Episode 770 | Revenue vs. Profit, Asking for Permission, and Mike Tyson (A Rob Solo Adventure)

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Management, Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

4.8 • 792 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is it more important for entrepreneurs to focus on revenue or profit? In episode 770, Rob Walling goes solo to explore the relationship between revenue and profit in SaaS, and the dangers of waiting for permission. He also draws inspiration from Mike Tyson’s work ethic and George Lucas’ visionary mindset to encourage entrepreneurs to push through obstacles and innovate. Topics we cover: (2:41) – MRR versus ARR (8:04) – Don’t ask for permission, don’t give in to defeatism (14:38) – Inventing to pursue novel visions (18:48) – Mike Tyson’s training regimen (20:48) – You don’t need to be the best in the world Links from the Show: MicroConf Growth Retreat Discretion Capital Email Einar Rob Walling (@robwalling) | X Rob Walling | LinkedIn 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're listening to this, you're an aspiring entrepreneur, don't do that.
0:03.3	Hang around with people who get done.
0:05.2	Hang around with people who ship.
0:07.0	Hang around with people who say it can be done.
0:10.1	And if you don't know any, then find them on the internet.
0:13.4	Listen to this podcast.
0:14.9	Read the books from people who are getting it done. Welcome back to another episode of start-ups for the rest of us.
0:35.2	I'm your host, Rob Wallin.
0:36.6	And in this episode, I have a handful of
0:39.1	solo topics, one of which is a question I received on X Twitter about quoting revenue versus profit.
0:50.0	Then I have a topic about giving up before you should, finding excuses why things can't work,
0:55.7	then one about having taste and what you might have to do to achieve that taste, and potentially
1:01.7	another topic or two, depending on timing. Before I dive in to the meet of the episode,
1:07.9	MicroConf Growth Retreat in London is one month away. It will sell out. We've sold
1:14.2	all our events out for the past couple years. If you are in London or can get to London, May 14th
1:20.4	through the 16th of 2025 for this small, intimate event that's going to foster deeper conversations, going to be about
1:28.0	40 to 60 bootstrapped and mostly bootstrap founders. You should head to microconf.com slash
1:34.1	retreat and buy a ticket. It's going to consist of morning work sessions, afternoon excursions,
1:39.8	and all day hanging out with a bunch of motivated bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped founders.
1:46.1	That's microcom.com slash retreat.
1:47.6	In addition, I wanted to mention the M&A brokerage that I recommend for folks doing 2 to 20 million in ARR,
1:57.5	SaaS companies in particular.
	...

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