Ronald Schmelzer

Helping Microteams Megascale | Triple-Exit Founder | Forbes AI Columnist | Scalebrate Founder | Co-Creator of CPMAI

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

$2M ARR. 2 people. 70% margin. And the founder was still the bottleneck.

New YouTube episode — honest breakdown of what produced the leverage and where it leaked at ZapThink.

▶️ https://t.co/OnX41wnOuf

#SmallTeamBigScale #Leverage

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

$2M ARR. 2 people. 70% margin. And I still got leverage wrong.

New episode LIVE. Honest breakdown of what produced leverage at ZapThink — and where it leaked.

First in a 4-episode discovery series.

👉 https://t.co/fnl9w3X3fZ

#SmallTeamBigScale

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

Stuck at $1M–$5M ARR? You're pulling the wrong lever.

@AsiaOrangio of @DemandMaven on 6 growth levers founders ignore: activation, pricing, product strategy, expansion revenue, NRR, team.

Now live on YouTube 👉 https://t.co/gRcZznwJNq

#LeverageFirst

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

"The difference between scaling and stalling isn't more leads — it's pulling the right lever at the right time."

— @AsiaOrangio, Founder of @DemandMaven

Now live on YouTube 👉 https://t.co/gRcZznwJNq

#LeverageFirst

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

Free-trial-to-paid below 30%? That's a growth trap — not a marketing problem.

@AsiaOrangio of @DemandMaven on the real reason founders get stuck at $1M ARR.

Now live on YouTube 👉 https://t.co/gRcZznwJNq

#LeverageFirst

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

More startups launching than ever — but creating fewer jobs per startup. Job creation down 33% since 1997.

@dharrisindc, CEO of @buildersbackers, unpacks what "More Startups, Fewer Jobs" really means.

👉 https://t.co/Xl7gvF1Y8Z

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

Acquisition is just 1 of 6 growth levers. If it's the only one you're pulling, you're stuck.

@AsiaOrangio of @DemandMaven on the 5 most-overlooked: activation, pricing, product strategy, expansion revenue, NRR.

Now live on YouTube 👉 https://t.co/gRcZznwJNq

#LeverageFirst

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

Two brothers. One pickup truck. Seven figures.

Kirk & Jacob McKinney built Junk Teens — no funding, no platform. Local teens, repeatable systems, donate & repurpose instead of dump.

First $600K? 100% word of mouth.

▶️ https://t.co/2pFUHh8goM

#SmallTeamBigScale

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

80% of customers on one pricing tier? Your value metric is misaligned.

@AsiaOrangio of @DemandMaven breaks down how cohorting NRR by persona reveals your best customers.

Now live on YouTube 👉 https://t.co/gRcZznwJNq

#LeverageFirst

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

Now on YouTube: @dharrisindc (CEO, @buildersbackers) on why "More Startups, Fewer Jobs" is the defining shift in entrepreneurship.

Job creation down 33% since 1997. AI accelerating faster than infrastructure can adapt. Crisis or signal?

▶️ https://t.co/uh41tSAyhC

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

"If your 12-month NRR is below 70%, you're not ready to scale marketing — you're just slow-leaking revenue through sneaky churn."

@AsiaOrangio of @DemandMaven on fixing retention first.

Now live on YouTube 👉 https://t.co/gRcZznwJNq

#LeverageFirst #NRR

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

9 out of 10 SaaS founders pull the wrong growth lever at $1M–$5M ARR.

@AsiaOrangio of @DemandMaven explains why and what to fix first. EP034 is now live on YouTube:

👉 https://t.co/gRcZznwJNq

#LeverageFirst #SaaS #ARR

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

I want to promote you and your company.
Are you bootstrapping or self-funded / seedstrapped?
Have fewer than a dozen people and making over $1M?
Share what you're doing.

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

From pickup truck to 7 figures. 🚛

Kirk & Jacob McKinney bootstrapped Junk Teens — zero VC, just systems thinking. First $600K from word of mouth. Now 8 trucks, 35+ people, 40-50 jobs/day.

Listen: https://t.co/U3MfP4LbCd

#leveragefirst

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

Big UPDATE! The Exponential Scale Podcast is now the Small Team Big Scale podcast! Same great guests, same awesome content, new name. Join the rapidly growing listenership! A big shoutout to our sponsor @Zapier Check it out at https://t.co/Nr948ApYpF

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

@ryanhashemi_ I saw the post with Starter Studio and I have to say... "help!" ... coming from Audio podcasting I have to say YouTube is a total mystery to me on how to make this work. What can I do to get my YouTube channel from zero to hero? https://t.co/DFgLbbgB1m

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

@VimalAITech @AnthropicAI I have to say that Codex on GPT 5.5 is rocking it right now.

Gonna squeeze what I can on these before they all charge the actual rate this stuff will costs. We're in the golden days now before the inevitable heavy paywall and gatekeeping comes in.

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

Whelp @AnthropicAI Claude Fable is out yay, but now all of a sudden the legacy models (especially good ol' Sonnet) have just gotten dumber. Or is it me?

Smells like pushing people to the newer and a lot more expensive (and guardrailed) models to me.

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

In case you want to hear more of my blathering about Anthropic's latest Fable release, check out my writing about it here on @Forbes: https://t.co/uXZiRqn5cj

If it's a fable, then how does the story end?

[Ronald Schmelzer @rschmelzer]

@VimalAITech @AnthropicAI It's like a restaurant launching a new menu item and then taking their old stuff everyone used to like and replacing it with microwave meals.

"Voila! The new stuff so much better than the old amirite??"