The Realities of Running a Tech Startup | Melissa Kwan | CEO of eWebinar

In this episode of Seemed Like a Good Idea, I sit down with Melissa Kwan, Co-Founder and CEO of eWebinar, and a three-time bootstrapped founder with a successful exit under her belt. Melissa shares candid insights from her entrepreneurial journey, revealing the highs, lows, and lessons learned while building innovative products in the SaaS and real estate tech spaces.

• Burning Man & Creativity: Melissa reflects on her annual pilgrimage to Burning Man and how the event inspires her personal and professional life.
• Startup Life: Insights into the reality of being a founder, why most ideas fail, and how Melissa learned to embrace consistency and compounding results over quick wins.
• Affiliate Marketing Gone Wrong: Melissa opens up about spending $130,000 on affiliate marketing and why it didn’t deliver the results she hoped for.
• Remote Work Challenges: Lessons learned from hiring junior employees in a fully remote company and why Melissa now focuses on experienced, self-motivated talent.
• Real Estate Tech Realizations: Why Melissa advises against pursuing real estate tech startups, based on her hard-fought experiences with early ventures.
• Customer Support Breakthroughs: The serendipitous story of hiring a junior developer on a sailboat and how it transformed eWebinar's technical support challenges.

Tune in for an engaging conversation that delves into the realities of entrepreneurship, the importance of adaptability, and the mistakes that shaped Melissa’s journey to success.