Wil and Wes and the Schedulefly Journey: Recent Episodes
Schedulefly
Wil and Wes (owners at Schedulefly) talk about all kinds of things related to Schedulefly and our journey running a software company (with Charles, Hank and Tyler) just the way we want to run it.
Wil talks about creating a competitive advantage by removing the friction and making it easier for customers to do business with us.
Wes talks about drawling a line in the sand and why we choose to do so. The talk mentions a section of a great book called Rework, which can be found here. https://www.amazon.com/ReWork-Change-Way-Work-Forever-ebook/dp/B003ELY7PG
Wes talks about how nice it is to own a business that is under no outside pressure to grow, which consequently is a big reason why we grow.
This is a great podcast from WIl on doing whatever it takes (often they are things that don't scale) in the early days of starting a business.
Wil talks about our continued excitement for the way we grow and the way we run this business.
Wes talks about how it never gets old signing up one customer at a time. It will never get old and we will never need to speed it up.
Wil talks about a free smoothie offer he's cashing in but wonders about the reason for the offer in the first place.
Wes talks about what a good match we are for the customers we serve. In many ways - we operate just like they do.
Wes tells a story about a buddy and his business and the opportunity he has to helps his customers with really simple, yet PIA, things.
Wil ponders the reasoning behind grow fast and exit (a venture backed approach) vs building something really valuable over time that makes life better for the customer.
Wes tells the story of showing Schedulefly to our 1st paying customer 10 years ago - a customer who is still with us today.
Wil talks about a restaurant he once loved that made some small, seemingly insignificant, changes that actually hurt the customer experience.
Wes talks about mattering and the life long journey of figuring out what really matters.
Wil talks about restaurateur Danny Meyer and his approach to hospitality and a call Wil received from someone on his team.
Wil talks about a humorous, frustrating experience when re-ordering Schedulefly stationery.
Like Dr. Emmett Brown said best - tiny decisions and interactions made now can have drastic effects on the future. Wes talks about an opportunity that could have erased the future as we know it.
Wil talks about how frequent changes in technology and products can be dreaded by customers who are looking for products and services they can rely on. Useful ones that don't keep changing.
Wil talks about a conversation he had with Van Nolintha - the owner of 2 very successful restaurants.
Wes talks about a lesson that's been learned over and over again - leaving fish to find bigger fish. It rarely ever works.
Wil talks about what makes a great independent restaurant successful - and it's not technology.
Wes talks about a customer that we lost due to them needing more from their scheduling software. Rather than add more software to try and grow with them - we congratulate them and send them on their way - so we can stay focused on the right places
Wil talks about our philosophy on not being here to serve all types of restaurants and why.
Wil talks about sales people and their incentive to bring on new business. In some cases, aggressive sales can actually back fire and tarnish the company's brand.
Wes talks about the the teeny tiny chance that mentioning Schedulefly to a restaurant owner would actually coincide with it being an important problem she is looking to solve. So rather than bother people, we let them find us - when the time is right for them.
Wes talks about features and settings and things that could be added to our software and why we typically leave them out.
Haha - that's what Darth Vader said to Han Solo, Chewbacca and Princess Leia when they surprisingly walked into a room where he sat - in the movie Empire Strikes Back. Will tells the story of a gentleman who surprised him just the same.
Wil talks about our focus on the perfect customer and how we are building a sub culture - or community - of like minded customers. The cool thing is many of them are very similar to us.
Wes talks about doing less and resisting the urge to write more software, add more products and hire more people. Doing so helps Schedulefly stand out from the pack and even causes some to admire how we run our business.
Wil talks about keeping things simple and while most people and companies would like to - it's really tough to do so - especially once success has begun to happen.
Wil talks about the topic of having an exit strategy for your business. Should you have one? Maybe. Maybe not. I guess it depends on what makes you happy.
This is the story of randomly being paired up with another golfer who happened to be a VC that's invested money in one of our competitors. He was actually a great guy.
Wil tells the story of a VC who asked us - shortly after we got started - what we would do with a $1M investment. The answer is great.
Wes talks about how we are raised and taught to compare ourselves (as chlidren and as adults) to other people and also to other businesses. Worrying about other people and what they are doing and to competition is such a huge waste of time and will likely just send you down a unhappy path to a place you never intended to go. It causes decisions to made purely out of fear that end up making you just like everyone else.
Wil tells a story about a company that wanted to purchase Schedulefly and claimed they could easily build a product like ours and compete with us if we didn't sell. We knew better, and he talks about why.
Wes talks about how doing proven things that worked in the past and that everyone does might not line up with what you believe personally and might not be the best ways to create a brand people really like....even though it's bringing in sales.
Wil talks about an alternative to grabbing as many customers as possible and as fast as you can - which might be difficult if there are investors involved. We've found that eventually most customers will settle in with a solution that makes them happy anyway...so long term it's better to slow down and focus on the right customer.
Wes continues the topic of applying Hell yes or no logic to our business. It actually works well too in our personal lives as it turns out...
Wil talks about doing things where the results are tough to measure - but feel right and are enjoyable and good for our brand.
Wil talks more about doing things that matter to us and our customers versus things that others do - for fear that we won't keep up.
Wil talks about us figuring out what we actually enjoy doing and doing that - versus many things a business is supposed to do like social media, partnerships, email campaigns etc.
Wil talks about the early days of selling, trade shows, partnering and looking for a tie to wear. None of which we did for very long.
In our 1st episode, Wes talks about why he and Wil decided to do a Podcast and why Schedulefly was created.