Zirtual
company on 4 shows · 9 statements across 4 episodes · said 44 times in 10 episodes since 2018
Top Founders 19 
Startups For the Rest of Us 18 
the Pitch 6 
Startup Acquisition Stories 1
Mentions by year, every show
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Top Founders 19Startups For the Rest of Us 18the Pitch 6Startup Acquisition Stories 1
2025 6 mentions in 1 episode
2024 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2023 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 29 mentions in 4 episodes 7 per episode
- How Wil Schroter Made Money at 22 years Old to Eventually Launch Startups.com
- Episode 486 | The Shocking Collapse of Zirtual and Maren Kate’s Next Act (plus How to Hire Well)
- WriterAccess Makes $9m This Year, Pays Freelancers $6.4m Helping 5,000 Brands With Content
- Episode 510 | The Story of Startups.com
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
2018 3 mentions in 1 episode
every mention on every show, scene by scene, with the transcript →
9 statements about Zirtual, every show
Competitor Zirtual sends its virtual assistants to train at Virtual Gurus Academy
“Because even some of our competitors have actually been sending people to do or go through our academy. So we've had actually Zurch will send a few.”
Phil Nadel says he lost money as an early investor in Zirtual
“I was an early investor in Zirtual and didn't do well”
Schroeder: Collapsed Zirtual had 400 assistants effectively billing at 75% capacity
“They had 400 people that were full-time billing at 75% capacity. You work that backward, that means they have a hundred people billing at zero percent capacity.”
Schroeder: Zirtual has been consistently profitable since Startups.com acquired it
“It's been profitable ever since we bought it.”
Kate: Zirtual Was a Services Business, Not Venture Backable
“We were not a venture backable business. We got venture backing, which happens often, but we were a services business. We had no technology component, even over the three and a half years after raising money, we built very little technology.”
Zirtual's Investor-Recommended Outsourced CFO Firm Was a Massive Mistake
“We were using an outsource CFO firm. That one of our investors recommended to us, and I think that was one of the biggest mistakes we made at Searchual. They were really, really bad”
Maren Kate: Zirtual should have retained contractors to preserve 50% margins
“If I had to do it again, I would have changed our business model so we could keep people as contractors. It would have allowed us to actually pay them more as contractors. And it would have made us be able to keep that kind of 50% margin we originally had.”
Maren Kate Regrets Shutting Down Zirtual Instead of Pitching a Down Round
“So you look back and if I had it to do over, I would tell the guy who gave me that suggestion that that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I would have spent that week. I probably still would have had to lay most people off, but I would have spent that w…”