Episode 787 | "We Shut Down a $1.5M Product, and Raised $10M Instead"
Startups For the Rest of Us
Rob Walling
4.9 • 819 Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Start Up for the Rest of Us. I'm Rob Walling. In this episode, I have a conversation with Braden Dennis. He's come back on the show. He's the co-founder of Finchat, and they have recently rebranded to Fiscal.A. after raising a $10 million series A. I don't cover a lot of venture raises on this podcast because we focus on bootstrapped and |
| 0:22.0 | mostly bootstrapped companies. But now and again, in our ecosystem, we are seeing bootstrappers |
| 0:27.4 | who catch lightning in a bottle. And they realize that the opportunity that they've stumbled |
| 0:34.2 | upon has much more potential than they originally thought. |
| 0:38.7 | And some of those folks decide to sell early. |
| 0:41.5 | Some folks continue to bootstrap, and others decide to go that venture route. |
| 0:46.2 | And today, Brayden and I discuss that decision about why he and his co-founders decided to shoot for the moon. |
| 0:53.0 | As you can tell by the title, we also talk about how |
| 0:55.0 | they shut down a $1.5 million ARR product, and we do a quick recap of what got them here. You can hear |
| 1:01.6 | more of that in his prior episode, which I mentioned during the interview. Before we dive into that |
| 1:08.0 | conversation, I want to let you know about our microconf local chapters. |
| 1:13.1 | Building a business can be isolating, but it doesn't have to be. |
| 1:16.1 | So inside MicroConf Connect, which is our online membership community, |
| 1:20.9 | we are launching local chapters to help you meet each other in person. |
| 1:25.0 | Our first local chapters will be taking place in Barcelona, Toronto, |
| 1:28.9 | Sydney, Austin, and London, giving you the chance to share challenges, exchange ideas, and build |
| 1:35.2 | relationships with other founders in your area. Alongside these local chapters, we're also opening up |
| 1:40.6 | the MicroConf Ambassador program. If you want to help bring founders together in your |
| 1:44.9 | city, you can apply to become an ambassador. We'll provide everything you need, a comprehensive |
| 1:49.3 | playbook, promotional support, and swag to make your events successful. Because no event can be |
| 1:54.7 | successful without swag, am I right? If you're looking for accountability, collaboration, or just |
| 1:59.4 | good conversations over coffee, apply |
... |
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