Stevens Smith's guest appearances

Stevens Smith

Two In The Chamber

The Scale Up Show

Jake Dunlap

Jeff Coyle

Patrick Campbell

Max Altschuler

Aaron Krall

Rainforest QA

Rand Fishkin

David Brier

Justin Michael

Gina Bianchini

Reena Gupta

Mark Metry

Jason Bay

Terry Jones

Matt Young

OwlTail

It’s the 200th episode of The Scale Up Show! Founder and CEO of Rainforest QA Fred Stevens Smith joins Ryan today to talk all about how he grew his business past 8 figures, how he paid the ultimate price for a mistake and what it means to pivot and completely rebuild your business! KEY TAKEAWAYS  The first 7 years of the business was around a different product before realising that what had been designed wouldn’t be sustainable. Fred and his team had to completely change their strategy, which included firing 2/3 of their team and design a new product. You can’t get product market fit once you get hyper-growth. You become locked in. This is why Fred wanted to do something really radical. Although the product and go to market was essentially wrong, Fred and his team learnt a lot and believed they could build something that actually solved problems in the market sustainably; this is what drove them to pivot. Hyper growth can be a trap for some companies and Rainforest QA was almost one of them. Many companies get so focused on revenue that they aren’t working on their product enough and this is where disaster can strike. There’s a very big disconnect between model building and company building, it’s easy to misunderstand that when you are a first-time founder. Do not even think about raising funding against future revenue growth without first knowing you have product-market fit. Most ideas and most start-ups fail because they don’t get to great market fit. You can’t create market fit you can only uncover it. At the end of the day it boils down to net-revenue retention. QA is an ‘insanely broken industry’ according to Fred, which is why he was passionate about creating a solution that helped engineers.    BEST MOMENTS  “I realised we were just going to be treading water here” “They had insane hyper-market fit” “You can’t really create great market fit you can just uncover it”   Do You Want The Closing Secrets That Helped Close Over $125 Million in New Business for Free?"  Grab them HERE: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets   Ryan Staley Founder and CEO Whale Boss 312-848-7443 ryan@whalesellingsystem.com www.ryanstaley.io    EPISODE RESOURCES www.rainforestqa.com   ABOUT THE SHOW How do you grow like a VC backed company without taking on investors? Do you want to create a lifestyle business, a performance business or an empire? How do you scale to an exit without losing your freedom?Join the host Ryan Staley every Monday and Wednesday for conversations with the brightest and best Founders, CEO’s and Entrepreneurs to crack the code on repeatable revenue growth, leadership, lifestyle freedom and mindset.This show has featured Startup and Billion Dollar Founders, Best Selling Authors, and the World’s Top Sales and Marketing Experts like Terry Jones (Founder of Travelocity and Chairman of Kayak), Andrew Gazdecki (Founder of Micro Acquire), Harpaul Sambhi (Founder of Magical with a previous exit to Linkedin) and many more. This is where Scaling and Sales are made simple in 25 minutes or less.Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecretsThis show was brought to you by Progressive Media

It’s the 200th episode of The Scale Up Show! Founder and CEO of Rainforest QA Fred Stevens Smith joins Ryan today to talk all about how he grew his business past 8 figures, how he paid the ultimate price for a mistake and what it means to pivot and completely rebuild your business! KEY TAKEAWAYS <ul> <li>The first 7 years of the business was around a different product before realising that what had been designed wouldn’t be sustainable. Fred and his team had to completely change their strategy, which included firing 2/3 of their team and design a new product. </li> <li>You can’t get product market fit once you get hyper-growth. You become locked in. This is why Fred wanted to do something really radical. </li> <li>Although the product and go to market was essentially wrong, Fred and his team learnt a lot and believed they could build something that actually solved problems in the market sustainably; this is what drove them to pivot. </li> <li>Hyper growth can be a trap for some companies and Rainforest QA was almost one of them. Many companies get so focused on revenue that they aren’t working on their product enough and this is where disaster can strike. </li> <li>There’s a very big disconnect between model building and company building, it’s easy to misunderstand that when you are a first-time founder. </li> <li>Do not even think about raising funding against future revenue growth without first knowing you have product-market fit. </li> <li>Most ideas and most start-ups fail because they don’t get to great market fit. You can’t create market fit you can only uncover it. At the end of the day it boils down to net-revenue retention. </li> <li>QA is an ‘insanely broken industry’ according to Fred, which is why he was passionate about creating a solution that helped engineers.</li> </ul> BEST MOMENTS  “I realised we were just going to be treading water here” “They had insane hyper-market fit” “You can’t really create great market fit you can just uncover it” Do You Want The Closing Secrets That Helped Close Over $125 Million in New Business for Free?"  Grab them HERE: <a href="https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets</a> Ryan Staley Founder and CEO Whale Boss 312-848-7443 ryan@whalesellingsystem.com <a href="https://www.ryanstaley.io/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ryanstaley.io</a> EPISODE RESOURCES <a href="http://www.rainforestqa.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.rainforestqa.com</a> ABOUT THE SHOW How do you grow like a VC backed company without taking on investors? Do you want to create a lifestyle business, a performance business or an empire? How do you scale to an exit without losing your freedom? Join the host Ryan Staley every Monday and Wednesday for conversations with the brightest and best Founders, CEO’s and Entrepreneurs to crack the code on repeatable revenue growth, leadership, lifestyle freedom and mindset. This show has featured Startup and Billion Dollar Founders, Best Selling Authors, and the World’s Top Sales and Marketing Experts like Terry Jones (Founder of Travelocity and Chairman of Kayak), Andrew Gazdecki (Founder of Micro Acquire), Harpaul Sambhi (Founder of Magical with a previous exit to Linkedin) and many more. This is where Scaling and Sales are made simple in 25 minutes or less.<a href="https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets</a>This show was brought to you by <a href="https://progressivestudios.co/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Progressive Media</a>

You Can’t Create Good Market Fit, You Can Only Uncover It - Speaking with Fred Stevens Smith of Rainforest QA

This is about an hour I cut from the regular episode because we went highly political, but I found it to be an interesting take and something that I didn't want to put behind the pay wall on Patreon. So check this one out if you want to hear our talks about political discourse, some points about universal healthcare, and renewable versus fossil versus nuclear.You can support the show as a paid member with a monthly recurring subscription to hear bonus audio like this episode, deleted stuff from the numbered episodes, and extra bonuses TBD later right here on the site! Simple! In the future, all bonus episodes will require a paying membership.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.  https://anchor.fm/app--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/messageSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/support

This is about an hour I cut from the regular episode because we went highly political, but I found it to be an interesting take and something that I didn't want to put behind the pay wall on Patreon. So check this one out if you want to hear our talks about political discourse, some points about universal healthcare, and renewable versus fossil versus nuclear. You can support the show as a paid member with a monthly recurring subscription to hear bonus audio like this episode, deleted stuff from the numbered episodes, and extra bonuses TBD later right here on the site! Simple! In the future, all bonus episodes will require a paying membership. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. <a href="https://anchor.fm/app" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/app</a> --- Send in a voice message: <a href="https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/message" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/message</a> Support this podcast: <a href="https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/support" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/support</a>

Bonus 1: Stevens Smith

Stevens drops by the garage to talk about his recent encounter with a deer, hanging out at his house, a scrambled eggs and salsa incident, why we as humans disagree, a plea for discourse. Also, we talk about video games, and some of the best things in our lives. I also ask what makes him happy.You can support the show as a paid member with a monthly recurring subscription to hear bonus audio, deleted stuff from the numbered episodes, and extra bonuses TBD later right here on the site! Simple!--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.  https://anchor.fm/app--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/messageSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/support

Stevens drops by the garage to talk about his recent encounter with a deer, hanging out at his house, a scrambled eggs and salsa incident, why we as humans disagree, a plea for discourse. Also, we talk about video games, and some of the best things in our lives. I also ask what makes him happy. You can support the show as a paid member with a monthly recurring subscription to hear bonus audio, deleted stuff from the numbered episodes, and extra bonuses TBD later right here on the site! Simple! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. <a href="https://anchor.fm/app" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/app</a> --- Send in a voice message: <a href="https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/message" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/message</a> Support this podcast: <a href="https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/support" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/twointhechamber/support</a>