#85: Moz Founder Rand Fishkin Reveals the Pains of VC Funding and an Alternative Funding Approach

Rand Fishkin is the founder and former CEO of Moz, a leading SEO software for marketers created in 2007 that grew out of the active followers of Rand’s popular SEOmoz blog. Moz grew quickly to over $30 million in revenue by 2013, having raised $30 million in venture capital investment. When growth slowed in 2014, the company faced many internal difficulties and Rand dealt with mental health challenges, causing him to step down as CEO. Rand left Moz in 2018 and later that year published his popular book about his difficult startup journey, “Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World.” He described in detail the growth of Moz and the exciting growth years, but he also revealed the painful challenges he and the company faced in their later years. In this podcast discussion, he is frank about the pitfalls and brutal realities of big VC funding for founders and the companies they created.  Rand created his second software company, SparkToro, in 2018 with an approach that was opposite to the funding, growth, and staffing he used at Moz. We discuss the benefits of practical funding and sustainable profits to create healthy software businesses that support the goals of founders, employees, customers, and investors. Learn more at PracticalFounders.com.