What's up everybody?

This is Cortland from NDHackers.com and you're listening to the Andy Hacker's podcast.

On this show, I talked to the founders of profitable internet businesses and I try to get a sense of what it's like to be in their shoes.

How did they get to where they are today?

How do they make decisions both at their companies and in their personal lives? And what makes their businesses tick? Today I'm talking to Claire Liu. Claire is the CEO of a business called Know Your Company, which helps business owners get to know their employees better, overcome growing pains, and create a happier work environment. She's also an adjunct professor in entrepreneurship at Northwestern University. And finally, she runs an online community called The Water Cooler, where over 500 business leaders talk candidly about how to run a great workplace and be more effective leaders. So we've got a lot of good stuff to talk about. There are a lot of questions submitted by Andy Hackers on the forum as well. So Claire, welcome to the show and thanks for joining.

Thank you so much for having me in the first place, Cortland. I admire what you're doing and honestly

wish indie hackers had been around when I was first starting things up. So thanks for everything.

Well, thank you. That's so nice to hear. And I also think that Know Your Company is a very cool

business and I've got a bunch of reasons why I think that. But first, I want to hear your opinions, assuming that you agree with me that Know Your Company is a cool business. What's your favorite thing about it?

Man, it's like, I don't know, being asked to talk about white, like, you know, like, why do you think you're cool?

It's like, I don't know. It's an amazing business to run. I feel insanely blessed and lucky every single day.

I think the coolest part about it, for me at least, is the impact that we get to have and to do it on our own terms.

I think probably for a lot of founders and aspiring founders listening to this, that's

probably something that resonates.

You get into this, you try to start something on your own because you want to make something

different.

You want to make things move or be or act in a different way. And do you want to do it on your own terms? You have a vision for it. You don't want other people pushing and pulling saying, oh, do this, go this way. So for me, that's what I wake up every single day sort of inhaling and embracing with the business that we run

is we get to run it independently as a bootstrap company, really just guided by the profits

coming in from our customers. And the work that we do, it affects people in one of the biggest

aspects of their lives, which is going to work every day and the

hours that are spent there. So for me, that feels cool. Yeah, that's amazing. I think one of the

things that's very underrated about companies is the fact that they really are, as cliche as it

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