On September 29, more than 35 founders gathered in Richardson for great social connection time and a Q&A with Robin Alex, co-founder of HighLevel.
A scrappy, bootstrapped start
Robin shared HighLevel's scrappy startup story: him in Dallas and two other founders in different parts of the world. They built simple software, found paying customers, and kept going as a bootstrapped SaaS company.
Now HighLevel has over 2,000 employees, 100,000 small business agency partners, and millions of small business customers who use their CRM and marketing platform every day. Robin stayed in Dallas, and about 250 of those employees work here. They're moving into a new Dallas-area office next month.
[Inline image: Photo 3 — Robin answering questions] Alt text: Robin Alex of HighLevel answering founder questions at the Dallas Software Founders meetup
What founders asked about
Robin answered founder questions for over half an hour, covering:
- Their unconventional approach to growing so quickly
- Keeping control of the company while taking on capital partners
- How AI is changing the SaaS landscape
Then he hung out until the last founders left. I really appreciate Robin contributing to help the next generation of software founders here in Dallas.
Thanks to HEXA for hosting us in their great space in Richardson, and to Jonathan Marzoq of Usio for the food and drinks.
What's next for DSF
We're already planning the next Dallas Software Founders meetup for December. Invitations go to people on the list first.
Know a founder who belongs in this group? Send them to dallassoftwarefounders.com to join the list.
The new Gregslist of Dallas software companies
I also just launched the new Gregslist Dallas, my curated, up-to-date directory of all 600+ Dallas-based software, SaaS, and AI companies I've been running for almost 7 years. More than 50,000 people use Gregslist Dallas each year to find Dallas-based software companies, including investors, job seekers, service providers, and customers.
Three quick things you can do:
- Look up your company at gregslist.com.
- Suggest an update if we don't have it right.
- Add your company if it's missing. It needs a live website and a live company LinkedIn page.
While you're there, check out the new DFW Software Industry Report.
Between these meetups and Gregslist, there's a lot happening in Dallas software. We should have a lot more of a founder ecosystem than we do, and I'm contributing what I can, without selling anything, to help make it happen.
See you at the next one,
Greg