HelloAdvisr

Why do most software companies lose money on payments even after they've integrated them? Joseph Elias Phillips and Will Corbera, co-founders of Payabli, have spent their careers answering that question. Will bootstrapped his first payments company for 17 years before a successful exit. Jo helped architect what became ServiceTitan's payments business, now processing $60 billion in annual volume. They saw the same broken system from different sides: software companies were bleeding time, money, and customers trying to stitch together fragmented payment solutions that were never built for them. Together they built Payabli, a unified pay-in, pay-out, and pay-ops platform that's raised $60 million in venture capital, serves close to 100 partners, and processes tens of billions in volume. In this episode of Margin for Error, we talk about: 🔹 Why most software companies underestimate what it takes to actually monetize payments 🔹 The go-to-market pivot that completely changed how they sell 🔹 How building for complex, high-trust verticals creates a moat competitors can't easily cross If payments are part of your platform's growth strategy, this conversation will change how you think about it. Link in comments. #MarginForError #Payments #Fintech #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #Payabli #Podcast

What if the tools your industry relied on hadn't been updated since the 1990s? That's reality for hardware engineers. Michael Corr, founder and CEO of Duro, spent years designing circuits and manufacturing products before realizing the entire industry was stuck. While software teams were shipping with cloud-native tools and agile workflows, hardware engineers were still drowning in disconnected spreadsheets and six-month onboarding cycles. So he built the solution himself. Duro is a product lifecycle management platform that works like GitHub for hardware, centralizing CAD files, supply chain data, and manufacturing workflows into one system. No VC would invest in hardware when he started. He bootstrapped anyway. Then he rebuilt the entire product from scratch to be AI-native. In this episode of Margin for Error, we talk about: 🔹 Why an entire industry got left behind while software evolved 🔹 What it took to bootstrap when no investor believed in hardware 🔹 How rebuilding a product from the ground up became the smartest decision he ever made If you've ever had to modernize something that's been done the same way for decades, this conversation will resonate. Link in comments. #MarginForError #Hardware #AI #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #ProductDevelopment #Podcast

Raising capital? Most people aren't ready. Here's proof. Less than 1% of businesses that seek funding actually get it. Jasmine Ober, founder and CEO of Pitch Genius, has spent nine years flipping those odds. Her clients get funded at a rate nearly 50x the industry average. Jasmine has spent nine years helping businesses do what less than 1% ever pull off: actually get funded. Her close rate is nearly 50x the industry average. But what makes her approach different isn't the pitch deck itself. It's everything around it: the mindset coaching, the networking strategy, the time management most people underestimate, and the differentiation that separates a funded business from a forgotten one. In this episode, we talk about: 🔹 Why your pitch hook matters more than the rest of your deck combined 🔹 The mindset shifts most first-time fundraisers completely underestimate 🔹 How AI is speeding up the process without replacing the thinking investors demand If your competitor could have written your exact same pitch, you have a problem. This conversation shows you how to fix it. Link in comments. #MarginForError #Fundraising #PitchDeck #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #PitchGenius #Podcast

Most entrepreneurs think PR works like this: call a reporter, tell them about your company, and wait for the headline. That's step 25. Lauren Banyar Reich, Founder and CEO of LBR/PR, explains what actually happens before that pitch ever goes out. The story has to be crafted. The right contacts have to be identified. The angle has to be dialed in. All of that comes long before anyone hits send on that email. If you're skipping straight to outreach, you're skipping the part that actually matters. Full episode link in bio. #PRTips #StartupPR #MarginForError #PublicRelations #MediaStrategy #FounderMistakes #Entrepreneurship #PitchingPress #PRStrategy #StartupAdvice

🎙️ New episode of Margin for Error just dropped. This one's with Lauren Banyar Reich, founder of LBR/PR , and it's a must-listen for any business owner who's ever thought about getting media coverage but didn't know where to start. Lauren spent a decade in the traditional agency world before walking away to build something better. Her agency has landed clients on CBS News, earned front-page features that led directly to new business, and built a model that keeps top talent instead of burning them out. In this episode, we talk about: 🔹 Why most businesses waste money on PR before they're actually ready 🔹 The client wins that turned a single media hit into real revenue 🔹 How AI is quietly reshaping the earned media landscape She also breaks down two initiatives that are changing how smaller brands and women-owned businesses access PR. This conversation will shift how you think about visibility. Link in comments. #MarginForError #PR #PublicRelations #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #MediaStrategy #Podcast

Season 2 of Margin for Error is here. 🎙️ New episodes. New guests. Same mission: real conversations with entrepreneurs, investors, and operators about what it actually takes to grow a business fast and not break everything along the way. No scripts. No theory. Just the lessons people learn the hard way. First up: Lucas J. Pols, managing partner at 1752vc (Formerly Pegasus). Lucas has reviewed over 1,000 businesses in a single diligence cycle. His accelerator has a 0.3% acceptance rate. And unlike most investors, he doesn't just write a check. He gets in the trenches alongside the companies he backs, helping them hire, fire, and rebuild go-to-market strategy from the ground up. In this episode, we talk about: 🔹 What separates the businesses that break through from the ones that stall 🔹 Why your pitch deck might be working against you 🔹 How AI is rewriting growth expectations overnight If you're growing a business right now, this one's worth your time. Link in comments. #MarginForError #Season2 #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #1757VC #Podcast

In 2025, founders stopped treating pricing as a task and started using it as a growth engine. The results spoke for themselves. In 2026, we’re going even further: bolder bets, smarter models, faster expansion. Pricing isn’t what you charge. It’s how you lead. #PricingStrategy #StartupLeadership #GrowthMindset #Monetization #GoToMarket #StrategicPricing #FounderFocus #HelloAdvisr #PricingMultiplierSystem

Pricing power is leadership power. In 2025, half of the companies we advised had a female leader on the senior team. Compare that to just 2% of venture funding going to female-founded startups. The gap is real, but so is the momentum. Female-led exits nearly doubled last year (vs. 10 years earlier). #WomenInLeadership #PricingStrategy #StartupGrowth #Monetization #FemaleFounders #FounderLeadership #HelloAdvisr #PricingMultiplierSystem #StrategicGrowth

14 stages. 1 system. In 2025, we presented the Pricing Multiplier System across 14 global talks, panels, and workshops, equipping founders, operators, and investors with a new way to lead with pricing. As companies face tighter capital and rising expectations, pricing is no longer a back-office task. It’s a strategic lever and increasingly, a board-level conversation. #PricingStrategy #Monetization #StartupGrowth #GoToMarket #B2BStrategy #FounderLeadership #PricingMultiplierSystem #VentureCapital #GrowthLeadership #HelloAdvisr

2025 was a year of compounding impact. We worked with bold founders, world-class investors, and teams serious about turning pricing into a strategic edge. From capital raised to pricing power gained, the numbers speak to one thing: pricing isn’t just about revenue. It’s about reach, readiness, and long-term resilience. 2026, we're just getting started. #PricingStrategy #StartupGrowth #FounderLeadership #GoToMarket #Monetization #VC #StrategicPricing #HelloAdvisr #PricingMultiplierSystem #WomenInBusiness #ImpactDriven