I build companies, then write down exactly how they worked.
I'm Alex Turnbull. I spent a decade building Groove from a rough idea into a profitable, $5M ARR software company — and I wrote about nearly all of it in public. This is where that writing lives now, alongside the work I'm doing next.
Started Upswing
My first company — a CRM for financial advisors. It eventually failed, and it taught me more about building, selling, and knowing when something isn't working than any success ever did.
Sold Bantam Live for $15M
Co-founded Bantam Live, a social CRM for small teams, and sold it to Constant Contact for $15M. My first real lesson in building something people would pay for — and then hand off.
Started Groove
Set out to build a simple, human help desk for small businesses. Bootstrapped, then raised, then spent the better part of a decade learning what building a real company actually costs.
Started writing in public
The Groove blog became an experiment in radical transparency — real numbers, real mistakes, real revenue. It reached hundreds of thousands of founders and taught me that the honest version always outperforms the polished one.
Scaled to $5M ARR
Groove grew to $5M in annual recurring revenue as a lean, mostly-remote team. No growth-at-all-costs, no vanity metrics — just a durable business serving customers who stuck around.
Started Helply
Back to zero, on purpose — and to $1M ARR in seven months. Building Helply in public, writing more, and helping other founders find the shortest path between where they are and a company that works.
A few things I'm fairly sure of.
- 01Distribution is a product feature, not a marketing afterthought.
- 02The honest version of the story compounds. The polished version decays.
- 03Most founders are one positioning decision away from an easier business.
- 04Boring, durable growth beats spiky, fragile growth every time.
- 05Write like you talk. Then cut it in half.
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