Hey y’all — if you accidentally found a business that was working, how far would you follow it?
Aleksandr Volodarsky filled one open job for someone he met at a conference with an engineer from his network. And he never looked back.
Now, what eventually became Lemon.io is a $16 million (mostly bootstrapped) business.
We sat down to chat about how he very intentionally rebranded to Lemon.io, interesting growth strategies, and why he laid off a meaningful percentage of the team even while profitable.
Listen now on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or your podcast platform of choice.
As a reminder, each Thursday I interview a world-class founder about their unique paths to uncover tactical insights they've learned about how to fundraise, grow, validate, hire, scale, and lead teams.
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A big thanks to our partner for this episode, Marek Health.
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These help you uncover critical health markers that traditional care might miss.
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In our chat we discuss:
Founder Mode
(00:00) — Intro
(01:07) — Lemon.io founding story
(04:15) — How Aleksandr knew Lemon.io was a big opportunity
(06:15) — Lemon.io's differentiator
(07:49) — Why founders miss opportunities right in front of them
(42:00) — Aleksandr’s first 2 businesses
Rebranding & Growth
(09:49) — Intentional rebranding efforts
(14:42) — Tactically executing a rebrand
(16:25) — Building in public in 2025
(18:48) — 2025 social media plan
(22:19) — Building in public's impact early on
(23:58) — Using Quora as a growth channel
(24:22) — 2025's growth channel opportunity
(26:34) — Utilizing the podcast growth channel
(31:06) — Going all in with early-stage advertising
Hiring
(34:31) — Making first sales hire
(43:50) — The benefit of paid work trials
(46:11) — What founders should evaluate when hiring
(47:06) — How non-technical founders can evaluate technical talent
(48:50) — Laying off employees while growing
Investment
(35:54) — The wrong way to take on venture investment
(39:38) — Buying out existing investors
(40:07) — Why there’s no need to raise more for Lemon.io
Rapid Fire
(52:58) — Who is one investor you’d recommend?
(53:58) — One thing you'd change about startups?
(54:41) — Advice for first-time founders?
(55:36) — Something you believe that most disagree with?
Listen now on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or your podcast platform of choice.
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