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I gave away half of my business on a handshake. Here's why. | Mark Zeman with Josh Comrie
Description
What if the most successful version of your company is the smallest one?
This week I sit down with Mark Zeman, co-founder of SpeedCurve, who quietly built one of the most unusual software businesses I've come across. No VC. No sales team. No marketing function. A team that never grew beyond seven people, paid two to three times market salary, and shared the monthly profit with everyone.
SpeedCurve had customers like Airbnb, the New York Times and the Guardian. They found him, not the other way around. And after 13 years, he exited to Embrace, not at the peak.
We get into:
- Why Mark turned down customers, capital and "grow at all costs"
- How a UX designer in New Zealand ended up shaping global web performance standards
- The handshake co-founder deal with Steve Souders and why it worked
- Monthly profit share instead of equity and a someday-maybe exit
- The moment the market shifted and SpeedCurve became the wrong shape
- Selling a declining SaaS business and why Embrace still wanted it
- What working inside a VC-backed company has confirmed and challenged
If you've ever wondered whether there's another way to build a SaaS business and exit on your own terms, there is. Mark just lived it.