😍 Founder sold for $875M, having grown up with refugee parents

Hi, Guy & Farzan here,

Today we have a bunch of content that will inspire you to become a better founder.

Read time: 8 mins

In the mail:

1. Founder story: From artist to founder, meet Amber Joseph 💪

2. Founder playbook: The story of Tracy Young selling her business for $875M 😎

3. Video playbook: 22-year-old dropout to 8-figure business 🔥

4. Video playbook: See how Scott built a $600K one-person business 💥

5. Quote: A quote on how to join the top 1%  😍 

6. Heartwarming video: The extraordinary tale of this Welsh denim company 👖

1. Founder story

Meet Amber. Her founder story is filled with determination, resilience, and a stroke of chance that changed her life forever. 💪

🌍 Join me in a journey that turned an unexpected opportunity into a groundbreaking platform to democratise vocational education worldwide.

🌟 Meet Amber Joseph, the visionary founder behind NextWork.

🎨 Starting as an aspiring artist, she ventured into the world of coding through a fiery argument with her brother.

🔥 Little did she know, this unplanned detour would lead her to uncover the power of software engineering and a booming market for Salesforce developers.


🏆 Milestones:

👉 Graduated in Software Engineering with honours (much to her brother's surprise) 👩‍🎓

👉 Discovered Salesforce's vast potential through Meetup groups and networking 🌐

👉 Offered a job at her first Meetup and dived headfirst into the Salesforce ecosystem 💼

👉 Started salesforcetraining.co.nz, sharing her learning journey with the world 📚

👉 Embarked on a solo career as a Salesforce Trainer 💪

👉 Expanded into corporate training and B2C certification courses 📈

👉 Evolved NextWork, teaching not only Salesforce but a wide range of vocational skills 🌟


🎯 Lessons for founders:

Amber's journey reminds us that seizing unexpected opportunities can lead to extraordinary outcomes.

Embrace the unexpected and dare to explore new paths. Who knows where they might take you? 🚀

Curious to dive deeper into Amber's remarkable story? 📖 Check out the full article on Founderoo! 💡

2. Founder playbook

The daughter of Vietnamese refugees to selling her Silicon Valley business for $875 million 🤑

🌟 Tracy Young is a true trailblazer. She went from humble beginnings as the daughter of Vietnamese refugees to becoming a Silicon Valley icon.

⚓️ Tracy's parents embarked on a daring escape from Vietnam on a fishing boat after the war.

🎓 Fast forward to 2011. Tracy had graduated college, and as a construction engineer, she grew increasingly frustrated with the outdated paper-based processes prevalent in her industry.

📱 Little did she know, fate had something remarkable in store for her—an encounter with Apple's revolutionary creation: the iPad.

At that time, building plans were printed and transported to construction sites, causing unnecessary expenses and headaches for the teams involved.

👷 Tracy, with her keen eye for innovation, spotted an opportunity. She founded PlanGrid—a suite of mobile-optimized, cloud-based tools for digital construction blueprints that would revolutionize the industry.

Here are a few stories that highlight the unwavering determination of Tracy and her founding team during their early days:

1️⃣ Serving customers no matter what

Tracy had to secure as many iPads as possible to ensure their product reached customers' hands. However, Apple imposed restrictions on the number of tablets one could purchase. Undeterred, Tracy and her team donned disguises, maxed out their credit cards, and went above and beyond to obtain enough devices loaded with their software for their early customers.

2️⃣ Force-feeding product adoption

Tracy's team sought to make an impact by understanding the value of construction conferences. However, renting a booth was beyond their budget, costing over $5,000.

Determined not to miss out, they purchased $60 tickets and approached strangers with an irresistible proposition: "Hey, wanna see something cool?"

Remarkably, two of PlanGrid's top 10 customers today originated from those audacious conference efforts.

Over the next 7 years, Tracy scaled PlanGrid, establishing it as the quintessential Silicon Valley playbook for disrupting established industries.

Here's a condensed version of Tracey’s playbook:

✅ Call every single lead.
✅ Prioritize predictable growth.
✅ Empower all staff to demo the product.
✅ Get the product into the hands of customers.
✅ Focus on core B2B personas and expand.

In 2018, AutoDesk recognized the tremendous value of PlanGrid and acquired the company for a staggering $875 million! 💰

3. Video playbook

See how this 22-Year-old Drop out built an 8-figure business 🔥

Enter the captivating story of Dre Medici, a 22-year-old from Miami who defied the norm by leaving college to blaze his own trail. Raised in poverty, Dre's relentless drive to transform his father's life led him to establish a thriving digital marketing agency, propelling him to multimillionaire status.

4. Video playbook

See how Scott built a $600K one-person business (with video editing) 💥

Watch Pat Walls's interview with Scott and learn how he went from freelance video editor to running a $50,000/month company in 1 year.

5. Quote

A quote about patience & persistence 😍

6. The extraordinary tale of a Welsh denim company and its profound purpose.  👖

Shopify put together this video of Hiut Denim in Wales, and it’ll knock your socks off. If you love the stories of founders and do nothing else with today’s newsletter, then spend 30 minutes of your Sunday and watch this.

That’s us for the week. Cheers for taking time out of your day to read our community newsletter.

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Cheers
Guy + Farzan 👋 
Founderoo