Joshua Eidelman

"Everybody thinks it gets easier when you’re at $100M+ ARR, cash-flow positive, and growing. But I just had the worst two months of my entire life.” That’s what Marcelo Lombardo, founder of Omie, told me on Friday. Omie is the Brazilian SaaS giant founded in 2013. They just announced a $160M Series D. With 180K SMB clients and 30-40% annual growth, they’re the #1 cloud ERP and fintech for small businesses in Brazil. They are real OGs in the BR ecosystem. I picked Marcelo's brain on his learnings going from $0 to $100M ARR. "It doesn't get easier as you grow, it just gets different". I burst into nervous laugh but also in relief. The conversation was so fun and full of golden nuggets that deserve to be shared.. so here are some of the lessons and stories he shared: 1. Borrow credibility to open doors In the early days, he picked up the phone relentlessly to speak with his first customers and ask a simple question: “Do you remember where you found us?” Many said “Google", until he pressed. The real answer: “My accountant told me to use Omie.” That’s when they realized accountants, not ads, were the real channel. They flipped strategy into partnerships with them. Today they drive 80% of Omie’s sales. 2. Commissions can erode trust “If my client finds out I’m making money from this, it hurts my credibility. Give them the discount instead.” the accountants would tell him. The best accountants valued trust over margin. Incentives that work in SaaS backfire when partners are fiduciaries. 3. Trust lowers walls faster than incentives When Marcelo asked accountants if he could sell to their clients directly, they handed him their entire client list. Why? “Because they trusted me.” he said. Alignment matters more than commissions. 4. Trust scales through presence “The job to be done is not to scale software sales, but to scale trust.” Omie’s AEs visit 3-4 accountants a day, every 15 days. Not to pitch, but to listen: “What’s your problem today? What’s your client’s pain?” That cadence compounds relationships and yields warm intros. 5. Trust is long-term leverage Instead of outspending competitors on ads, Omie built a distribution moat by being the most trusted partner to accountants. Other nuggets from our call: - Trust > commissions - Give partners the product for free so they become power users - Keep partnerships alive with cadence: 3–4 visits/day - Great partners protect client trust; weak ones chase margin - At every stage, the problems change, but trust is always the multiplier If you're building a compay, or operating, I encourage you to share what you learn, you never know who you help. Shoot me a comment or a dm. Now, back to building 💪. #startups

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I've been in tech long enough to watch Stripe and Notion go from startup toys to enterprise infrastructure. Win the frontier first. The enterprise follows. "It’s just for startups" is a feature, not a bug. Cristina Cordova from Linear resurfaced this critique last week. Her response: It's "the starting line, not the finish line." She's totally right. Here’s what I’d add: A category isn't just a product - it's a new way of working that makes the old way obsolete. Instead of adding features to email, Slack created a category where work happens in channels vs. inboxes. Figma created a category where design happens in browsers, not desktop apps. Here's why "just for startups" is an incredibly strong signal that a new category will win: 1. Startups have zero switching costs and tons of urgency An enterprise takes 6-18 months to switch tools. A startup switches in 18 minutes. When you're burning $50K/month and have 6 months of runway, every tool either multiplies your velocity or dies. This selection pressure doesn't exist anywhere else. The frontier doesn't tolerate mediocrity. 2. Categories spread through people, not procurement That junior PM using your tool at a seed startup moves into leadership at a growth-stage company within two years. They don't evaluate vendors. They install what worked before. One operator infects an entire org. Discord went from "just for gamers" to the default community platform for countless startups. Airtable was "just a spreadsheet" before VCs started running entire funds on it. Large organizations have immune systems. They reject foreign objects. New formats are foreign objects by definition. They violate existing workflows, break departmental boundaries, and make current expertise obsolete. Startups don't have antibodies because they don't have institutions to protect. Of course, you can build enterprise-first and succeed - especially if you're solving problems enterprises already know they have. But if you're trying to create new categories that change how work happens, the frontier is often the clearer path. You're optimizing for the organism, not the immune system. That’s why "just for startups" isn't a critique. It's confirmation you're building something new.

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Hiring great talent should be a founder's #1 priority. But most founders say hiring is critical, then spend less than 5% of their time on it. I've seen this pattern at hundreds of startups through Weekday. One bad hire cost: 6-12 months, team morale, opportunity cost Time to fix bad hire: 50+ hours Time to hire right the first time: 20-30 hours Yet founders spend more time choosing their laptop than choosing their team. When we have an active high-priority role open, I personally track my time allocation: - 30% of my time goes to recruiting/team building - 40% goes to sales and growth - 20% goes to product and alignment with teams - 10% goes to operations and admin This intensive focus on recruiting isn't sustainable forever, but it's critical for getting the right people in place. This 30% of time spent upfront on recruiting dramatically reduces the time you'll need to spend on alignment and operations later. The compound effect of good hiring: - Great hires recruit other great people - Strong teams attract customers and investors - Quality people create quality systems The compound effect of bad hiring: - Mediocre people hire worse people - Weak teams repel talent - Poor execution destroys opportunities Most founders optimize their time for immediate tasks (product, sales, fundraising) instead of foundational tasks (hiring, culture, systems). The practical playbook to follow here is to: 1/ Block 2-3 hours daily for recruiting when you've key roles open 2/ Treat interviews like sales calls (prepare, follow up, measure) 3/ Review your time allocation monthly What % of your time actually goes to recruiting when you are hiring for a critical role?

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We recently acquired a company from a solo founder. 15 years, zero employees, $2M ARR growing 20% annually. Only cost is a virtual server. 100-person teams burn millions for that ARR. He hired someone for support late in the process, as we advised. Took three years before he was ready to sell. This is a true startup hero story. Compare that to companies at the same $2M ARR with 100 people burning cash. Same revenue. One person vs. 100. The difference: The solo founder ignores Silicon Valley's playbook completely. - No team to manage. - No complex systems. - Simple codebase. - Focus on customer value. Many SaaS companies get this wrong. CEO doesn't understand what CTO is doing. CTO loves tech complexity more than economic outcomes. Bad combo. Instead of aiming for $2M ARR together, they just get complexity. I've seen it repeatedly: Companies with identical ARR, 100 FTEs, huge burn rates. Meanwhile solo founder in boxer shorts coding all day represents what most indie hackers dream about. - Do your thing. - Sit in front of your computer. - Ignore the noise. No huge funding rounds or complex team required. Simple code and customer value should be the aspirational model. Yet most founders do the opposite. They add people before problems demand it. Build complex architectures before scale requires it. Chase sophistication over simplicity. The founder proved you can reach $2M ARR with boring technology and no employees. That's not a limitation. He optimized for the only metrics that matter: revenue growth and profit margin. Everything else is distraction. The solo founder model isn't for everyone. But the principle is: complexity should serve economics, not ego. When you see companies with 100 people generating the same revenue as one person, you're watching complexity serve ego.

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Airbnb’s newest fees have been all over everyone’s feed lately. But the real question is: what is the impact on search results? To understand this, we need to step back. Airbnb’s search is driven by complex models, built to solve challenges unique to their marketplace: - Guests rarely return to the same location twice - Behavior changes every search (a family trip vs. a business stay) - Many guests are not frequent bookers Because of this, Airbnb trained its ranking system on a mix of short- and long-term signals: clicks, views, rejections, and ultimately, conversions. The new host-only fee is about simplifying pricing to reduce guest drop-off and increase conversion. More conversions mean more engagement, which is what the algorithm optimizes for. So what does this mean for operators? If all operators adjust their rates upwards, the balance remains and displayed prices should keep the same relative impact on search results. But in the transition period, my assumption is that things will get interesting. Some operators will adjust quickly, others won’t, and some will experiment. This will probably create a temporary vacuum. Unadjusted listings may appear more attractive, have a quick increase in pickup (as they are relatively more attractive), more bookings, and overpace potentially distorting short-term search outcomes. The key is discipline. Operators need to manage not just occupancy and margin, but also the timing of their pricing adjustments. Those who balance competitiveness with conversion optimization will ride the wave. Those who don’t risk being caught on the wrong side of the algorithm.

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Storylane's biggest milestone at $10M revenue isn’t just the number—it’s achieving it without external funding. Startups should be celebrated for the lasting value they create for customers—not the funding they raise. The narrative must shift: stop chasing capital, start obsessing over customer satisfaction. That’s where true startup nirvana lies!

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