Yoseph West, CEO and co-founder of Relay, joins host Mike Michalowicz to share his journey of transformation, moving from an entrepreneur with a chip on his shoulder to a leader focused on learning, growth, and maximum impact. The conversation explores the lessons learned while scaling Relay, emphasizing the critical insight that the ability for the business to grow is a function of how much you grow.
Mike and Yoseph get into the power of questioning everything, a mindset Yoseph attributes to his early upbringing that encouraged independent thinking. The episode also details what great partnerships truly require, underscoring the importance of a long-term orientation and human empathy to ensure both sides win.
Finally, Yoseph discusses the continuous personal reinvention necessary for leading a fast-scaling company, sharing how his coaching, including unconventional methods, helps him find the leverage needed for exponential growth.
Yoseph West, CEO and co-founder of Relay, joins host Mike Michalowicz to share his journey of transformation, moving from an entrepreneur with a chip on his shoulder to a leader focused on learning, growth, and maximum impact. The conversation explores the lessons learned while scaling Relay, emphasizing the critical insight that the ability for the business to grow is a function of how much you grow.Mike and Yoseph get into the power of questioning everything, a mindset Yoseph attributes to his early upbringing that encouraged independent thinking. The episode also details what great partnerships truly require, underscoring the importance of a long-term orientation and human empathy to ensure both sides win.Finally, Yoseph discusses the continuous personal reinvention ...
Ep. 5December 09, 2025
Yoseph West, CEO and co-founder of Relay, joins host Mike Michalowicz to share his journey of transformation, moving from an entrepreneur with a chip on his shoulder to a leader focused on learning, growth, and maximum impact. The conversation explores the lessons learned while scaling Relay, emphasizing the critical insight that the ability for the business to grow is a function of how much you grow.
Mike and Yoseph get into the power of questioning everything, a mindset Yoseph attributes to his early upbringing that encouraged independent thinking. The episode also details what great partnerships truly require, underscoring the importance of a long-term orientation and human empathy to ensure both sides win.
Finally, Yoseph discusses the continuous personal reinvention necessary for leading a fast-scaling company, sharing how his coaching, including unconventional methods, helps him find the leverage needed for exponential growth.
Yoseph West, CEO and co-founder of Relay, joins host Mike Michalowicz to share his journey of transformation, moving from an entrepreneur with a chip on his shoulder to a leader focused on learning ...
BECOMING SELF-MADE GUEST
Yoseph West
Co-Founder and CEO, Relay Financial
Yoseph co-founded Relay, an online banking and money management platform that puts small businesses in control of their cash flow. Previously, he led marketing at Hubdoc, acquired by Xero. He also co-founded Vuru, acquired by Wave Accounting.
BECOMING SELF-MADE GUEST
Yoseph West
Co-Founder and CEO, Relay Financial
Yoseph co-founded Relay, an online banking and money management platform that puts small businesses in control of their cash flow. Previously, he led marketing at Hubdoc, acquired by Xero. He also co-founded Vuru, acquired by Wave Accounting.
Question Everything (But Decide for Yourself): Yoseph’s parents raised him to challenge assumptions—from asking his own questions at the doctor as a kid, to finishing high school early, to walking away from a legal career after seeing a miserable lawyer at a job fair. He treats everything—advice, rules, industry norms—as information, not instructions. That mindset let him spot real problems (like small business owners needing better financial visibility) and build Relay around them.
Lesson: Don’t reduce your thinking to “how it’s always done.” For any important decision in your business, ask “what problem am I actually solving here?” Then, gather input from advisors and peers and customers but treat those as data not facts. Focus on clarity and designing solutions that solve your core problem.
Build Partnerships Around Shared Wins: From his first startup to Relay’s partnership with Profit First, Yoseph learned that great partnerships are about shared goals, long-term thinking, and empathy. Relay’s partnership with Profit First only worked once both sides talked directly, understood each other’s priorities, and designed something where everyone (especially the customer) wins.
Lesson: When pursuing partnerships for your small business start with alignment.
Scale by Finding Leverage and Growing Yourself: Relay didn’t scale because Yoseph just worked harder; it scaled because he kept asking, “What are the few decisions and actions that create outsized results?” (the 80/20 rule) and then kept reinventing himself to handle more. He went from leading a team of six to leading hundreds by investing heavily in coaching—first for basic leadership, then for deeper emotional and mindset work. His belief: the ability for the business to grow is a function of how much you grow as a leader.
Lesson: If you want your business to scale, you can’t stay the same person you were at the beginning.
This is an AI generated transcript. Please excuse any spelling errors.
Yoseph West (00:00):I want people to feel on the journey. I want them to feel engaged. And so understanding how do I show up in the scale that we're at and be the person they need me to be is hard. ...
If I'm having fun, working with people I like, on problems that matter, and I'm learning and growing- what else would I do?”
Yoseph West, Relay Financial
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Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Pass-through insurance coverage is subject to conditions2.