Wes Bush

Product-led coach helping founders scale from 6 to 8-figures in product-led revenue. Author of the bestselling book, Product-Led Growth.

Over the last 8 years, I’ve worked hands-on with 400+ SaaS companies, helping them unlock $1B+ in self-serve revenue through Product-Led Growth (PLG).

Yet, right now, the failure rate for product-led companies is still far too high.

I’m on a mission to change that because I believe the world needs more product-led companies where you can try before you buy. 

This approach builds trust faster than any sales pitch ever could—after all, 97% of buyers prefer it. But, let’s be real, PLG isn’t easy.

That’s why I’m here to help in three ways:

➡️ Is PLG is right for you?

I wrote the bestselling book, Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself, to help you determine if PLG is the right strategy for your business. 

You can read it for free at ProductLed.com/Book—my treat!

➡️ What’s the best approach to scale up PLG?

After two years of research and working with hundreds of companies, I discovered the 9 essential elements that separate PLG success stories from the rest. 

I break it all down in The Product-Led Playbook.

You can grab a copy at ProductLed.com/Playbook, or watch my free masterclass to see the entire process in action: ProductLed.com/Masterclass

➡️ Ready to scale up?

If you’re ready to scale and need hands-on help, our ProductLed Implementers are here. They aren't consultants—they are experienced PLG operators who want to roll up their sleeves and work alongside your team to help you address your biggest growth bottleneck, whether that's getting more users to sign up, upgrade, or get to value.

Since we only work with a handful of clients at a time and guarantee growth, you must apply to work with us at ProductLed.com

Let’s turn your product into a growth engine and scale your business the product-led way. 🚀

CEO & Founder

We help you build a successful product-led business.

Start with our free ProductLed Masterclass 👉 productled.com

There’s ZERO chance companies like Cursor, Lovable or any AI-native SaaS can scale at this lightning pace without PLG.

You can’t scale with AI alone. 

You need a strong product-led motion to power it.

Without a self-serve product experience and rapid time-to-value, these companies wouldn't be able to hit the growth rates we're seeing.

To put it simply,

AI is the rocket. PLG is the fuel.

Let’s look at the numbers…

Both Cursor and Lovable hit $100M ARR in under a year with explosive, largely through self-serve growth.

Could any sales-led SaaS company scale to $100M in under a year? Even with an elite outbound team?

No chance.

This kind of growth isn't possible without a product users can adopt immediately, a frictionless self-serve experience, and organic expansion loops.

AI removes friction from the product experience through faster workflows, better outputs, more intuitive interfaces. But PLG removes friction from everything else: onboarding, adoption, expansion, and monetization.

You need both.

AI-native companies that build without a PLG motion will hit the same growth ceiling that every other sales-led SaaS has hit. They'll need more reps, longer sales cycles, and heavier implementation.

All the old problems that PLG was designed to solve.

AI creates the capability.

PLG creates the velocity.

#1 PLG Partner | We Scale (and Sometimes Buy) SaaS Businesses | $1B+ Self-Serve Revenue Generated For Our Clients

If you’re a B2B SaaS debating which user recording tool to use, just go for Microsoft Clarity.

It does everything Hotjar does, but better - and it's completely free.

That sounds too good to be true, but after working with hundreds of SaaS companies, we recommend Clarity to every client at ProductLed.

Here's why…

Hotjar bogs down your website. It's clunky, it's expensive, and honestly, there's no good reason to use it anymore.

Clarity isn't just a basic free alternative.

There's real depth under the hood. You can feed it events, send user information, and run sophisticated analysis. It's a genuinely powerful tool that happens to cost nothing.

Companies default to tools they think are "industry standard" without questioning whether those tools actually work.

When you're trying to reduce friction in your self-serve funnel, the last thing you need is an analytics tool that slows everything down.

Note: This is not a paid promotion. Simply a tool we’ve been (and our clients too) loving.

linkedin.com

JSESSIONID

Search | LinkedIn

li_at

Talks about #productledgrowth and #productled

#1 PLG Partner | Scale Your Revenue, Not Your Headcount | $1B+ Self-Serve Revenue Generated For Our Clients

Dhruv Patel

Saleshandy

Saleshandy is a cold outreach platform that helps B2B businesses automate and scale their outbound sales efforts. 

» I am the person responsible for
- majority of marketing stuff
- people management
- developing and implementing systems & procedures throughout the organization
- operations

Co-Founder

Appitsimple Infotek Pvt. Ltd. [www.softwaresuggest.com]

- Lead Marketing strategist & enabler, strategic vision, and involved in growth of the marketing team from 1 to 6 
- Grew organic acquisition, leveraging website optimization, SEO, and PR 
- Setting up marketing infrastructure i.e Google analytics, Webmasters, SEO tools, Adwords, Social platforms & paid social media networks.
- Influenced product development within application to increase page on time, no of page view per session, reviews, goal conversions and increase in paid click through rates.
- Coordinated communication amongst team members
- Social Media Management – wrote blog posts & managed corporate Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
- Email Marketing – created and sent industry updates, regulatory notifications, Promotional emails, guides to customers and prospects via MailChimp & Sendy.
- Played a role in team building, recruitment / hiring & data extracting.

Marketing & Operations

Pathnex Technologies

Getting Things Done

Co-founder @ Saleshandy

Hey there,  

I'm a guy who wears many hats, and I like it that way! 

My marketing journey kicked off at a company where I managed a team of over 25 folks as the Marketing Lead and Operations Manager. 

But my itch for something more took me down the road of content and niche marketing. That's how I ended up co-creating Saleshandy, a place where I'm still enjoying the ride and helping the company grow.

I'm a marketing junkie and a business starter, and I get my kicks from companies that encourage teamwork and don't put up roadblocks to success. I live to meet and exceed what customers want. I keep a close eye on the results and always tinkering with my game plan based on what's needed. When things go south, I don't get bent out of shape; I see it as a chance to learn. I take a good, hard look at what went wrong, figure out why, and then cook up solutions based on the facts.

As a growth hacker and digital marketing buff, I thrive on the hustle and meet life with a never-say-die attitude. My constant grin shows my love for creating strong teams and my readiness to lend a hand at the drop of a hat.

So here I am, a Co-founder at Saleshandy, extending an invitation for you to join me on this wild ride as we take over the marketing world, one success story at a time. 

Let's get together and see how we can help each other grow. What do you say?

6 months ago, a SaaS company tried to sell me features.

But today, they sold me a problem I actually care about.

Email 1 said:
→ Pulse surveys
→ Real-time sentiment
→ Easy recognition
→ All product talk.
 
Nothing about me.

So of course, I didn’t buy.

I replied with one suggestion:

“Make your email about the outcome, not the feature.”

And today, I got another email from the same company.

Same company.

Same product.

But a completely different angle:

“Teams miss disengagement until it’s too late.”

That one line did what the features couldn’t.

It made me feel the problem.

The shift they made:
FROM: “Here’s what we do.”
TO: “Here’s what happens if you don’t act.”

That’s the real game in outbound.

✅ If you send cold emails, use this framework:
1️⃣ Start with a pain your prospect already feels.
 2️⃣ Connect your product to a clear outcome (save, prevent, improve).
 3️⃣ Make the prospect the hero—not your software.
 4️⃣ End with a small ask, not a big pitch.

Before you send, do a quick check:

Count the words “we” vs. “you.”

If “we” wins, your email loses.

Outbound isn’t about explaining your product.

It’s about diagnosing their problem.

If you get that right, you’ve already won half the game.

Co-founder @ Saleshandy | Automating cold emails to drive lead generation & sales

We started Saleshandy in 2015 with handful folks.

Here’s what a decade taught us:

10 Years → 10 Big Learnings

2015: Start even if you’re unsure.
2016: A little demand is enough to move.
2017: Go where things grow.
2018: Users show the real direction.
2019: Small steps compound.
2020: Fix what’s breaking.
2021: Focus speeds everything up.
2022: Big bets change your path.
2023: Growth exposes hidden gaps.
2024: Systems > features.
2025: Evolve fast or fall behind.

What should the 2026 upgrade be?

I got this cold email yesterday — and it irritated me before I even finished the first line.

 Why?

 Because it followed every “internet sales hack”… and ignored the only thing that actually matters: the prospect.

And here’s the funny part:

 Not only did I not reply,
 Not only did I not consider their service,
  I’m never buying from them.

That’s the part most people forget about cold outreach:

👉 Your prospect may not love you from the first email.

But if you’re wrong, arrogant, or assumptive…

They might hate you instantly.

Here’s where the email went completely off-track:

“You’ve been trying to fill that senior role for too long.”

 → Pretending to personalize
They don’t know that. 
They guessed (and guessed wrong)

 → Too many “we” statements.
 The email was a monologue about themselves.
 As a prospect, none of it connected to my reality.

→ A pushy CTA
 Requesting a 20-minute call with the co-founder in the very first email… with 

→ Zero trust built?
 Bad move.

→ Triggering: but in the wrong direction.
 Emails should evoke curiosity or relief. 
This one evoked annoyance.

→ Confidence:the kind no one asked for.
 There’s confidence that builds trust.
 And there’s confidence that feels like an attack.
 
This one was the second kind.

So…

How much confidence is too much?

Exactly this much.

A terrible personal life with a great professional life is not success at all.

Some take years to figure this out.

Looks like you are “winning”:

 → Revenue growing
 → Team expanding
 → Users are happy

But you might not have taken a real vacation in 3 years.

Missed a loved one’s birthday.

Stopped working out. Gained 15 kg.

Result?

 In the grind of building a successful company, you’re becoming a person you didn’t plan to.

That will hit different.

Here’s what nobody tells you about building:

The business will always need more.

 → More features
 → More meetings
 → More growth
 → More problems to solve

There’s no finish line where it suddenly gets easier.

If you don’t draw boundaries, the business will consume everything (including your life).

Hard rules I don’t break:

 → No work after 7 p.m. (unless emergency)
 → One full day off per week (Sunday, phone off)
 → Go for a run two times a week, non-negotiable

Remember: The best version of your company needs the best version of you.

And the best version of you doesn’t come from 80-hour weeks and no life outside work.

Business 101: Get an office near a good tea café. (Trust me, it works.)

Every founder thinks big decisions happen in perfectly air-conditioned boardrooms with 15-slide presentations.

Wrong.

They happen over a slow-boiled chai with just the right amount of sugar.

Ten years in, I can tell you where my best decisions were actually made:

At a café, over chai, near our office.

Not because we planned it that way, but because that’s where the ideas actually show up.

Here is why: 

→ Big decisions need space to breathe.
In a meeting, there’s pressure to conclude.
Over chai, you can sit with confusion. You can let an idea take its time.

→ The formality kills honesty.
Brutal truth: In meetings, not everyone says what they think.
Over chai? People speak their mind.
Because it’s not a meeting. It’s a conversation.

→ Decisions don’t have clean answers.
When it come to taking big decisions, you need to think of every possible contradictions, think through the uncertainty. 
That doesn’t happen in 60-minute meetings. 

I am not saying, don’t take meetings. 

I am saying: 

If a decision feels forced in a meeting: 
  ➡️ Get out.
  ➡️ Go to a café. Order a chai.
  ➡️ Start talking about it. 
  
You’ll thank me later. 


Made any big decisions over chai? Share in the comments, I’m reading all.

I used to think product-market fit was everything.

But building Saleshandy showed me that founder-product fit matters even more.

Back in 2024, working with Piyush, I had this realization:

Our product isn’t just something we built.
 
It’s an extension of who we are.

And honestly? I had no clue about this when we started.

We didn’t sit down and plan, “let’s infuse our personality into the company.”
It just… happened.

When you’re genuinely passionate about what you’re solving, your personality naturally leaks into everything:

→ How your team operates
→ How they interact with customers
→ The language in your product
→ The decisions you make when no one’s watching

Now, with 50+ people on the team, it’s obvious: our belief system has become the company’s belief system.

We’re calm, empathetic leaders. 
We’re competitive, but we care deeply about helping people.

And that’s exactly what Saleshandy feels like: friendly and approachable.

When customers feel like they’re talking to a friend not a vendor trying to extract money—they:

✅ Come back
✅ Refer others
✅ Give you the benefit of the doubt

Goodwill compounds.

You can’t fake this.

You can’t engineer authenticity with better messaging or slicker branding.

So the real question isn’t just:
 "Does my product fit the market?"

It’s:
 "Am I building something that’s truly an extension of me?"

Because if you’re not, you’re just competing on features.

 And that’s a race to the bottom.

What’s one way your personality shows up in what you’re building?

I’ve started judging people by ONE thing:


How they act when they’re confused.

Because everyone gets confused.

It’s normal. It happens daily.

But what people do next tells you everything.

Here’s what I’ve seen:

1) The Asker
Says, “Hey, I didn’t understand that.”
Gets clarity in minutes.

2) The Googler
Quietly searches, watches, reads.
Figures it out on their own.

3) The Pretender
Nods like they get it…
but you can see the panic behind the smile.

4) The Blamer
“The instructions weren’t clear.”
“Someone should’ve told me.”
Nothing is ever their fault.

Same confusion.

Very different futures.

If you want to grow faster:
• Ask when you don’t get it.
• Learn whatever you can yourself.
• Don’t fake it.
• Don’t blame.


The people who grow are the ones okay with saying,

“I don’t understand this yet — but I want to.”

I don’t read emails. I scan my inbox. And trust me your prospects do the same.

I have seen people jump to guess why a campaign underperformed. 

→ Open rates dip? “Must be the subject line.”
→ Replies drop? “The offer isn’t strong enough.”
→ No meetings? “The copy failed.”

But the real cause was almost never what they blamed.

Because when you look closely at how people actually behave in an inbox, the pattern is predictable and brutally simple.

Most teams keep rewriting emails, testing variations, tweaking copy… trying to fix what prospects barely pay attention to.

What I’ve seen consistently is this:

Emails don’t fail because the content is bad.

They fail because the inbox experience is weak.

It’s not about writing better.

It’s about showing up in a way that earns attention before the email is even opened.

So, remember: It’s not the email. It’s how you appear in the inbox.

Most outbound emails fail for one reason:

We write them the way we think… not the way prospects read.

Your prospect is busy. Distracted. Trying to protect their time.

So when your message sounds heavy, unclear, or sales-driven, they skip it instantly.

The good news?

Replies go up the moment you switch from “selling” to “helping.”

That’s what this framework is built around.

Three simple approaches that make outreach feel natural.

1. Empathy
2. Educate
3. Engage

When you mix these three, your email stops feeling like “another sales message.”

It becomes a conversation starter.

And in outbound, conversations are the real win.

So, the best way to stand out in outbound? simply be a human.

Which of these 3 approaches do you personally use the most? And why?

Cold emails don't sugar coat & that's what i like the most about it.

Cold email tells you the truth faster than anything else.

When I was getting started, I tried everything to avoid the uncomfortable stuff.

→ Ads gave me hope.
→ SEO gave me patience.
→ Product gave me ideas.

But none of them told me what I actually needed to know.

Cold email did.

The moment you start sending 50 cold emails a week, you learn things no dashboard will show you:

→ You’ll know instantly if your offer is weak
→ You’ll know if your ICP is wrong
→ You’ll know if your value prop is confusing
→ You’ll know if anyone even cares enough to reply


And trust me, as a founder, these are the answers you can’t afford to delay.

Cold email forces you to face the reality you’ve been avoiding:

 If someone opened but didn’t reply — your message was boring.
 If someone replied with confusion — your offer wasn’t clear.
 If someone replied angrily — your targeting was off.
 If someone booked a call — your direction was right.

No investor, no advisor, no book gave me that level of clarity.

Cold email didn’t give me the answers I wanted.

It gave me the answers I needed. And that’s why it worked.

If you’re a founder and you’re not sending at least 50 cold emails a week, you’re building in the dark.

Your market is talking every single day. The question is, are you listening?

I work in a space where user education can’t be avoided. 

But here is the catch: Teaching alone isn’t enough.

Most SaaS products assume users will follow best practices if you give them:

• Documentation
 • Checklists
 • Recommended routines

Reality is different. 

Users only follow best practices if the product makes it Inevitable .

We saw this clearly with deliverability. 

Founders often say, “Our deliverability suddenly crashed.” 

It doesn’t crash — it declines slowly:

• A few replies drop
 • Inbox placement shifts
 • Opens fall
 • Eventually, everything collapses

It’s predictable, if you notice early. Most teams don’t.

The real gap? 

People weren’t failing at outreach. They were failing to spot problems early.

Saleshandy's Inbox Radar solves this. 

Not with more education. Not with dashboards. Not with more tasks.

It shifts responsibility from the user to the product. 

Quiet, recurring inbox checks catch trends before they become failures:

• Domain health drifting
 • Warmup issues
 • Misconfigured inboxes
 • Early placement decline

This isn’t new. But it’s the kind of product behavior more tools should have.

Every SaaS founder eventually realizes: If outcomes depend on users, the product doesn’t own the outcome.

Real leverage comes when:

• The product sees problems before the user
 • The product corrects or alerts early
 • Users don’t need to stay hyper-vigilant

For our users, this shifted the mindset: From reacting to damage to anticipating it.

Great products don’t just educate. 

➡️ They take responsibility. 
➡️ They reduce vigilance. 
➡️ They protect outcomes.

Inbox Radar is one example, quietly doing what users shouldn’t have to remember.

Everyone said building apps after college was a mistake. It was the best mistake I ever made.

Right after college, I went straight to help Piyush with his business.
 → No office.
 → No structure.
 → No fancy title.

Just two people and a long list of ideas.

We built so many apps:

→ Some did okay
 → Some failed
 → Some miserably failed
 

But here’s the part I’m grateful for:

Every failure taught us how to think.
Every bad idea taught us how to pick good ones.
Every mistake made us faster, sharper, and a little less stupid.

People think success comes from one big win.

 But in reality?

It comes from hundreds of small, messy experiments.

Those early days taught me things no job could ever teach:

→ How to ship fast, even when you doubt yourself
 → How to learn without anyone explaining
 → How to build something from zero
 → How to stay calm when everything breaks
 → How to keep going when nothing works

Most people choose “safe”.
 
I chose “try”.

And that made all the difference in my life.

Looking back, those random apps weren’t random at all.

They were the training ground.

Without them, I wouldn’t be here.
 
Without those failures, I wouldn’t be a co-founder today.

Sometimes the path that looks the most messy…

 Is the one that secretly prepares you for everything ahead.

What’s one “bottom-less decision” you made that actually changed your life?

Drop it in the comments, i love it to read it all.

In the series of “bad cold emails,” here’s another one I got 👇.

Yes, it was simple.
Yes, it was polite.
But totally empty.

From the subject line alone, I already knew it wouldn’t bring any value.

Still, I opened it… and I was totally right.

Here’s what went wrong:

➡️ No understanding of my team — we don’t even have a Founder’s Office team at Saleshandy.
➡️ No icebreaker, just “I’m the CEO, we helped 500 businesses” — exaggerated claim, started a year ago.
➡️ CTA: “Let’s set up a call” in the very first email.

Here’s the thing:

Sometimes, not personalizing is better than pretending to personalize.

If your email doesn’t make me feel like you actually know me, it’s dead before I hit reply.

What’s worse: fake personalization or generic templates?

Tell me your thoughts in the comments.

The best routine isn’t the one you post online; it’s the one you keep.

A friend of mine was very inspired by a 5 AM morning routine video… and he started it.

Meditation. Journaling. Workout. Cold shower. Green smoothie.

Thumbs up for the effort…

But it only lasted 12 days.

Then back to the usual routine:

Wake up. Coffee. Start working.

I asked him,

"What’s wrong now? What felt good then?"

His answer?

"Nothing much, Dhruv. It just felt… nice."

Don’t build a routine for the sake of an Insta story or a few snaps.

Your routine should serve your energy, not your digital presence.

You don’t have to buy everything the internet sells. 

Follow what suits you.

→ I don’t meditate in the morning. I think better at night with music on.
→ I don’t journal daily. I process by talking things through.
→ I don’t work out in the evening. I prefer to play with my kid.

The best routine is the one you’ll actually stick to.

Not the one that looks good on screen.

I’m the opposite of what people expect from a founder.

Unlike most, I stay grounded: but it has nothing to do with humility or being “nice.”

 For me, it’s about staying real.

Even after years of building Saleshandy, I still:
→ Read support tickets myself
→ Listen to lost sales calls
→ Scroll through the harshest reviews

Not because I have to.

Because I want to.

The higher you climb, the easier it is to lose touch.
 → Your calendar fills with strategy meetings.
 → Your team filters the information for you.
 → Your users become just numbers.
 → Your competitors fade into charts and reports.

Being grounded keeps me honest.
 
It reminds me why I started.

It keeps me connected to real problems, real people, and real risks.

Staying grounded isn’t optional 
 
It’s the only way to make sure you’re building the right things.

Epic outbound fails happen for 2 reasons and believe me, they’re easy to overlook:
 
Either your timing is wrong, or your context is wrong. 

Yes, people don’t buy because your product is good.

If they buy, it means your timing is good.

Here’s what many people do:

→ We talk features to someone who doesn’t even know there's a problem.
→ We pitch pricing to someone still comparing options.
→We push demos to someone scared of choosing wrong.


The huge mistake we all make?
 
We blindly assume all prospects are ready to buy.

But they’re not.

Understanding these 5 stages helps you know:

 → When to educate
 → When to compare
 → When to position
 → When to convert
 → When to just… wait

Because users don’t jump from “unaware” to “decision-ready” in one email.

They move through layers.

Your job isn’t to push them faster.

Your job is to guide them smarter.

Once you talk to them at the level they’re thinking, everything feels easy:

 → Your email sounds human.
 → Your demo feels useful.
 → Your offer looks fair.
 → Your close becomes natural.

Master these 5 stages, and your outbound stops being a chase…
 … and starts becoming a conversation.

I don’t speak much and I would say that is my advantage. 

I don’t speak much in meetings. 

People misread it as disinterest. But it’s the opposite.

Where I use silence strategically:

 → Customer calls: I ask one question: "What's not working?" Then I stay quiet for 90 seconds. They tell me everything.
 → Team debates: I let them argue it out. I only step in when I see a blind spot. Otherwise, they figure it out.
 → Hiring interviews: I ask a hard question, then wait. The silence separates candidates who think deeply from those who fill the air.

There is a mistake that founders who want to be loud make but don’t realize: 

They think presence = talking. 

It doesn’t. 

Presence = knowing when to speak and when to let the moment breathe.

Some of the most powerful leaders I know are the quietest. 

Because they’ve learned: You don’t need to fill every silence. 

You need to know which silences are worth breaking.

So far what i have learned are:

 → The person talking the most is usually the least certain.
 → The person asking questions controls the conversation more than the person answering.
 → Silence is a tool. Use it deliberately.

Here’s the truth:
 Most people are so uncomfortable with silence that they’ll say anything to fill it. 

I’m comfortable with silence. 

Remember: Being quiet isn’t a weakness. It’s a weapon.

Do you control the room by talking, or by staying silent?

Which is the best cold email framework?

It’s the one that works for you.

Every framework works differently and hits a different stage of the funnel. 

The frameworks I use? 

They help me shape personal emails that actually get read.

Here’s the truth nobody tells you:

You don’t need 10 new frameworks. You need to master the 3 you already have.

Most reps treat a framework like a shortcut. But it’s not. 

It’s a tool. And a tool only works when you know:

→ Why you’re using it
→ When to use it
→ How to use it the right way

Without that, even the best framework is just a copy-paste script.

At Saleshandy, we tested dozens of formulas across millions of outbound emails. 

Here’s what we learned:

The framework doesn’t win. The fit wins.

➡️ Prospect shared a pain on LinkedIn → BAB works
➡️ Setup is good but not great → 3Ps works
➡️ They know the problem and just need a nudge → PAS works

Right framework + right moment = email that feels natural.
 
Wrong combination = email that feels forced… and gets ignored.

Outbound isn’t about being clever. 

It’s about choosing the right lever.

If you want the exact frameworks my team uses at Saleshandy, comment “frameworks” and I’ll send the full sheet your way.

I often get asked how much money I actually take home. I wish I could give a number, but I can't.

I've seen founders make two extreme mistakes:

The first ones:

They pay themselves nothing for years.

→ "I'll take a salary when we're profitable."
→ "The business comes first."
→ "I can survive on savings."

Sounds noble, but it’s dangerous.

Here’s what happens:

➡️ Month 18: Stress about rent.
➡️ Month 24: Burning through savings. Desperate decisions.
➡️ Month 30: Resentment toward the business.

And believe me — a broke founder makes bad decisions.

You can’t think long-term when you're worried about next month's rent.

The second:

They pay themselves like they're still at their corporate job.

→ "I worked at Google, I’m worth this much."
→ "I need to maintain my lifestyle."
→ "The business should support me."

Here’s what happens:

➡️ Quarter 1: Comfortable salary, tight runway.
➡️ Quarter 2: Can’t afford to hire.
➡️ Quarter 3: Can’t invest in marketing.
➡️ Quarter 4: Business stalls because all cash went to salary.

You're bleeding the company to fund your life.

So, what's the right approach?

After 10 years of building Saleshandy, here's what I’ve learned:

Your founder salary has one job:

Keep you functional, without choking growth. That’s it.

Not fair. Not market rate. Not what you “deserve.”

Functional means:

☑️ You’re not stressed about basic expenses.
☑️ You’re not making decisions out of desperation.
☑️ You can focus on building, not surviving.

But also:

☑️ The business has enough runway to grow.
☑️ You can hire when needed.
☑️ You can invest in things that compound.

There’s no magic number for a founder's salary.

It’s about balance, not excess.

Where do you think the sweet spot is for a founder's salary? I'd love to hear your take.

There are 14 billion videos on YouTube . But only 5 earned a permanent spot on my “watch again” list.

Not because they were popular.

But because they changed how I think, build, and operate.

If you're looking for perspectives that actually move the needle, start here:

➡️ Alex Hormozi: https://lnkd.in/dPeB7CfW 
➡️ Dan Martell: https://lnkd.in/d9wehENt
➡️ Ali Abdaal: https://lnkd.in/dQKbsrmm 
➡️ Joey Schweitzer in Better Ideas: https://lnkd.in/dFATx4ty
➡️ Shaan Puri in My First Million: https://lnkd.in/ddDkFafS 

Which one stood out the most to you?
 
Drop your thoughts in the comments! I’d love to hear your take on these.

taplio

The Battle

Wes Bush

Dhruv Patel

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreWes Bush's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDhruv Patel's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Wes Bush

Dhruv Patel

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Wes Bush's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDhruv Patel's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreWes Bush's LinkedIn Performance