00021. How Rand Fishkin Built Moz into a Leading SaaS Company
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English - September 25, 2019 03:00 - 52 minutes - 26 MB - ★★★★★ - 26 ratingsCareers Business gritty founder entrepreneur business business podcast capitalism founder startup venture capital income Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
On today's episode of Gritty Founder, Kreig Kent talks with Rand Fishkin about building Moz and his struggle with depression. Rand shares advice on empathy, self-awareness, focus, and strategies for software development.
He uses the ludicrous title, Wizard of Moz. He is the founder and former CEO of Moz, board member at presentation software startup Haiku Deck, co-author of a pair of books on SEO, and co-founder of Inbound.org. He's an unsaveable addict of all things content, search, & social on the web. From his multiple blogs to Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a shared Instagram account. In his miniscule spare time, he likes to galavant around the world with Geraldine and then read about it on her superbly enjoyable travel blog. Most recently, he founded SparkToro, a software company whose mission is to make it easier to discover the websites, blogs, podcasts, social accounts, and publications that reach your audience.
Some Questions Kreig Asks Rand:
- Can you share a story of struggle or challenging time? (12:27)
- How did you bounce back after struggling with depression? (18:19)
- What is the single most important ingredient a founder needs to be successful? (25:38)
- What is it that zaps your energy? (29:52)
- If you could go back and give yourself advice about founding a company and building a team, what advice would you give yourself? (18:14)
- What advice can you give about daily routine? What does your day look like, and what should people incorporate into their day to be more successful? (38:47)
- What are some tips or hacks for staying on top of your work when you are traveling? (41:53)
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- Rand's entrepreneurial journey and how he started Moz (5:24)
- About Rand's struggle with depression (13:52)
- How processes, communication, and company culture change as you transition from a small to a larger team (14:51)
- The importance of empathy and self-awareness (26:06)
- Focus and don't get distracted building things just because you can (31:32)
- The downside of big bang style software development and why an iterative approach is better (33:01)
Connect with Rand Fishkin:
Also Mentioned on This Show...
Rand's favorite quote:
"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people." ―Abraham Joshua Heschel
Rand's book recommendation:
The Billionaire Who Wasn't by Conor O'Clery