Why Stu McLaren Quit His Successful 7-Figure Software Business
Stu McLaren is the founder of Wishlist Member, a powerful and easy to use a plugin that can turn any WordPress site into a full-blown membership site. Wishlist Member powers over 54,000 online communities and membership sites worldwide. Stu is also the founder of Rhino Support, a helpdesk SaaS application.
Key Talking Points
- This is part 2 of the interview with Stu McLaren. In this episode, we talk about an announcement that he just made the day before this interview, where he decided to sell his stake in his software business and go do something else. Now Wishlist Member is doing really well – it's a multiple 7-figures a year business and Stu still has a great relationship with his partners. So why sell his stake? It's an interesting story and I think there are valuable lessons in there for all types of entrepreneurs on the importance of focus and what that really means.
Getting to $10K MRR
Weekly coaching, proven frameworks, and a community of early-stage founders.
Learn More →
Scaling to $1M ARR
Strategic guidance, direct mentorship, and a peer group of 6-figure founders.
Learn More →
Success Quote
- “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” — St Augustine
- “Where you invest your love, you invest your life.” — Mumford & Sons
Book Recommendation
- “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown
- “The One Thing” by Gary Keller
Links & Resources Mentioned
Contact Information
- Stu McLaren – @StuMcLaren
- Omer Khan – @omerkhan
Recommended Podcast Episodes
- Airbase: From Solo Founder to 8-Figure ARR SaaS - with Thejo Kote [381]
- AMP: Speed and Customer Focus in Building an 8-Figure SaaS - with Patrick Barnes [408]
- SaaS Growth: Unconventional Wisdom Leads to a $40 Million Startup - with Tim Soulo [205]
- SaaS Idea Validation: How to Ask Customers Good Questions - with Rob Fitzpatrick [206]
- How to Build a SaaS Brand Without Doing 'Branding' - with Paul Campillo [270]
- 7 Key User Flows to Unlock Your SaaS Growth - with Peter Loving [410]
- Storyblok: Turning a CMS Prototype Into an 8-Figure SaaS - with Dominik Angerer [366]
- How to Build a 7-Figure Software Business from a WordPress Plugin - with Stu McLaren [026]
- How This Non-Technical Founder Launched Two Successful SaaS Startups - with Hiten…
- Makerpad: How Ben Tossell Bootstrapped a $240K Side-Project - with Ben Tossell [238]