SaaSy Talk S01.38 - Lifestyle Over Revenue: Unfiltered with Melissa Kwan

About The Guest(s): eWebinar Cofounder and CEO, Melissa Kwan, has spent 13 years in startups and built three successful companies without venture capital backing. Her previous startup, a real estate tech company, was acquired in 2019. As a revenue-driven founder specializing in B2B sales and business development, she has learned how to build companies with very few resources — by automating what she could, outsourcing wherever possible, and inspiring talented people to join her team with shared focus and enthusiasm. Over the last decade, Melissa has come to believe that happiness should be the foundation of one’s career, not the other way around, and that the way to achieve this is by intentionally designing one’s life. This belief was born in part from the soul-crushing experience Melissa endured giving the same webinar over and over again while onboarding and training customers for her previous SaaS company. She wanted to free others from the same trap by giving them a way to automate their repetitive webinars, so they could get their time back and spend it doing something else they value more instead of being tied to Zoom all the time. Summary: Melissa Kwan shares her career journey and how she got into the tech industry. She talks about the founding moment of eWebinar and how it solves the problem of automating live webinars. Melissa also discusses the challenges of working with dev shops and the importance of hiring contractors. She emphasizes the importance of bootstrapping and being profit-driven in order to maximize return on investment. Melissa also highlights the power of personal branding on LinkedIn and the impact it has had on her business. She shares her thoughts on the difficulties of building a product-led growth company without capital and the importance of choosing a business model that aligns with your lifestyle. Key Takeaways: Melissa advocates for lifestyle over revenue in her business. Hiring contractors and working remotely allows for flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Dev shops are great for existing products but not for building from zero to one. Personal branding on LinkedIn can help build an audience and create a supportive community. Building a product-led growth company without capital is extremely difficult. Quotes: "I want to be known as the founder that advocates for lifestyle over revenue." "Revenue is second to lifestyle and happiness." "For a product-led company, you need a team of people. The hardest person to find is the SEO expert." "I made a list of 10 non-negotiables and found a product that feeds that." "I love the lifestyle that I have now, which is no sales call, no support call, small team, no custom features." Chapters 01:17 The Birth of eWebinar 02:51 Building a Successful Team 04:22 Overcoming Challenges with Dev Shops 06:06 The Art of Bootstrapping 08:24 Balancing Profit and Personal Needs 21:00 The Power of LinkedIn and Personal Branding 23:02 Transition from Sales-led to Product-led 24:21 The Struggles of Cold Outreach and Finding Leads 25:13 Discovering the Power of LinkedIn for Business Growth 25:55 The Journey of Building an Audience on LinkedIn 26:40 The Importance of Personal Branding in Business 27:32 The Impact of Writing and Building a Supportive Community 28:33 The Shift from Company Brand to Personal Brand 29:08 The Challenges of Product-Led Growth (PLG) Companies 29:31 The Transition from Product-Led to Sales-Led 31:59 The Importance of Skill Sets in a Company 32:06 The Difficulty of Building a Product-Led Company without Capital 33:37 The Role of SEO in a Product-Led Company 35:38 Choosing Lifestyle Over Revenue 36:51 The Final Thoughts on Building a Business Around Lifestyle 38:08 The Importance of Understanding Your 'Why' in Business 41:42 Quick Fire-Round