In this episode of Startups for the Rest of Us, I follow a journey from an amazing launch to near bankruptcy to profitability with Shy Schechter of right message.

This is Startups for the Rest of Us, episode 472.

Welcome to Startups for the Rest of us, the podcast that hopes developers, designers, and entrepreneurs be awesome at building, launching, and growing startups. Whether you've built your fifth

startup, or are you thinking about your first? I'm Rob. And today with Shy Schechter, we're here

to share our experiences to help you avoid the mistakes we've made. Welcome to this week's episode. I'm your host, Rob Walling, each week on this show.

We look at ambitious startups, founders who are looking to make a tiny dent in our corner of the world,

and maybe that only impacts the five people around them or the thousand people that use their app.

But it's folks who want to build

interesting things and have a greater purpose that is around building something larger than

themselves, but they're not willing to sacrifice their life, their health, or their relationships

in order to do that. These are not the typical Silicon Valley startups where fundraising can be

a goal in itself and where people

build slide decks instead of building businesses. We want to build real businesses with real

customers who pay us real money. And along the way, we like to be meticulous and disciplined

such that we can build these businesses over and over. We find repeatable ways that work over and over

and it's not just a luck shot. It's not hitting the

startup lottery that allows us to build successful companies. I just got back from three days

on the north shore of Lake Superior, and that's about a three-hour drive north of where I live

in Minneapolis. And I got a little room in a lodge with a fireplace and a whirlpool tub, and I had this great view of Lake Superior, and you can't see the other side of Lake Superior because it's so big.

And so aside from the waves, you know, when it gets windy, there are only two foot waves, three foot waves.

Aside from that, it really does kind of feel like you're on the coast

of California or the coast of Oregon. It's this coastal feel to it. And it was great for me to take a

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