Founder's Story
From Zero to $700M: The Brutal Truth Behind Startup Life as a Couple | Ep. 224 with Kass & Mike Lazerow founder of Golf.com
02 Jun 2025
Kass and Mike Lazerow peel back the curtain on life—and love—as co-founders of multiple breakout ventures. From the early days of building Golf.com to scaling Buddy Media into a $700 million+ Salesforce acquisition, they share the grit, the joy and the “shoveling shit” mentality behind every pivot and payoff. Key Discussion Points: Why “Shoveling Shit”?: The visceral truth of entrepreneurship—every success is paid for in messy, daily hard work. Business + Marriage = Love Story: How dating, co-founding and parenting three kids forged their partnership both in and out of the boardroom. Co-founder Chemistry: Choosing non-overlapping skill sets, setting clear expectations, and having tough conversations early to survive the rough patches. The High-Profile Exit: Celebrating a $700 million sale to Salesforce—and the mixed emotions, burnout and newfound freedom that followed. Who’s an Entrepreneur?: Everyone—from the corner pizza shop owner to the solo‐founder—can embrace the entrepreneurial spirit if they’re willing to shovel shit. Risk, Debt & Scale: Why wanting nothing (minimal burn) + smart leverage of debt + relentless focus on execution define the winners. Takeaways: Real success demands loving the daily grind—embrace the mess, don’t fear it. A co-founder relationship is your most critical asset—invest in alignment on values, work ethic and communication. Money changes the game but doesn’t guarantee happiness; use your windfall to fuel purpose and impact. Everyone can be a founder at their own scale—but only those who master risk tolerance and ruthless prioritization will thrive. Closing Thoughts: Kass and Mike Lazerow prove that the world’s greatest companies—and relationships—are built one shovel of shit at a time. Tune in to find out how they turned daily disasters into billion-dollar exits, and why the love of the hustle is the ultimate driver of both profit and purpose.
Full Episode
Hey everyone, welcome back to Founders Story. Today we have two guests, which by the way, I always enjoy talking to two people than just only one individual. And not only do we have just two guests, we have two of the most incredible guests I think that we've ever had at the same time. Cass and Mike Lassereau, serial entrepreneurs, investors, co-founders of golf.com. I'm a URL buyer.
That has to be the best URL I've ever heard. Buddy Media, you even sold to Salesforce for over $700 million and you have a new book out, Shoveling Shit. We got to start off, how did you come up with that name?
Well, you know, when we really thought about what it means to be an entrepreneur and what do you do all day long, you shovel shit. So we thought it was the most intuitive name that we could go with that would really amplify the entrepreneur's journey and express to all of them that are out there that we know we can feel their pain.
I also like how in the title, and maybe Mike, you can speak to this too, the messy path to success. How do you feel in your path? Was it your path, the messy things that you had to go through? Did that inspire that part of the title?
Yeah, well, it's all of it. So it's shoveling shit because that's what it is. You get to work, shit hits the fan, and you just got to shovel. You got to keep going. But... It's a love story because the best entrepreneurs learn to love to shovel shit, right? It's also our love story. We built our love affair and our family and our life really on the back of being co-founders of these companies.
There was no separation between the business and life, which whether you're married to your co-founder, whether you sleep with your co-founder, you still have a very close relationship. Right. And it oozes into your personal life.
So your husband may not be in your business, but trust me, he feels like he is because you come home from work and you're stressed out and you've like been busting your ass. Right. And so it's both a warning that if you want to choose this path, it's going to be hard and very optimistic because it's where you find your passion. It's where you find your purpose.
It's where you make the money that's going to power the rest of your life. You're going to meet lifelong friends. And so it's, yes, it's shoveling shit, but it's this love story about this kind of messy path and The stuff that we love in the world is messy, right? Like a lot of the stuff we like is just not neatly put into a box. Yet we like it because of the hard work.
We went through something with other people that bonds the relationship. So we tried to capture that. And but it's really the cheat codes and all the learnings inside which matter. So I've also co-founded and worked with my wife and I was told that at 8 p.m. you have to stop talking about business and you have to do all that separation. Do you think this is a big misconception?
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