Ryan Sullivan

Few agencies without a technical lead are able to get by (and none thrive). Relying on contractors can be a double-edged sword: they bring specialized skills but often lack a cohesive vision that aligns technology with your customer’s long-term goals. This disconnect results in software bloat, where unnecessary features and technical debt pile up. The pain is real: without a consistent, forward-thinking approach, your business is at risk of compounding technical debt that will stifle innovation. Don’t let short-term fixes lead to long-term problems. It’s time to rethink how you approach technology, ensuring it supports—not stifles—your growth.

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A lot of pre-product, pre revenue startup clients approach Calibrate to architect, design, and develop their first web or mobile app. One common theme we see among many of these ambitious co-founders is trying to launch with a larger feature set based on what they THINK their users will find valuable. In scenarios such as this, our team always advises our clients to consider pairing back the feature set to an MVP (minimum viable product). We start this process by asking our clients “what are the critical features absolutely necessary to launch your product and start getting valuable feedback from the user base?”. Anything beyond that is speculation and unnecessary. In the startup world (or even with software SMBs are launching), it’s imperative to get to market as quickly and cost effectively as possible to start establishing a POC (proof of concept) and collecting feedback; MVPs ensure that happens. Through collecting real user feedback, clients can prioritize and execute on their roadmap (aka new features) with FACTS (aka data driven insights) v. CONJECTURE (aka speculating on what users want). Check out the blog article on our site for some tips to help narrow down the feature set of a product to an MVP: https://lnkd.in/gHTeynVb

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We all know the struggle of constantly reminding clients to send those essential documents. That's why we created Uncat's document request feature! Now you can set recurring requests for W-9s, 1099s, bank statements, and more. Uncat will automatically send reminders to your clients, so you can focus on what matters most – growing your business. Try it for free today and experience the difference! #Uncat #bookkeeping #accounting #automation #productivity #documentrequests

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🚀 Calling all startups + enterprises building agentic applications! 🚀 If you're developing applications that leverage agents, whether it’s through advanced prompts, agent logic, multi-agent collaboration, or complex tool integrations, I can help you sharpen your strategy. In my 1-hour strategy session, we’ll dive deep into: ✅ Crafting powerful prompts ✅ Structuring agent logic ✅ Multi-agent collaboration ✅ Best practices for tool usage ✅ And more! Let’s work together to ensure your project reaches its full potential. Book your strategy session here: Swarms Strategy Session https://buff.ly/3zJ7BOn Like and share with friends building agents!

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Does negotiating with development agencies feel like a puzzle? It doesn’t have to! On this week's SaaS Founder Stories, I chatted with Kurt Willis from Boro Dev Agency, LLC. We talked about how to align your tech needs, investor expectations, and development goals. His biggest lesson? Transparency and flexibility are key to a successful partnership. If you’re scaling your SaaS and working with dev teams, this episode is a must-listen. 💡https://lnkd.in/gU88cK8E #SaaS #TechLeadership #StartupGrowth #DevAgencies #StartupAdvice

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What are the 5 elements of Apollo.io's product-led growth motion that helped build their $1.6 billion business? Leandra Fishman goes into detail in this episode of Game Changers by Sequel.io 👇 1️⃣ 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗞𝗣𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 2️⃣ 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: driving product adoption is linked to compensation 3️⃣ 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: video, live chat, webinars, etc. 4️⃣ 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁: increase the # of stakeholders involved in purchase decisions 5️⃣ 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: communication, messaging, lead scoring https://lnkd.in/gRStVtzb

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Join Us for an Exclusive Partnership Leaders Meetup in San Jose 🚀 Calling all partnership leaders! Let’s tackle two of the hottest topics on your mind: budgeting and headcount planning for 2025. This meetup is the perfect chance to: - Share strategies on securing budget approvals - Discuss headcount needs and justification in a lean economy - Connect with fellow leaders facing similar challenges See you tonight, bring a friend!

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Introducing "Confessions of a Builder" 🏗️ The road to building your own business is incredibly challenging. In my new newsletter, "Confessions of a Builder," I write openly about the challenges, mistakes, successes, and, most importantly, the personal journey through it all. 🔗 More specifics in the link provided. I hope you join me as we explore how to build wiser, faster, and smarter together. #Entrepreneurship #StartupJourney #ProductInnovation #GrowthMindset #Leadership #ConfessionsOfABuilder

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We’re excited to announce $5,000 in grants for ambitious developers eager to build more features for Checkmate, a flagship product of BlueWave Labs. In partnership and collaboration with the UpRock team, this funding will drive the development of a DePIN-powered uptime manager. We can’t wait to see the incredible projects you’ll bring to life! More info: https://lnkd.in/gWdqBdgv

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Goldcast's startup journey has perfectly mapped the last 4 crazy years of SaaS. Palash Soni and his cofounders first started the company in 2021 to build great, customizable virtual event solutions for enterprise marketers. While their business kept growing past the pandemic, it was clear that overall spend was shifting back to IRL events fast. However, video consumption continued to rise and quickly became the best way to build your brand and an audience in software - if you knew how to operationalize video marketing. Goldcast's product evolution from a virtual events platform to an AI-native video marketing solution has been incredible to watch. The company had its best quarter yet, adding customers like OpenAI and Coupa Software and I couldn't be more proud. Here's Palash talking about their product evolution and the future of video marketing in an AI-native world.

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I really enjoyed this podcast from Indie VC and Linear's Cofounder Karri Saarinen: https://buff.ly/47Ay117 Main takeaways: * Build your company the way you want to build it. This is "founder mode." * You don't have to grow fast in venture. You can think long term and build a sustainable business. * You can focus on product quality over growth. There's a craftsmanship and a love of quality that can really shine through if you do. * Remote work can work. Design deliberately though. * Build a great product and users will tell other users about how great it is

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#p99conf is next week, 10/23-24, and the lineup is 🔥! One talk you cannot miss is Mike's, with the classic Stonebrakerism title "𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐭 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐖𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠". Mike will discuss how to save an order of magnitude in development cost and run an order of magnitude faster, especially for data-oriented, service-oriented applications. Spoiler alert, the answer is to use a database 🙊. Don't miss out!

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"Monetization must be a first-class citizen in your product from Day 1 & if you're not thinking about entitlements early on, you're not setting yourself up for success." -- Justin Gagnon Justin leads growth engineering at Calendly, which means he's built & evolved monetization in the context of both hyper-growth & scale. We sat down last week for a conversation about feature management, monetization, and the services needed to deliver flexible pricing & packaging at scale. Some of the topics we covered: 1️⃣ Why monetization is so complex in B2B SaaS 2️⃣ The role of entitlements 3️⃣ Paying down bad product decisions vs. bad monetization decisions 4️⃣ How Justin & team built monetization infrastructure at Calendly 5️⃣ The tech & commercial debt that comes when monetization is a last-class citizen If you're a product & engineering leader, I highly recommend this episode with Justin. Schematic has learned much from him over the last year and so very excited to share the full episode (link in the comments).

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The discussion with Jason Fried, Co-Founder and CEO of 37signals, during a recent ProducTea with Leah episode (#42) was great. A particular one-minute segment (~14:20) really stuck with me. When asked about failures, Jason states: 🗣 “I don’t really think about failure. How does evolution work? Evolution is not sitting there using energy thinking about the wing shape that didn’t work. The wings that worked let’s make them even better...What’s working? Let’s do more of that. Let’s evolve.” This aligns perfectly with the concept of “slightly better problems” from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. It’s a never-ending upward spiral. The key takeaway? Don’t ignore failures, but don’t dwell on them either. Focus on what works, refine it, and evolve. This approach ensures continuous improvement without getting bogged down by setbacks. #ProductManagement #Leadership #ContinuousImprovement

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In today’s landscape, startups integrating #AI into their core strategies are positioning themselves a step ahead of the competition. While AI can seem like a big leap, it’s an investment that offers tremendous value, and those who commit to it now will lead the charge in every industry. At VSE BUDE IT, we believe it’s never too late to adopt AI. From accelerating decision-making to automating processes and personalizing customer experiences, the potential is immense. Our team is here to help startups make the transition with confidence, ensuring AI becomes a practical, game-changing tool, not just a trend. If you’re ready to integrate AI and elevate your startup, reach out. The future waits for those willing to innovate today. #AI #startupsfuture 

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Did you know Shopify’s checkout extensibility works on the Shop app via Shop pay? Here’s an example of Checkout Blocks running on Ippodo Tea surfacing several blocks seamlessly into checkout: - required phone field specifically for international orders. Not possible natively. - a checkbox for preorder acknowledgment - preorder ship date using our Liquid powered line item content block. - upsells using Shopify recommendations All without any custom code. 🤌

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TechCrunch Disrupt 2024: Let's Innovate Together! 🚀 Excited to be here at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Can't wait to connect with fellow innovators and showcase WingDriver's potential to revolutionize driver safety. Let's make this week count! #TechCrunchDisrupt #Innovation #Startup #DriverSafety #WingDriver

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