Nick Francis - Baremetrics

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This week I talk with Nick Francis, Founder of HelpScout! In this episode we talk about being an entrepreneur as a kid, how a laptop change Nick’s world, working in the music industry, working with his co-founders for six years before starting HelpScout, becoming a B-Corp, focusing on culture and brand and so much more!

Show Notes

00:52- A month long sabbatical
3:00- Prepping for the sabbatical
4:36- A company thriving in your absence…strength of leadership
5:30- Ownership
8:00- Childhood
10:09- Inspiration for entrepreneurship versus getting a job
11:00- Different ways of learning
12:27- Getting into technology
14:36- Reason behind going to college and studying music business
18:23- Transition from finishing school
20:00- Working with creative people to bring out their best
20:19- Transition from artist management and web design
22:12- Passion for the web
23:45- Starting a company in 2004
25:40- The repetition of consulting work
26:35- The idea and inspiration for HelpScout
28:00- RSS feeds and the early days of Twitter
29:25- Email support and sharing an inbox
31:32- Making support system software a reality
33:00- Managing clients
34:02- A high level of confidence
34:45- Favorite thing about the customer service market
35:22- Risk threshold
37:20- Do More Faster by David Cohen
38:25- Techstars and working in Boston to build the company they always dreamed of
39:30- Biggest positive of being “all in” for 3 months
41:32- The year after Techstars
42:41- Defining your voice from a content marketing standpoint and betting the business on content
45:02- Pitching HelpScout early on
46:49- Taking a different approach to the business
48:06- Growing a product versus growing a team of people working on it
50:12- Fundraising 6 million dollars
51:19- The cool thing about making a lot of mistakes
53:30- Going all-in on hiring with the money raised
55:10- Content marketing pays off
56:25- Raising another round of 6 million dollars
58:06- Qualifying to be a B-corp
1:00:48- Making a great product and making HelpScout a great place to work
1:02:34- Becoming deeply passionate and wanting HelpScout to be a model company
1:03:28- The next year for HelpScout
1:05:27- The idea of building a brand versus building a product

Get in touch with Nick: helpscout.com, @nickfrancis