How to Scale Up When You’re Stuck Between Early and Growth | Postscript, Alex Beller

Name: How to Scale Up When You’re Stuck Between Early and Growth | Postscript, Alex Beller
Duration: 14 min 33 s
Description: In this episode, we sit down with Alex Beller, co-founder of Postscript, an SMS marketing platform. His key insight: 👉 "The riches are in the niches" – focusin

EO14:33Added Aug 31, 2026

In this episode, we sit down with Alex Beller, co-founder of Postscript, an SMS marketing platform. His key insight: 👉 "The riches are in the niches" – focusing on a core product and user creates excellence that customers recognize.

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

Transcript

00:00every time your company doubles in
00:02headcount size it breaks especially
00:05within the tech and the startup
00:07landscape we're all attracted to Big
00:11names and big dollar signs and big
00:13markets but focusing on a core product
00:16and a core user in a core use case I
00:19believe that that breeds excellence in a
00:21product the riches are in the niches and
00:24that's a difficult thing to do it
00:26requires a lot of discipline and this is
00:27a secret that I would recommend to
00:28everyone I'm Alex Beller one of the
00:31co-founders of postcript postcript is an
00:34SMS marketing platform for e-commerce
00:36businesses and the idea from the start
00:37was SMS marketing for Brands built on
00:40top of Shopify make a really easy really
00:42powerful solution that lets people
00:44retarget transact converse with their
00:47customers over text message postcript
00:49found product Market fit very early
00:52customers wanted to send text messages
00:55to their and subscribers to their
00:57Shoppers and as long as it generates
00:59clear Roi they're going to want to send
01:01more and around this time we decided to
01:03apply to Y combinator and we did that
01:05for many reasons uh we were kind of
01:07Outsiders we were based in LA in Arizona
01:10we weren't very connected to the tech
01:11scene and I went into our application
01:14after we filed it every few days and I
01:16would update it with our new Revenue
01:18number so that when they logged into our
01:20application to review it they would see
01:22on this date this was their revenue on
01:23this date the revenue was higher on this
01:24day the revenue was higher and this was
01:26like our second or third month and that
01:28was the time when our Revenue each week
01:29was was going from like $200 a month to$
01:32800 to 2,000 to 3,000 I believe that the
01:35reason that we got in to YC was because
01:38they saw this growth trajectory and all
01:40that growth was coming from word of
01:41mouth and it was coming from the Shopify
01:43App Store it was all inbound to us we
01:45were in the right time at the right
01:47place with the right product that
01:48generated value for our users and by the
01:51time we left YC combinator we were past
01:53a million in annual revenue
01:55approximately 6 to 7 months after we
01:57launched we've raised several rounds of
01:59funding since then then through series C
02:01we bought a company called fondue and we
02:04are now about 270 or 280 people spread
02:07out across the
02:11US you know we were talking about
02:13different startup ideas me and Adam our
02:14third partner Colin they started
02:16building what became postcript our early
02:19customers were amazing they're very
02:22funny they were small e-commerce
02:25entrepreneurs so a couple of things
02:27worked for us really well in early days
02:30we did something that in hindsight we
02:32like hadn't put much thought into but
02:34ended up being a really good idea and
02:35this is a secret that I would recommend
02:36to everyone we put a live chat widget on
02:41our website and inside the postcript
02:43application and we set it up so that
02:45whenever anyone chatted in whenever any
02:47User submitted a chat it would call all
02:50three of our cell phones NE and Adam
02:52calling it would ring us and we would
02:54immediately stop whatever we were doing
02:56and we would like to we would drop it
02:58and we would go log in Andy try to help
03:00that person we would answer their
03:01questions we would take feedback from
03:03them we would help them use the product
03:04whatever that turned out to be an
03:08incredible secret that accelerated us so
03:10much and there's a bunch of reasons why
03:12first we learned so much from these
03:14early customers I mean they were giving
03:15us feedback on holes in our product and
03:18and what we needed to build next and
03:20pricing they're giving us feedback on
03:22everything and so then we could just
03:23build exactly what they were asking for
03:25and they'd be happier but the other
03:26thing that came out of it is people were
03:28getting great amazing Hands-On support
03:30from the founders and we would be super
03:32open that we were the founders of this
03:34tiny little business and people really
03:37like that and so they started to tell
03:39their friends or other people they knew
03:41about the post trip product they started
03:44leaving us good reviews on the Shopify
03:47App Store that then had our application
03:49listing rank even higher there and so us
03:52just talking to our customers as much as
03:54possible and being super available I
03:56mean we would wake up in the middle of
03:58the night when our cell phone rang to
03:59help customers we would leave leave the
04:01ringer on and that created a lot of our
04:04ground swell that led to our early
04:06growth and so our first 100 users a lot
04:08of it came from being hyper available
04:10from being public but listening to our
04:13customers talking to them and just
04:14providing completely over-the-top
04:17support it's actually a lot of what Paul
04:19Graham talks about when he says do
04:20things that don't scale you know now
04:22posted his 18,000 customers I cannot do
04:25the chat support for all of them anymore
04:28but doing that for so long we spent
04:30months and months and months we were the
04:32only ones who did support for postcript
04:33and we did it all the time live that we
04:36learned so much the product advance so
04:38much and and we got to spread a lot of
04:40Word of Mouth came from that
04:43too so uh we launched really with an MVP
04:47that directly grew into postcript we've
04:50enhanced it and we've expanded it but we
04:52never pivoted it was SMS marketing for
04:54e-commerce on Shopify and that's still
04:56what it is today in early days of
04:58postcript we had had Brands come to us
05:01big brands that heard about us that
05:03weren't on Shopify and they wanted to
05:06give us a lot of money to send text
05:08messages right so they're an e-commerce
05:10brand that's SAR sweet spot they want to
05:12use postcript for exactly what everyone
05:14else uses it for but they had a
05:17different underlying technology they
05:18weren't on Shopify they were using a
05:19different
05:22platform I'm the revenue leader of the
05:24company that's a hard thing to say no to
05:26right that's hard to walk away from a
05:28huge prominent brand who wants to pay us
05:30a lot of money and be our friend and do
05:31a case study with us but we decided to
05:35pass on that and we said you know what
05:37we'll we'll see you later on down the
05:38road but right now we're focused on this
05:39one thing and that's a difficult thing
05:42to do it requires a lot of discipline
05:44but it would have taken us off track it
05:47would have led to distraction we would
05:48have been building in many different
05:50directions then with limited resources
05:52and it would have been a mistake because
05:54of that Focus so much of our value has
05:56been created and so yes we've considered
05:59expansion many times we've considered
06:00expanding markets we've considered
06:02expanding use cases outside of SMS but
06:05what we keep coming back to is that
06:07there remains more opportunity in this
06:09core space and no one has really solved
06:12it yet we think we're doing an excellent
06:14job but there's still so much more to BU
06:16build and so much more value to deliver
06:18to these customers we want to do that
06:19first we like to be the one that goes
06:21deeper I think there's many traps and
06:23many mistakes that all of us fall into
06:26in the early days myself and and US
06:28included but focus is one that is
06:33underrated especially within the tech
06:35and the startup landscape we're all
06:36attracted to Big names and big dollar
06:39signs and big markets but focusing on a
06:43core product and a core user in a core
06:46use case to start not forever but to
06:48start I believe that that breeds
06:51excellence in a product the riches are
06:53in the niches I I really believe and
06:55that's paid off for us where we've been
06:57so laser focused on E Commerce marketers
07:00that use Shopify and delivering them an
07:02amazing SMS experience and that's really
07:04paid off for us and I think that anyone
07:05who uses postcript or works with the
07:07postcript team experiences that craft
07:10because they can tell that there's so
07:11much expertise there what makes great
07:14CEOs and great leaders is the ability to
07:17look at your resourcing look at your
07:19organization look at the all the
07:21opportunities in front of you and
07:23sequence things properly so that as much
07:25lines up as possible
07:29so there's a common framing that I hear
07:31from a lot of other late stage Founders
07:33or investors that I believe is true
07:35which is that every time your company
07:37doubles in headcount size it breaks and
07:41I've really seen that to be the case you
07:43know when it's 10 people everyone's
07:46connected to everyone and it's all
07:47automatic and then suddenly it's 25
07:49people and you need management layers of
07:51some kind and then it's 50 and it's a
07:53completely different company and 100 and
07:55200 they're totally different companies
07:56and they require different styles of
07:58communication and man agement and they
08:00require a lot of different things from
08:01their Founders when you advance to the
08:03growth stage the people challeng is
08:05really set in your organization becomes
08:08so much more about how you can direct
08:11the resources at your disposal instead
08:14of how can you as a Craftsman or a
08:16practitioner build product or work with
08:19customers and those are very different
08:21skill sets when I think about some of
08:23the biggest lessons or tips that I could
08:26give entrepreneurs thinking about
08:28scaling uh what comes to mind more than
08:31anything else is values when we started
08:35the business we didn't create a set of
08:37values and the reason for this was
08:39because we'd all worked in companies
08:41before that you know had values but
08:45maybe they weren't that important or you
08:47know they just they hung on the wall but
08:49no one really knew them or was connected
08:50to them and so we just thought it was
08:53Superfluous but Tim Brady who was one of
08:56our partners at y combinator when we
08:58were about to hire our first team member
08:59he said to us create a couple values
09:02it'll help you anchor the culture in
09:03something and that's what we did the
09:05three of us sat down and we banged our
09:07head against the wall and we got the
09:08Whiteboard out and we created a set of
09:11values that value set has been core to
09:15the culture that has been built a
09:16postcript for now almost 7 years the key
09:20tip that I would give people is not just
09:22to create a set of values but to make
09:24sure it has a great acronym this is
09:27actually the hack because what's more
09:29important than what the values are it's
09:33that everyone knows them like the
09:34specific things I'm sure everyone can
09:36pick inspirational good values but
09:38what's more important is just that
09:41everyone can remember them and that they
09:44uh reflect how you believe work should
09:47occur so to get specific the values at
09:51postcript the acronym for them is Fe Fe
09:55it's kind of a funny word it's f a c h
09:58it's Fearless
10:01Excellence animal customer first
10:04humility every time a new person joins
10:06postcript they go through a training
10:08with me where I walk them through all of
10:10our values what Fe stands for the story
10:13behind each one how we believe it should
10:15show up at work and then people get
10:17recognized for living these values and
10:19it comes up in their annual reviews and
10:21we have a slack Channel going where
10:22people get shouted out for living within
10:24these values and that has really helped
10:26guide our culture and keep us all
10:28together as we've grown remotely but I
10:31believe that the values that are going
10:32to be relevant to an organization are
10:34going to change over time they're not
10:36always the same I'll give you an example
10:38the e in Fe of our company's values
10:41today it stands for excellence it didn't
10:44always stand for that it used to stand
10:45for 8020 8020 meaning we wanted people
10:49to be operating from an 8020 mindset we
10:51didn't want folks to focus on Perfection
10:53we wanted to be moving really quickly we
10:55wanted to be doing whatever we could to
10:57capture as much value as we can with 20%
10:59of the effort and then move on to the
11:00next thing and that was great that
11:02helped us move quickly and that helped
11:03us inform how we built product and that
11:06helped us inform how we built process
11:08and that was an amazing early stage
11:10value I mean I would recommend it to
11:11many folks but after a while we realized
11:15we were running into issues because of
11:16it we were well past 100 people and we
11:19needed more robust processes and systems
11:21we needed our product to be sturdier and
11:23more stable right and less about just
11:25shipping everything that's new and
11:26making sure what we had was really
11:28robust as we were serving bigger and
11:29bigger customers and at that point we
11:31went in and we changed the value from
11:338020 which starts with an E to
11:36Excellence which also starts with an E
11:38and that way the acronym for our value
11:41stayed the same but we got to change the
11:43DNA of the company and we haven't done
11:45that many times it's probably happened
11:47three times but each time it's been
11:48really valuable and it's kind of a weird
11:51quirky little learned secret but I would
11:53really recommend other entrepreneurs as
11:55they as they're scaling think about
11:57doing something similar be comfortable
11:59going back and changing your company
12:00values sometimes it's incumbent on a
12:03Founder to reset something and to make
12:05it clear that you know I'm hearing all
12:07this feedback but actually I disagree
12:09and we're going in this direction here
12:10and values are a great way to do
12:14it about what's going on with AI today
12:16with generative Ai and when I think
12:18about what's going on uh what's been
12:20going on for a long time with predictive
12:21machine learning what I see is a future
12:25where on to many marketing goes away and
12:27where it becomes highly personalized and
12:31in the SMS space highly conversational
12:34since the beginning of the e-commerce
12:37use case marketing has been generally
12:40one way it's I'm an e-commerce marketer
12:43I am pushing out a notification to my
12:44audience to try to get them to go by
12:47that works it's fine but that's not how
12:50we actually use messaging we all text
12:53one another back and forth in
12:55conversations and at postcript we've
12:57always believed that there is an
12:58enormous opportunity for Brands to see
13:00even higher performance and for
13:02consumers to be even happier if the
13:04interactions are conversational between
13:06them first more of a push marketing
13:08Approach at postcript we've been
13:10invested in this for a while we built
13:12and launched a product called SMS sales
13:15it is the only part of our company that
13:16is in person and we have a huge office
13:20in Phoenix Arizona that is filled with
13:23e-commerce salespeople who work on
13:25behalf of our Brands to sell and drive
13:28more trans actions over the SMS channel
13:31it's kind of old school it's like if you
13:33walk into a retail store and someone
13:35helps you shop or buy or answers your
13:37questions it's like that for e-commerce
13:39and we've been doing this for several
13:40years and we built up an enormous amount
13:42of expertise in it and many of our
13:44largest customers many huge brands are
13:46using it to drive more sales and to keep
13:48their customers happy and we are so
13:51excited at the opportunity of bringing
13:53that to further scale with new
13:56advancements in Ai and the data sets
13:58that we've been building and the
13:59conversational training that we've been
14:01doing over the last several years uh we
14:03believe puts us in a unique position to
14:04capitalize on that Trend Ai and
14:07predictive machine learning together are
14:08not only going to unlock the
14:10personalization I was just talking about
14:11but they're also going to allow for a
14:13much more conversational marketing
14:15experience that phrase conversational
14:17Commerce has been like floating in The
14:19Ether forever and no one's really done
14:20it and I believe now it's actually going
14:22to happen