E4: Brendan Schwartz - Building Wistia for 18 years to ~200 employees after buying out investors

(0:00) Intro

(1:55) Early entrepreneurial influences

(5:20) Starting Wistia

(8:11) Shredding business plans and burning thru savings

(11:02) The portfolio website for artists that didn't pay the bills

(12:44) The first business customer

(15:22) Going up against YouTube and Vimeo

(18:50) The Starbucks barista healthcare backup plan

(21:00) Raising an angel round

(24:50) Closing a $12/month deal after a summer of sorrow with no sales

(27:15) 5 years of work with just 4 people to get to profitability

(33:59) Growing the business more aggressively while having trouble reinvesting the profits

(38:54) One of their biggest mistakes building Wistia

(48:24) Getting 3 offers to buy the business

(55:55) Raising debt to buy out investors and early employees

(1:04:50) Switching from options to profit sharing with employees

(1:12:36) Switching back to options away from profit sharing with employees

(1:18:30) Wistia today and what's next for Brendan and Wistia