He Went 5 Years Without a Salary — Then Built Companies Worth Millions with Rob Catalano

It is great to have you.

So I'll ask my main question I asked when I started with everybody and then we'll dive into some stuff we were talking before we got started.

How do you define entrepreneurial excellence? Like what does it actually mean to you?

So I think excellence is what happens after the idea stops being fun, right? So how do you have this willingness to stay with a problem long past the point where it's interesting? Because vision is this moment, but excellence is what you do on day 100, day 300, day 1,000.

And I just think that's what excellence is.

How do you stick with something and continue to execute that vision? the other thing that came to mind when you said that was there's a willingness to walk away when you're actually done right so when the comfort is there and you have that bug again which i'm sure we'll get into i think passing through that comfort i think is entrepreneur excellence as well where it's not just sitting on status quo and trying to solve another problem

what are the secrets or things that you've done to get you through that, right? And to maybe give people a little quick walk through, right? You, you've been in this game for a long time now.

You were at your previous companies in a sense and different variants of it for a long, long time as well.

So you really did stick with it.

What, one, give people a little bit of a background, like what, how long you stuck with those things.

I mean, we'll talk more in details about each one.

Um, and then two, like, what are the secrets to actually, like, how did you do it? Because most people give up the, even entrepreneurs, they give up when it's hard.

Fair.

Um, yeah, maybe the quick, uh, you know the history and the sticking with it part of it but uh oh my gosh 21 or 22 years ago back in 2005 uh part of a little startup in the founding team at achievers and that was 10 years but it was that 10 years where the the vision was the same it was really great in terms of high growth but you know your role takes on a different shape and the responsibilities take on a shape and again the the vision is there and the idea is fantastic but navigating through raises, navigating through a tough market in 2008, navigating through all the things that went, I think was really just making sure that there was a five year, 10 year vision of what success looked like, and then navigating your way towards that.

And everyone knows, right, like, success isn't linear.

So as long as you can, you know, not just stick with it, but have an understanding of the end game versus getting frustrated with day one and day three, back to that day 100 1000. i think it's a big part of it um and i think the same thing with uh you know after after achievers there was 10 years at work tango so we had a you know we started work tango we spent a year and a half without an ounce of revenue without a customer but again still have this vision of what good looked like and then navigated away success by giving people pilots talking about what worked what didn't um so you know it's really in the nutshell been two companies in 20 years but i think it's been six versions of two companies in 20 years with different responsibilities, different challenges, but a similar vision of just providing a great customer experience at the end of the day and a good product to support that as well.

Yeah, and

it's actually a great point

too.

Probably having a great customer experience and being customer obsessed is sort of a through point that I see across so many different successful companies.

It's just like, utter focus on delight and happiness leads to success long term.

But so why do you think when you've had so many founders, friends, I'm sure throughout your career, I'm sure a lot of them are no longer in the entrepreneurial game.

Why do you think most founders wash out right in other words like they they try it they don't stick with it like why do you think everyone starts right with this great one saying this grand vision i'm some so i have this ego that i think i can change the world do something amazing and different you know for people listen like how can they become the people who stick with it in a sense like you and me and much more successful entrepreneurs even versus the people that wash out and in a sense give up because no one starts it thinking they're going to give up and fail

Yeah.

I mean, I think people wash out because it's hard, right? Like that stat that what was it? 1% or a quarter of a percent of companies succeed, but that's a reality and failing is hard.