SPN recently caught up with Dusty Davidson, co-founder of Flywheel, to reflect on the evolution of the company, and how far it has come from the days of its founding to its recent acquisition.

It can reasonably be said that strong, scalable companies that survive are those built on firm foundations. From the right team to the right idea, Flywheel’s founders have mixed the right ingredients in a recipe for startup success.

But it wasn’t all big ideas and big deals from the beginning – as most founders quickly discover in the early days. Founding stories are all different and ideas evolve and change. Dusty recalled that over the past 10 years, he devoted time and energy to activities that were not always high-growth or high-impact by themselves but were nonetheless critically important to get Flywheel where it is today. He attributes the start of his company at least partially to the activities that laid a firm foundation for the company he would build with co-founders Tony Noecker and Rick Knudtson.

All three have backgrounds in web development. They set out to create the managed WordPress hosting solution they wished they had as developers. Even though Flywheel has grown quickly over the past six years, it certainly did not come about by chance, and it definitely wasn’t all glamour.

Dusty shared the ways he participated in the ecosystem starting out 10 years ago. He consulted, blogged, attended conferences and events, formed relationships with other builders in the Omaha community, and invested himself and his talents in small ways that prepared him to run one of the most respected brands in the business.

When asked about the most important wisdom he would impart on up-and-coming startups, and those dreaming about starting up, he said being unafraid to do the work and hustle is essential for success.

“We didn’t start out with a sales team initially, but we picked up the phone and made the calls every single day for months. We learned about our customers, and what they buy and what they don’t buy. Sometimes you have to call thousands of prospective customers – you can’t be afraid to do what it takes,” advised Dusty.

“It took us a while to figure out that we really needed that sales leader much earlier. We learned and discovered over time what roles and departments to put in place, though a year or two later than we should have. Probably the biggest lessons we learned over the years were about fund raising – local and regional – and how to pitch investors. Here in Nebraska, in particular, it can be a challenge to attract attention and raise capital from outside investors. But we proved that companies in the Midwest should not be overlooked. Some of the best-of-the-best are here.”

The plan for Flywheel’s acquisition by WP Engine came together quickly. A May 7 email from WP Engine lit the match, and conversations immediately ensued about what the partnership would look like. Dusty remarked that there has long been a great deal of respect between the leadership of the companies, shared values, and extraordinary alignment of the respective teams and cultures.

“We didn’t waste any time putting the wheels in motion; we knew we could create an even bigger impact with this acquisition. We all wanted to get right to work, and we quickly decided to move forward.”

Though we were not able to get Dusty to crack on the amount of the deal, he shared that Flywheel will be hiring, continues its growth at a quick clip, and will continue to accelerate as it has done impressively well with a business that isn’t particularly sexy – but is particularly great at what it does and how it operates. Flywheel is actively seeking engineering, sales, and marketing talent, as well as other support roles going forward.

“We’ll continue to support our customers in the best way possible as we spend time optimizing and bring our companies and teams together. The additional resources will help us make a big dent in leveraging our product and brand,” said Dusty.

The founding team will remain in Omaha, where Dusty said they are excited to continue their investment in the community that has catalyzed and supported Flywheel’s birth and continued growth.

We asked Dusty to share a bit about the early days before Flywheel got going, back when he and Jeff Slobotski were running SPN, a publication they founded together. They were busy building and connecting a community of technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors – a community about which they both care deeply. They told the startup stories and invited others to tell their stories as well through SPN and Big Omaha. If not for Dusty and Jeff and their steadfast efforts, the entrepreneurial ecosystem here would probably look much different…though it’s fair to say, it would look much rougher all the way around the edges and in the middle.

Dusty highlighted those early efforts to build the network present in the Midwest today – not as an endgame to start Flywheel, but to authentically highlight and showcase stories of founders and companies all the way from their humble beginnings, through the term sheets and tears, and the trials and triumphs – to major milestones – such as in Flywheel’s case – the ‘Grand Exit’.

“We worked on SPN to shine a light on what people are building in Omaha, Lincoln, and around the Midwest. Through the process, we were fortunate to get connected to Jim and Kathy Linder of Linseed Capital. They are our investors, and Flywheel would not exist if not for them. The power of the entrepreneurial network and connectivity cannot be overstated – those partnerships nurtured and fostered will be the difference between the companies that survive to talk about it, and those that do not. We’re phenomenally grateful for the support we’ve had in Omaha through the years and going forward,” said Dusty.

Dusty recounted the years of Flywheel’s evolution. His team has countless stories and anecdotes of watching teams collaborate and employees excel in their careers.

“I met Rick while he was still an intern, and we eventually partnered to grow Flywheel. There are countless stories like that at Flywheel about people flourishing and chasing their ideas, building something new, and going on to do their own thing,” added Dusty.

The acquisition of Flywheel by WP Engine brings together two of the most respected brands and resources to create the largest WordPress hosting company in the world.

“With 125,000 combined customers, the acquisition positions us very well to accelerate what we can do in terms of products and services, revenue growth, and developing and deploying the wealth of talent on our teams,” said Dusty.

Dusty offered advice to early-stage companies.

“There will be mistakes and failures. Oftentimes people think if you are not a high-growth startup you don’t matter. We wouldn’t have created Flywheel without the failures along with the wins. But we showed up at the events, we met people, we made the phone calls, and we stayed the course. Sometimes it takes being in a full-time job before becoming a founder. Sometimes it takes building something else to get where you need to be.

He continued, “Starting and growing SPN and building countless relationships led to Flywheel. As I mentioned before, we didn’t build a sales team immediately, but we built a robust marketing organization and great products. Your startup story will be uniquely your own, and it definitely won’t be straightforward – ours was not. But the most important thing to remember is that you have to work at building it. Flywheel’s story is proof that you can do it here, and most importantly, it can be done.

Visit https://getflywheel.com/ to read more about this company.

 

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