Laura Roeder (@LKR) is the co-founder of Edgar, a social media scheduling and management tool. Laura began her career as a web designer, moving first to solo practice, and then to social media consulting.
From this conversation, you'll learn how Laura transitioned away from work-a-day design and into entrepreneurship, how her team at Edgar manages their software development, and some of the philosophies behind their hiring and company management. 
One thing we don't cover are the features of the software itself, and the idiosyncrasies which separate Edgar from competitors like Hootsuite or Buffer. To learn more about Edgar itself, scroll down to the show notes for examples of Laura explaining in further detail on other podcasts, and some embedded videos showing off Edgar itself.
That said, Laura and her team have offered listeners of The Busy Creator a free month of service for Edgar. Sign up before May 31, 2016 and use the code SUNANDSURF.
 
GET THE EPISODE

Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 79 (MP3, 49:06, 23.6 MB)
Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 79 (OGG, 49:06, 25.0 MB)

SUBSCRIBE TO GET NEW EPISODES
 
Subscribe to The Busy Creator Podcast on iTunes or on Android
Show Notes & Links

Laura Roeder describes Edgar in greater detail on Smart Passive Income #132
... and on EOFire #802 ... and on Online Marketing Made Easy #35
Laura describes herself as the founder of Edgar, at least today
Laura started as a web and graphic designer, worked at a design agency when she was a fresh graduate
Her rationale for leaving her agency job was largely that it would take a really long time to get to do the work she fancied.
10,000 hours
Laura was inspired more by business owners than design practitioners
Chamber of Commerce

"I felt like a fish out of water because I was so much younger."
—Laura Roeder
Tweet This


World of Warcraft is the New Golf
Laura replaced her salary the first year, then doubled her earnings the following year.
The transition from Paid Services → Packaged Services → Retail Packages

"It felt a lot easier to sell an online class than to get individual clients."
—Laura Roeder
Tweet This


Gary Vaynerchuk
Laura's clients were asking about social media; there was a swelling 
Biography from A+E
The Dash was the newsletter from LKR Social Media

"It was always a business. I didn't start with a blog."
—Laura Roeder
Tweet This


Laura's team works remotely
Lean Startup Methodology
Laura's husband Chris is the lead developer/CTO for Edgar
Ruby on Rails
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss On Amazon and On Audible
Edgar is 16 people strong (development, marketing, customer service)
Team Edgar doesn't use Sprint/Agile methodology. They simply make priorities and do them.
Edgar ties their QA into Customer Service

"We don't make major changes to our software. We're focused on iterative improvements to what we already do."
—Laura Roeder
Tweet This


DIY Network/HGTV
Mike Holmes
Amazon tests features very carefully

"Always run split tests on the home page and signup page"
—Laura Roeder
Tweet This


"I wasn't that passionate about design. I was interested in other elements."
—Laura Roeder
Tweet This


False Negatives in hiring
The Narcissism of Minor Differences

"If you're talking to the HR Manager, you're doomed."
—Prescott Perez-Fox
Tweet This


The Edgar Blog
 Laura Roeder on Twitter
 Laura Roeder on Facebook
 Laura Roeder on Instagram
 Laura Roeder on LinkedIn
 Edgar on Twitter
 Edgar on Facebook

Tools

Skillshare
Edgar
Slack
Trello
Flow
Google Hangouts
Confluence
Kissmetrics
Jira
Mailchimp
Visual Website Optimizer
Evernote
Google Docs
Pocket

Techniques

Think of the "Worst Case Scenario" before you quit
Start with freelancers before hiring full-time staff
Create a Wiki for shared information (customer service, company values, etc.)
Methodology is more important than software
When A/B testing, use dramatic comparisons; two completely different versions 

Habits

Have a planning meeting every Monday and retr