Real stories from founders who built it themselves
New conversations with bootstrapped founders every week. Subscribe on your favorite platform.
Latest Episode
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Ep182 Hunter Beale, Executive Director of High School Hustle: Why the Buffalo Runs Into the Storm
Listen →: Ep182 Hunter Beale, Executive Director of High School Hustle: Why the Buffalo Runs Into the StormIn this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Hunter Beale, Executive Director of High School Hustle, the Indianapolis nonprofit that teaches teenagers to build real businesses—gutter cleaning, car detailing, power washing, thrift flipping—and turn a summer…
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Ep181 From Asbestos Removal to a 30-Year Coatings Business: Clayton Tomasino of Scorpion Protective Coatings
Listen →: Ep181 From Asbestos Removal to a 30-Year Coatings Business: Clayton Tomasino of Scorpion Protective CoatingsIn this episode of Default Profitable, host Matt Nettleton sits down with Clayton Tomasino, CEO of Scorpion Protective Coatings, a family-owned manufacturer of spray-on truck…
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Ep180 The Twenty-Dollar Leaf: Jesse Wechter on Bootstrapping a Marketing Agency
Listen →: Ep180 The Twenty-Dollar Leaf: Jesse Wechter on Bootstrapping a Marketing AgencyJesse Wechter figured out the whole business at eight years old. He was at a Greek festival, his dad wouldn’t give him money for food,…
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Ep179 Lindsay Bledsoe, Owner of Burnbright Creative Company: Creative Director, Accidental Salesperson
Listen →: Ep179 Lindsay Bledsoe, Owner of Burnbright Creative Company: Creative Director, Accidental SalespersonWhat happens when a creative person realizes she’s actually in sales? In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with…
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Ep178 The Cabinet That Looked Like a Casket: Chris Boots on Building CJ Boots Casket Company
Listen →: Ep178 The Cabinet That Looked Like a Casket: Chris Boots on Building CJ Boots Casket CompanyChris Boots was building a custom pantry cabinet at his wife’s uncle’s shop in 1999 when he looked at the top sitting on the cart…
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Ep177 The Parking Lot Decision: David and Christina Reynolds of Reynolds Electric
Listen →: Ep177 The Parking Lot Decision: David and Christina Reynolds of Reynolds ElectricDavid Reynolds and his sister Christina Reynolds-Grisby spent more than 25 years at the same electrical contracting company. The plan was always to buy it.…
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Ep176 After 90 Years, Don’t Screw It Up: Will Steck on Taking Over a Fourth-Generation Family Business
Listen →: Ep176 After 90 Years, Don’t Screw It Up: Will Steck on Taking Over a Fourth-Generation Family BusinessWill Steck and his sister both started at Winthrop Supply on the same day in 2009, sweeping warehouse floors and loading trucks. Eleven years later,…
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160 plus episodes in. The conventional wisdom says you need six months of savings, a strategic plan, and a clear understanding of your customer. The average number of those founders actually had? Zero.
Matt Nettleton, Host
About the Show
A toolkit for making profitability a default setting.
Matt Nettleton sits down with bootstrapped business owners and asks the questions nobody else does.
The real question
Did you have six months of savings, a detailed strategic plan, and a clear understanding of what your customers would pay for? Matt’s asked this 170+ times. The answers will surprise you.
Operators, not aspirants
Every guest is someone who built a real business with their own money and their own decisions. No venture-backed unicorns. No theoretical frameworks. Just the messy, honest truth.
The pattern emerges
After 170+ interviews, the data tells a story conventional advice doesn’t. The plan is always wrong. The act of planning is what matters.