“I just read the best fiction of my life and it was my pitch deck from two years ago.”
Join Johnny Page (@johnnypage13) and Matt Verlaque (@mattverlaque) on a new episode of the SaaS Academy Podcast as they sit down with Maddie Bell, CEO of Scheduler.ai. Maddie's journey from Procter & Gamble to co-founding a thriving startup is packed with valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Discover how Maddie and her husband successfully balance the challenges of building a company while raising a family. Learn how they've leveraged AI to streamline scheduling and cater to a niche market, proving that technology and personal life can coexist harmoniously.
Maddie opens up about the risks and rewards of leaving a stable job to pursue her passion, sharing her experiences from fundraising rounds and the valuable lessons she's learned along the way.
But it's not just about the tech – Maddie delves into the importance of aligning AI with the core principles of customer connection and business growth. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of AI, entrepreneurship, and achieving a fulfilling work-life balance
(05:40) - Maddie Bell's backstory
(6:34) - Winning two Hackathons (Slack and Square)
(10:32) - Unexpected expansion through 'niching down'
(12:57) - De-risking and setting timelines to go all-in
(21:35) - Expectations before leaving Procter & Gamble and feelings after the fact
(24:30) - Fundraising rounds before and after the change of focus
(26:50) - To patent or not to patent (ROI considerations)
(31:26) - The right and wrong ways to leverage AI
(35:20) - The entry point to start using AI
(37:10) - The three phases of AI (including the two we've seen so far)
(42:45) - Scheduler AI competing with basic ChatGPT wrapped tooling
(47:48) - Intimately understanding the jobs to be done for your customer
(51:48) - The Importance of Community and Coaching
(55:18) - Maddie's thoughts on 'founders are the ceilings of growth'
(57:15) - The value of coaching
(1:01:48) - "You were digging for oil and you were close but you stopped."
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