Solving my own problem led to founding a company

👩‍💻 Meet Laura E. Davis

Laura is the Founder and CEO of Stylebot. Stylebot helps professional writers save time without sacrificing quality by answering editing questions on Slack and Microsoft Teams. It’s designed for a modern workflow. Stylebot allows everyone on your team to check style and language guidance without opening another email, tab, or document. She also recently started a newsletter to deliver writing tips and tricks to your inbox.

A style problem in the newsroom

Laura started Stylebot in 2020 to solve a problem she was facing as a journalism professor at USC Annenberg. She noticed her students weren’t properly editing their stories, no matter how many cheat sheets and books she shared with them, so she added their style guide into Slack. Stylebot caught on.

Letting go of perfection

With her background in editorial, Laura always strives for perfection, but she had to learn to let that go when starting her first business. She says she’s had to reframe her thinking from, “Let me try to not mess up” to, “I don’t know if I’m going to do this perfectly, but I do know I’m going to learn.”

Unexpected skills

One unexpected thing Laura has learned in the process of founding her company is that she likes sales. She’s found similarities in sales and building the product because it requires her to test the market and seek feedback.

The best sales advice

Some of her best sales advice came from Joe Benjamin during a webinar Laura attended through her incubator. He said, “No one cares about you. They care about their problems.” This line has stuck with Laura and helps her focus on why she started Stylebot in the first place.

📚Laura’s Best Stack Ever

The tools and software she uses to run her business.

• Slack and Teams for both product testing and team communication (Daily)

• Trello for task management and meeting agenda hacks (Daily)

• Calendly for scheduling meetings (Daily)

• Google Workspace for pretty much everything else (Daily)

• Canva for graphics (Daily)

• Checkbook.io for invoices and payments (Weekly)

• ConvertKit for email marketing (Weekly)

• PandaDoc for contracts and invoices (Weekly)

• Beautiful.ai for presentations (Monthly)

The one product Laura couldn’t live without? Slack, which Stylebot works with of course.

The advice Laura would give to others

Laura says she never thought she would start her own business, but her product took off organically. She incorporated and hired her cofounder/CTO while she was pregnant with twins during the pandemic. Doing all of this has taught her that she can tackle challenges that previously didn’t seem within reach.

✨Know someone whom Laura’s journey might inspire? Share this newsletter with them✨

Happy Women’s History Month 👏

@womeninfilmla

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If you have any questions or feedback, you can reach me at [email protected] 

Always remember to have courage and be kind 💫 
Ellen at Best Stack Ever

^{This newsletter is not sponsored or affiliated with any brands/companies.}