Meet George Azih, Founder and CEO of LeaseQuery. George worked in a public accounting firm, as well as a Fortune 500 company, with a focus on technical accounting and accounting research before founding LeaseQuery.
On April 25, he joined David Cummings and a packed house of fellow SaaS professionals to share valuable advice for hungry founders. A few key takeaways:
Check out the video recap and our photo story below.
George says that unlike most accountants, he is not risk averse.
He maxed out his 401k contribution as soon as he knew he was going to start a business, so he could borrow against it pre-tax to fund the development.
His business started out of Barnes & Noble on Cobb Parkway.
He sees founders chase VC money when they shouldn’t. It took him 8 years to get to where he is now, as he never pitched or raised money.
It's client-funded growth.
You’re building your equity by having sweat equity. Every day you go without getting cash from outside is adding value.
Just because they are your early customers doesn’t mean they are your best customers.
George doesn’t care about annual recurring revenue much; it's more about revenue per customer.
Takeaway: Get customers to pay upfront whenever possible!
Hire good people and remove impediments for those employees to operate.
George has gone from being a doer, to a manager, to a leader, of one of the fastest growing tech companies in Atlanta.
You never know when good things are bad, and you never know bad things are actually good.
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