The Tuesday Roundup
Last week, I wrote about my experience starting a successful SaaS business outside of Silicon Valley. For today’s Tuesday Roundup, I want to share some of my favorite stories of other startups who have taken a similar path. I hope they inspire and encourage you — they’ve certainly done so for me.
As I referenced in my post, it was so influential for me to be a part of a cohort of early-stage founders at Innovation Depot. One member of that group is my friend Tony Summerville, founder of Fleetio. Like me, Tony was a solo founder, and we were able to quickly bond over the unique challenges of that path. I admire Tony’s all-in attitude greatly — his story definitely shows the payoff of that outlook. Check out this podcast to hear his full story.
It can be rare to find other local founders who weren’t born and raised in Birmingham. Jennifer Ryan, the founder of Blueroot (one of the HVL team’s favorite lunch spots) and Croux, is an Alabama transplant like me and she’s definitely made her mark on the community. This article written by Jennifer is a great story of why founding outside of the typical startup hubs can be great for you and your business.
Another inspiring story is that of mother-daughter duo Ashlee Ammons and Kerry Schrader. It was actually when Ashlee left New York and joined Kerry in the Southeast (first Nashville, then Birmingham) that their company, Mixtroz, took off. Ashlee offers insight into what it was like launching a company as a Black woman in this article — it’s definitely worth a read.
On a different note, I want to close out this newsletter by sharing some exciting news of my own. Last week, Copysmith announced that we have acquired Frase and Rytr — with these exciting acquisitions, we are launching Copyrytr. Copyrytr represents a strategic partnership of three brands that will allow us to serve the full scope of our customers’ needs. I’m really excited about the potential of this collective, and I’m thankful to get to work with the amazing teams at Frase and Rytr. Check out the full press release here for more details.
That’s all for this week’s roundup. I hope you enjoyed getting to read some unique founder stories. I’ll be back in your inbox on Thursday with a post on common early mistakes and how to avoid them.