If everything in your business fell apart, and you had to rebuild from scratch… what would you do differently? This is usually a hypothetical question. But not necessarily nowadays… and definitely not for Ben Jabbawy a few years back. Ben is the founder and CEO of Privy, marketing automation software for e-commerce stores. In 2013, they raised a seed round $2 MIL from investors. 2 years later, in 2015… all they had left was $1000 in the bank. They had no choice but to pivot, or quit. (A decision a lot of founders are faced with these days.) Fast forward to today, and they’re fast approaching $8 MIL in ARR (annual recurring revenue). Their software is being added to about 10,000 new stores every month. That’s like returning a SaaS from the brink of extinction! So HOW on earth do you do that?! Ben was kind enough to talk through the entire business journey in this week’s episode of the Escape Velocity show. I liken this episode to sharing war stories. In the interview, Ben chats about: 1. Paying attention to the impact you have on people (not metrics) 2. How their customer focus won the war 3. What it takes to grow from a startup founder into a CEO 4. Swallowing your pride 5. What that last $1000 taught him about successful thinking What impresses me most about Ben is how he managed to keep a level head throughout everything. The right mindset is integral to surviving the setbacks in business and life. A lesser leader would have fallen apart. But not Ben. We could use more leaders like Ben. So when you fire up the episode, keep this question in mind: What would you do if your business was down to it’s last $1000? Check out the interview and take a moment to leave me a comment letting me know what you would do. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell