Why I'm Running My Business Alone (+ a Founder Associate)
Over the past 2.5 years, I've tried to expand Inscaler and turn it into an agency.
But I've come to a simple realisation: I'm happier running it solo. 🫠
Since launching matteopapaluca.com and then Inscaler.com, I've been lucky to have a strong product-market fit.
Aside from a six-month sprint in Q3 2023, I've never had to send outbound emails.
Thanks to this newsletter, LinkedIn, and fantastic client word-of-mouth, inbound and referrals have kept my pipeline full.
Still, I wrestled with the idea of expansion for a long time.
The logic seemed solid: more demand than I can handle = time to grow, right?
I tried. I hired. It didn't work, mainly because of me. 😅
Why Adding New Partners Didn't Stick ❌
Being a Fractional Sales Leader for early-stage startups is not plug-and-play. It's not easy either, and it's a very unique job.
Plus:
It's a messy mix of experiences. My path - Ryanair, LinkedIn, individual contributor and manager roles, startups in Ireland, Italy, and the US - isn't typical. That's my edge. That melting pot gives me a unique lens on early-stage build and rebuild operations, which is hard to replicate.
You have to actually do the work. I've posted on LinkedIn for five years straight, with all original content. There are no ghostwriters, no magic wand. I have never had to generate content this way before. It's just me showing up every day.
You need to want to be fractional. Not everyone does. Many of the 100+ people who asked to chat about the model were just exploring it after being laid off or worried about their jobs. And I get it - it's hard. But it's not for you unless you're committed to the long game.
So, I dropped the agency dream. Instead, I redefined the kind of help I needed.
Enter: My Founder Associate 🦸♂️
Rather than hire other fractional leaders and partners to expand the core business to more clients, I brought in someone who could make me more efficient.
I posted a role for a founder associate and got 150+ applications.
After screening 50 serious candidates and interviewing 10, I chose one.
Meet Matteo Bossolini.
His impact in just two months? Wild.
Collected 20+ success stories from clients
Built a unified client dashboard with materials, contracts, links, and call recordings.
Migrated our business operations into Notion using the Second Brain framework (hi Tiago Forte 👋)
We moved our business from static Hubspot to dynamic Attio CRM.
Created our first Inscaler GPT - a clone of me on steroids
Drafted three white papers (coming soon!)
And the list keeps growing.
Why This Works (For Now) ☺️
Having Matteo on board means I spend less time on manual tasks and more time doing what I love: helping clients, closing deals, and building relationships.
His systems saved me 3+ hours in the last week alone.
That's a whole extra client meeting or a lazy Friday - your choice. That's power.
So yes, for the foreseeable future, it's still just me and a founder associate, and I'm loving it.
Also, we're approaching our first 500K in revenue (invoiced and paid) and taking one step at a time toward our first million, which we hope to achieve in less than 2 years.
We're taking one step at a time toward our first million, which we hope to achieve in less than 2 years.
Thank you to everyone who reads, engages, or works with me. You've helped shape something I genuinely love building.
As always, see you on the other side 👋
