Highlights from The Girl Dad Show with SamCart Co-Founders Brian and Scott Moran

SamCart co-founders Brian and Scott Moran recently sat down for an appearance on The Girl Dad Show, a podcast focused on the intersection of parenting and entrepreneurship. 

The brothers dive into the early days of building SamCart, how they’ve managed familial and personal affairs as the business grows, and what their advice is for both parents and entrepreneurs alike with host Young Han.

Watch the full episode below, and keep reading for three highlights from Brian and Scott’s appearance on The Girl Dad Show:

Parenting While Career Growing: Finding the Time for Both

One of the biggest struggles entrepreneurs face is finding the balance between growing or managing a business and growing or managing a family. Both Scott and Brian note their individual experiences with this dilemma.

For Brian, stepping away from the CEO role made him, he says, “a better employee, entrepreneur, and founder, as well as a dad, husband, and friend.” It achieved the same for CEO Justin Smith, who took the role over from Brian in 2022. “We’re both in our sweet spots,” says Brian. “When I was CEO, I was working 100+ hours a week. Being the top person isn’t always the right fit.” Once he was able to focus on aspects of SamCart that energized him, his quality of life improved – and so did his ability to be present for his family.

For Scott, having to draw really hard lines in the sand and channel “Work Scott” or
Family Scott” has been critical to being successful in both ventures. Scott mentions that in order for him to really be present with his kids and wife, he has to shut work down and not give into his “people pleasing tendencies” of wanting to respond to Slacks, emails, and messages at all times.

There’s No Such Thing As Timing: Building a Family and a Business

Young then began to ask about timing, and whether or not Brian and Scott tried to time building their families around ebbs and flows in the business. 

The short answer? No.

Scott recounts dealing with some deep family struggles right as SamCart was beginning to leave its early stages and growing revenue, but he notes that one of the biggest opportunities in building SamCart was that he was able to take the time he needed to heal and return when he was ready to work. “Our mission in building SamCart was so we could have fun in life and do the things we really want to do,” Scott mentions. Business demand will always continue to grow as will the demands of being a parent, but work will always come second to family so that mission can become a reality.

Brian recounts having his second child right in the thick of SamCart growing, as the years 2016-2018 were hard years for the business and they were not yet funded. “If my business was impeding my family or my personal life, it would not be worth it,” Brian says.

The reality is that there’s no such thing as good timing. If you try to find the perfect time to start, build, or scale a business that doesn’t overlap with your goals to build a family and be a parent, you’ll never find the magic moment.

This has made the SamCart business as successful as it is, because its founders aren’t all in on their personal or professional efforts; rather, they can find time to dedicate to each aspect of their lives, and create a culture that does the same

How SamCart Empowers Creators Beyond Profit Generation

Both Brian and Scott express that one of the best things about SamCart is that it allows anyone to continue operating no matter what’s going on personally.

While SamCart enables creators to make money and build successful businesses and service a lot of customers, it also allows them to do so asynchronously to keep their lights on. “COVID is a great example,” Scott says, noting that many creators had to pivot their offerings and services online as brick-and-mortars were shut down. “We’ve even had a customer tell us that SamCart allowed her to keep her business running even after she was diagnosed with cancer.”

Nearly 15 million people have, in some capacity, been impacted by SamCart and the creators who use it to sell their products or services. “We aren’t just building features for SamCart,” Brian says. “The ripple effect trickles down to not just our customers and their customers, but everyone that has been impacted by SamCart in some way.”

Watch the episode + free SamCart trial!

Want more tactical business and parenting advice as you navigate the world of both owning or working for a business while raising a family? Check out Brian and Scott’s episode of The Girl Dad Show.

If you liked what you heard about how SamCart enables creators, try SamCart free for 7 days to see the thriving business Brian and Scott have created together (while being awesome Dads)!