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To celebrate HeyTaco’s 10th birthday, Una sits down with HeyTaco founder Doug Dosberg for a heartfelt and hilarious trip down memory lane. In this special Taco Bytes episode, Doug shares 10 powerful lessons from a decade of building a gratitude-powered business—complete with taco costumes, customer stories, and Beyoncé GIFs.
If you’re a startup founder, team builder, or taco enthusiast, this one’s for you.
Highlights from the Episode
- The Big 1-0: Doug reflects on what it feels like to hit the 10-year mark and why it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long.
- Behind the List: How he went from “I don’t have any lessons” to “I have too many lessons.”
- Lesson Threads: The top 10 takeaways cover everything from building a bootstrapped SaaS to designing human-centered recognition.
Doug’s 10 Lessons for 10 Years
- Building a business is hard — It takes time, patience, and the courage not to quit when things get tough.
- Don’t do it for the money — Solving a real problem beats chasing revenue any day.
- Work on a problem you actually feel — Doug built HeyTaco because he knew what it felt like to do meaningful work and feel invisible.
- Your customers are the best investors you’ll ever have — He bootstrapped HeyTaco from day one, and never took outside funding.
- Tools don’t create culture. People do. — A moving story about a team using tacos to lift up a teammate shows that culture lives in moments, not mechanics.
- Customer service is the product — Doug still checks the support inbox. Listening to users fuels innovation.
- Recognition works best when it’s imperfect — Typos, emojis, and awkward phrasing are features, not bugs.
- Recognition is a leading indicator — Tacos often spike before major milestones (like a little ChatGPT launch 👀).
- Recognition reveals what actually matters — Teams can reverse-engineer their real values by looking at what teammates thank each other for.
- HeyTaco is just a vehicle — The mission is bigger: help people treat each other better and feel appreciated at work.
Also in This Episode
- Doug’s taco costume makes a triumphant return
- Una compares the HeyTaco dashboard to a football stadium noise meter (she’s not wrong)
- A spicy debate about AI vs. human support
Favorite Quote
“HeyTaco is just a vehicle. The real work is helping people treat each other better and feel appreciated.”
