Thread by @businessbarista

Over the last 8 years, @nathanbarry has built ConvertKit into a $28mm ARR business.

Here are 8 tips & lessons he shared with @dickiebush and I that have contributed to his success 👇

1) Growth is unpredictable and non-linear.

The company went from $2,000/month to $100,000/month in a very short period of time.

Build impatiently, but trust the process.

2) Firing sucks, but there's a right way to do it.

ConvertKit has always been a fully distributed company.

But Nathan didn't want to fire someone over the internet, so he flew to them in order to fire them.

3) This is @ConvertKit's communication stack:

- Slack
- Zoom
- Basecamp
- Github
- Figma

4) There are ways to manufacture serendipity in remote work.

Nathan's team uses S'up, a Slack plug-in that matches groups of 3 at random to get on a Zoom catch-up.

5) "Cmd + Q" is codeword at ConvertKit.

It means that an employee is going off of Slack to do deep work and doesn't want to be bothered for a little while.

6) Podcasting isn't just for external use.

ConvertKit has an internal podcast where teammates interview each other to better understand their background, interests, habits, and then all employees can listen in once published.

7) Nathan hired someone to run product at ConvertKit.

He said that firing himself from the role was one of the best decisions he made for the business and was something he probably should have done earlier.

8) ConvertKit attracted great talent in two ways:

• Being a distributed business earlier than most (since 2013) which offered employees total flexibility
• Building in Public earlier than most to establish brand affinity

For more threads on building & entrepreneurship, shoot me (@businessbarista) & @dickiebush a follow!