In our latest episode, we interview founder Ian Landsman about how he started the help desk software Helpspot back in the early 2000s and how he's lasted 15+ years against funded big name players like Zendesk, HelpScout, and more. We get into the details about what he did in the early days to launch his company, why he never really had a focus on marketing until recently, and we share some of the rankings that we've been able to generate for their business in an extremely competitive category. Sections:0:00 Intro1:13 The founding story of Helpspot5:26 Funny story about software development7:49 Laravel8:48 How Helpspot was funded9:35 Pre-SaaS11:56 How Helpspot launched12:56 Early SEO15:39 Enter the competitors- Zendesk, etc.18:27 Team size20:29 Why Helpspot never invested in marketing25:26 Difference between VC funded and bootstrapped help desk software29:15 Did you ever think about selling your business?31:43 Marketing and positioning35:23 Why invest in SEO40:37 Results from G&C47:10 Attribution of leads to SEO/Content53:52 Helpspot 2023 and beyond