Labcast: SEOmoz’s Rand Fishkin on Managing the Biggest Challenges of Your Company’s Growth

February 7, 2013

Anytime a company makes the transition from the startup phase to the expansion stage, there are going to be growing pains.

The simple truth is that as companies expand, they naturally become more complex and begin to face an entirely new set of problems. And that reality is something Rand Fishkin, the co-founder of SEOmoz, is very familiar with. Since founding one of the most popular search engine software companies online back in 2004, SEOmoz has experienced explosive growth and encountered a host of new challenges and opportunities.
The lion’s share of that growth has occurred since April 2012, when the company successfully raised $18 million in venture capital. While securing that capital was difficult in and of itself — the company tried and failed to do so for several years before succeeding — the rapid expansion that it made possible resulted in many other even greater obstacles.
In this week’s Labcast, Rand Fishkin opens up on the challenges and transitions that accompany small business growth with the transparency and candor that makes his blog such a must-read for entrepreneurs. Sharing his own experiences guiding SEOmoz from a small startup to a wildly successful software company, he outlines how the company has changed since securing its latest round of funding as well as how his own approach to leadership has evolved. In addition, he explains:

  • How companies can prioritize the challenges they face during as the transition out of the startup phase
  • Which aspects of the startup mentality no longer apply for those founders who go on to lead growth companies
  • How to ensure that your company maintains a thriving company culture and a healthy pace of innovation as it continues to scale

For more insight into the leadership required to guide your company through small business growth, listen to the full podcast below:
Labcast 98_ SEOmoz’s Rand Fishkin Explains the Challenges of Growing a Company
Photo by: Nitin Bhosale

Wizard of Moz

<strong>Rand Fishkin</strong> served as Moz's CEO from 2007-2014. Today, he is an individual contributor with <a href="https://moz.com/">Moz</a> working primarily on product and marketing, both internally and externally. He co-authored the <em><a href="http://www.artofseobook.com/">Art of SEO</a> </em>from O'Reilly Media, co-founded <a href="http://inbound.org">Inbound.org</a>, and was named on PSBJ's <a href="http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/events/2010/40_under_40/rand_fishkin.html">40 Under 40 List</a> and BusinessWeek's <a href="http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/04/0421_best_young_entrepreneurs/6.htm">30 Best Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30</a>.