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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
