place 
• The failure that taught him the most about entrepreneurship
• How first time founders can reduce the risk of failure 
• How to prototype and test before writing your first line of code
• Why you should build with the fewest right people

--

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn. 
Failing To Win By Mike Quinn (Amazon link)

• How he validated that positioning his company for B2B organisations would pay off
• His most effective channel for acquiring B2B customers
• How businesses can use employee advocacy to amplify their marketing efforts
• How an unscalable mindset helped to grow Oktopost in the early days

--

Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn.  

• How to overcome the fear of launching your product
• How to decide on a target market and why it's important to pick a niche 
• How to attract early adopters to your startup
• How  to get on the radar of a potential acquirer
• Why it's important to start marketing before building
• Why you should consider raising a seed round

Plus, Lee shares his thoughts on the future of sales.

--

Connect with Lee on LinkedIn.  

In this episode, Hiten talks about:

• How he realised he needed to pivot the company
• Why he decided to rename the business after the pivot
• What he might've done differently early on to avoid the need to pivot
• The different types of pivots a company goes through
• Pivots vs hops

Plus, Hiten shares mental models and frameworks to help you decide whether it's time to pivot your own business.

--

Connect with Hiten on LinkedIn and Twitter.  

In this episode, Phil talks about:

• Why he decided to start TubeBuddy back in 2014
• What led to him deciding to sell the company 
• The mental models he adopted to face this life-changing event
• The pivotal things he did as CEO that resulted in TubeBuddy's success
• What he'll be doing next

Plus, Phil shares why he put his energy into building real relationships in an unscalable way and how it led to TubeBuddy's amazing growth.

--

Connect with Phil on Linkedin.
Install TubeBuddy to grow your YouTube channel faster.

• How a health coach can help your business
• Warning signs that an employee is about to resign
• The role work-life balance plays in productivity
• Superhero status and its flaws
• How to scale wellness in the workplace

Plus, Leora shares her 4 core principles that can be applied to everyone's belief system.

--

Connect with Leora on Linkedin.

In this episode, Matt talks about:

• Why ads and sales pitches are no longer effective
• The benefits of starting a podcast
• How to use a podcast to accelerate your influence
• How to grow your podcast audience
• How to measure ROI for a podcast
• How to start your own podcast

Plus, Matt shares why he adopts an unscalable, human-centric approach to serving his clients. 

--

Connect with Matt on Linkedin or subscribe to his podcast, Top Advisor Marketing Podcast, where he teaches you how to become a prolific online influencer, attract more ideal clients and grow your business.

In this episode, Eric talks about:

• How he famously bought his agency for $2
• Why he tries to view business with a long-term lens
• How he evaluates investment opportunities
• Whether SEO is still relevant
• The future of advertising
• How to stand out in an incredibly crowded market
• The marketing channels that have led to his biggest successes

Plus, Eric shares the secret he uses to scale his content production across so many different channels.

--

Mentioned on the show

• MicroAcquire
• The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life
• Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
• HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company
• The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers 
• Agile M&A: Proven Techniques to Close Deals Faster and Maximize Value
• Eric on The Pump Podcast
• People Analyzer

--

Eric is an incredibly successful marketer, investor and businessman.  He is also the chairman of the agency, Single Grain and has worked with companies such as Amazon, Uber and Salesforce. Eric hosts two podcasts, Marketing School with Neil Patel, and Leveling Up. 

Order Eric's new book at Leveling Up or connect with him on Twitter and Instagram. 

• Why Cloud Campaign chose to go the VC route vs remain bootstrapped
• How to approach a VC and how these firms typically work
• How to ensure you have product-market fit
• When you know if it's the right time to hire
• Why it's so hard to hire developers right now
• And much more!

--
Connect with Ryan on Linkedin. Follow him on Twitter and Medium.

--
The story behind Cloud Campaign's Series A:
Following Significant Growth, Cloud Campaign Raises $5M to Scale, Hire

In this episode, recorded prior to Sendible's acquisition, we talk about:

• Why Gavin broke the "no friends and family rule" to allow Martine in. 
• Why Gavin created a fake employee and made Martine use her maiden name at work. 
• Some of the mistakes Gavin would've made if Martine hadn't been involved. 
• The rules Gavin put in place to ensure Sendible didn't become a family business. 
• The pros and cons of working with your spouse. 
• And much much more...

We want to hear from you

• Send an email to hello@unscalable.fm or leave us a voice message!
• Connect with Gavin on Twitter and LinkedIn.

• How he celebrated the deal
• Why he decided to sell the company after 14 years
• How the team reacted to the news
• His most challenging period as CEO
• Why he loves competition
• The operating system he used to scale Brandwatch to 550 employees

Plus, Giles shares how he used an unscalable approach to maintain a strong company culture.

--
Giles is the founder and former CEO of Brandwatch, a leading social media listening tool. He built Brandwatch from nothing to a team of over 500 employees with 2000 customers and over $100m in ARR. After launching the company almost 14 years ago, Brandwatch was recently acquired by Cision for $450 million.

Connect with Giles on Linkedin and Twitter.

--
The playbook that Giles used to scale Brandwatch's operations:
The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni 

• How to build a repeatable flywheel to make marketing a competitive advantage
• Why buying ads is just boulder-pushing
• The importance of SEO (or lack thereof)
• His advice on team building (or choosing not to)

Plus, Rand shares the unscalable tactics that he is using to fuel SparkToro's growth.

--
Rand Fishkin is co-founder and CEO of audience research startup SparkToro. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through his writing, speaking, startups, and his book, Lost and Founder. When Rand’s not working, he’s usually cooking a fancy meal for the love of his life, author Geraldine DeRuiter. If you bribe him with great pasta or great cocktails, he’ll spill big tech’s dark secrets.

The video we discussed on the show:
https://fb.watch/5UrSOIGttH/

If you have any questions, we'd love to hear from you! Send an email to hello@unscalable.fm

For a great resource on this topic:
https://fs.blog/2016/04/second-order-thinking/

If you have any questions, we'd love to hear from you! Send an email to hello@unscalable.fm

• Gavin's letter to customers
• Gavin's newsletter

If you have any questions about Sendible or the acquisition, we'd love to hear from you!

Send an email to hello@unscalable.fm

In this episode, Martine and Gavin reminisce about the early days and the challenges of getting a bootstrapped company off the ground.

Connect with Gavin:

• Connect with Gavin on LinkedIn
• Follow Gavin on Twitter  

We want to hear from you

• Send an email to hello@unscalable.fm!

-- Help Martine answer this week's ice breaker question:
https://storyprompt.com/reply/ysfhqg3KHI2TSqu4rKLr

If you have any questions, we'd love to hear from you! Send an email to hello@unscalable.fm

• Anecdotes, mental models, and strategies that are easy for you to adopt, and can provide a high degree of leverage.
• Interviews with other founders who are adopting an "unscalable" approach to building their businesses.
• A behind-the-scenes look at  how we're putting these lessons into practice while we get our new venture off the ground

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