He Beat a Better-Funded Competitor With a $35 Microphone

Wil Brawley co-founded Schedulefly, a restaurant employee scheduling platform, in 2007 — the same year he sold his previous company and one year before the financial crisis reshaped who his prospective customers even were. Nineteen years later, Schedulefly has never taken outside funding and has never raised its prices, and it keeps winning back customers who leave for larger, more heavily-funded competitors.

On this episode, Wil tells Patricia Mejia the real reason that keeps happening: since 2010, he's recorded customer interviews and shared their stories publicly, long before that was a common marketing move. He explains why Schedulefly has said no to new features 100 times more often than it's said yes, what he learned from selling his first company that shaped how he runs this one, and the specific, free tactic one restaurant owner used to build 10,000 Facebook followers in a town of 2,000 — something any operator can try this week.

Prefer video? Watch this episode on YouTube, with full chapters.

Hear more of Wil's interviews with independent restaurant owners on his own show, Restaurant Owners Uncorked.