On this episode, Assaf Resnick, Founder and CEO of BigPanda , shares his journey of going from venture capitalist to building BigPanda into a billion-dollar company, diving into the challenges and strategies along the way. Specifically, Assaf discusses: - Strategies for scaling a tech company in a competitive market. - The importance of a strong company culture and continuous innovation. - Customer feedback as a cornerstone of product evolution. - Embracing change and innovation to s...
Feb 14, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 119
On this episode, Jason Smith , CEO and Co-Founder of Klue , shares top lessons from building a category leader. Specifically, Jason discusses: - The challenges and successes in the entrepreneurial journey. - Generating and refining business ideas, highlighting the value of feedback. - The importance of selecting the right co-founder, focusing on trust and skill complementarity. - Overcoming hurdles from initial concept to execution, emphasizing resilience. - Effective strategies for building a c...
Jan 31, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 118
Paul Van Metre, Co-Founder of ProShop ERP , discusses his entrepreneurial journey: from turning a traditional machine shop into a successful software company which recently secured $32 million growth funding after 10+ years of bootstrapping. Key insights from Paul include: - The shift from manufacturing to software was driven by customer demand and the realization of a bigger opportunity in software. - A strong company culture and team unity are vital for growth and employee retention. - Being p...
Jan 17, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 117
On this episode, Esben Friis-Jensen , Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Userflow , shares lessons from bootstrapping to $5M ARR with a team of 3. Esben discusses several key points: - Product growth is a crucial model for business expansion and has been successful at Userflow. - The effectiveness of search engine marketing in competitive markets and its role in acquiring initial customers. - The CEO's responsibility to stabilize a company whilst encouraging founders to inject new risks for ...
Jan 04, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 116
In this episode, Sri Batchu , Growth Advisor at Ramp , shares top lessons from helping scale Instacart, Opendoor and Ramp. Specifically, Sri discusses: - Product-market fit as a cornerstone for successful growth. - The critical role of high-quality founders and executives in building a talented team. - Strategies for identifying and effectively reaching target audiences. - Advocating for a focus on payback periods over traditional CAC and LTV metrics. - Insights from Opendoor on managing capital...
Dec 20, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 115
On this episode, Spenser Skates , Co-Founder and CEO of Amplitude Analytics , delves into his journey of building and scaling the company from 0 to billion dollar IPO. Spenser discusses: - The pivotal role of understanding your product’s core action and its impact on user experience. - The exhilaration and significance of acquiring the first paying customer for a startup. - Identifying the moment of achieving product-market fit, marked by the first million dollars in revenue, signaling a v...
Dec 07, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 114
On this episode of the Traction Podcast, Logan Bartlett , Managing Director of Redpoint Ventures , discusses key strategies for venture capital success and startup growth. With years of experience in venture capital, Logan offers a deep dive into the crucial elements that drive startup success and investment decisions. Logan explores: - His transition from investment banking to venture capital, sharing pivotal learning moments. - Redpoint Ventures’ investment focus, including software, B2B, Fint...
Nov 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 113
Our guest today is Joyce Kim , Chief Marketing Officer of Twilio . With a market cap of more than $10 billion, Twilio is the industry-leading platform that powers customer engagement, from voice and video to SMS and email. Joyce dives into two important trends that will shape the future of marketing — generative AI and first-party data. Specifically, Joyce discusses: - Why do so many CMOs start as engineers? - AI trends that will shape the future of marketing. - The difference between first-part...
Nov 09, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 112
In this episode of the Traction Podcast, Gagan Biyani , Co-Founder and CEO of Maven , and cofounder of Udemy and Sprig shares unconventional lessons from building, failing, and scaling. Specifically, Gagan dives into: - Going from idea to product-market fit and scale. - Navigating founder issues. - When should you shutdown your startup. - The pitfalls of over-fundraising, explaining how too much capital can lead to losing control over the company’s direction. - Recognizing personal d...
Oct 30, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 111
On this episode of the Traction podcast, Neil Patel , Co-Founder of NP Digital , shares lessons from successes and failures in building and scaling startups and brands to eventually bootstrapping NP Digital $100 million in revenue. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author, has 4 million monthly blog visitors, more than 50 million downloads on his Marketing School podcast, and a YouTube channel boasting 31 million views. Specifically, Neil discusses: - How failures and mistakes hel...
Oct 11, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 110
In this episode, Leah Tharin , Growth Advisor for scaling B2B companies, dives into how she grew her audience on LinkedIn and Substack from 0 to 40,000 subscribers in just one year. Previously, Leah was the Head of Product at DeinDeal and Jua, and led the core product at Smallpdf to over 50 million monthly active users. Specifically, Leah shares how to: Define your audience and find your unique voice. Tailor content to meet your audience’s needs effectively. Transform your audience into a ...
Sep 28, 2023•2 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 109
Melissa Kwan , Co-Founder and CEO at eWebinar , is one of my closest friends whose brutal honesty is something I rely on almost daily. She's bootstrapped three companies and had one exit, all while traveling the world as a nomad. Melissa's story reflects her belief that work should never come at the cost of one's life, as this idea helps you live life to the fullest. Today, Melissa dives into some juicy, unconventional insights about how she started her company and what success really looks like...
Sep 13, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 108
In this episode, Henry Shi , Co-Founder at Super.com shares how they grew to more than 7 million customers and raised over $100 million in funding. Specifically, Henry dives into: - How him and his cofounders validated the idea for Super and found product-market fit. - Key things founders should focus on in the early stages. - Tactics for driving customer acquisition and growth. - Who to hire and how to build a team from the early stages through hypergrowth and scale. - Lessons from raisin...
Sep 07, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 107
Ever wondered how a small startup skyrocketed into a $40 Billion collaboration powerhouse? Brace yourself, because today we're diving into Atlassian's electrifying journey. They birthed Jira, Confluence, and Trello, capturing a colossal 250,000 companies worldwide. But massive success also brings a lot of competition, constantly nipping away at your market share. On this episode, Cameron Deatsch , CRO at Atlassian , spills the beans on how they didn't just grow but multiplied by cult...
Aug 30, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 106
Why do some companies have loyal, cult-like followings while others blend into oblivion? Is a good product enough to win in the market today? In a world where traditional marketing is losing its edge and products are struggling to stand out, a thriving community is your biggest asset. However, building and nurturing a community takes time - relationships cannot be an afterthought. When put front and center, a community can be a great acquisition channel, product feedback mechanism, brand differe...
Aug 16, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 105
In this episode, Matt Oppenheimer , Co-Founder and CEO of Remitly , shares how he took the company from 0 to 4.2 million customers and a multibillion-dollar IPO. Matt's personal experiences, coupled with witnessing the struggles of his Kenyan friends who relied on outdated systems for sending money, fueled his determination to create a platform to transform money orders, saving immigrants millions and empowering them financially. Specifically, Matt dives into: - The inspiration behind addressing...
Jul 26, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 104
Is bigger always better? There's this prevailing notion that a company needs to have thousands of employees working around the clock to create value and become successful. But our guest today has done the opposite. With a team of 80 that works 40 hours a week, he’s managed to rival the growth of his competitors with hundreds of millions in funding and thousands of employees working evenings and weekends. He has also generated more profit than all of them combined. Today, Jason Fried , Co-Founder...
Jul 12, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 103
Our guest on this episode of Traction is a legend in Silicon Valley, Keith Rabois , CEO of OpenStore , and GP at top-tier venture capital firm Founders Fund . Keith was instrumental in the success of PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide, Square, and OpenDoor. Eight companies he helped build are publicly traded IPOs with multi-billion dollar market caps or have been acquired for greater than $1 Billion. Today, Keith shares some unconventional tactics for building hyper-growth companies. Specifically, Keith co...
Jun 28, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 102
They say success comes at a price, but what about the hidden toll it takes on the minds of those who dare to dream big? Andy Johns is a former Tech Exec and VC who spent the last 15 years investing in and driving growth for some of the biggest tech brands including Facebook, Twitter and Quora, as well as Wealthfront, where he was also president. After several years of working through psychological pain stemming from childhood trauma, Andy left it all to become a mental health advocate and a writ...
Jun 14, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 101
Generative AI is all the rage these days. There are thousands of generative AI tools swarming the market, and VC funding for this vertical hit two and a half billion last year. Regardless of the hype, generative AI has the power to transform the way we do business and reshape the entire customer journey. On this episode, Des Traynor , Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Intercom , breaks down the hype. Specifically, Des covers: – Use cases of generative AI. – How the entire in...
May 31, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 100
Building a unicorn as a first-time founder doesn't happen too often, but Capchase did that in two years while helping other startups get more than $2 billion in non dilutive funding. On this episode, Miguel Fernandez , Co-Founder & CEO at Capchase dives into: - Building a unicorn as a first time founder - Acquiring early customers and getting to product market fit - Funding your company without giving up equity - Bootstrapped vs. venture-backed - How money can mask anything - Leadershi...
May 17, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 99
On this episode of the Traction Podcast , Immad Akhund, Founder and CEO of Mercury shares their playbook to 80,000+ customers in more than 180 countries and becoming a multi-billion-dollar fintech company. Specifically, Immad discusses: Tactics for driving early customer acquisition and getting to go-to-market fit How Mercury grew its customer base from 19,000 to more than 80,000 in just 18 months The leading indicator for user engagement How Mercury got 55% of their customers t...
May 03, 2023•19 min•Season 1Ep. 98
Matt MacInnis , COO at Rippling shares what it takes to successfully build and scale a hypergrowth company. In less than seven months after reaching a $6.5 billion valuation, Rippling was valued at $11.25 billion. Matt joined the company when it was just 70 employees, and he has been a key player in its exponential growth. From 2009 to 2018, Matt was the Co-Founder and CEO of Inkling, a mobile learning platform that provides on-job training for companies including McDonald’s and Whole Foods. Ink...
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 97
Loom’s Co-Founder and CTO, Vinay Hiremath , joins us to share learnings from the highs and lows of his startup’s hypergrowth journey, going from maxing out his credit cards and being inches away from closing the company’s doors to having over 14 million users and a $1.5 billion valuation. Specifically, Vinay covers: – Coming up with the idea and finding co-founders. – Managing the chaos of pivots to product-market fit and escape velocity. – Tactics for driving customer acquisition and growth – h...
Apr 05, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 96
On this episode, Mike Knoop , Co-founder and President at Zapier , dives into how they built a $5 billion company with little to no funding. A completely remote company utilizing little to no venture funding isn't the norm for highly successful companies, but that's exactly how Zapier started.Fast forward to today, and the company is helping millions of businesses connect with 5,000+ apps to aid productivity and save up to 20 hours per week. Specifically, Mike covers: - How Zapier got its start ...
Mar 22, 2023•20 min
On this episode, Karl Sun , Co-Founder and Board Chair of Lucid Software discusses how to build a platform on top of your product to drive exponential growth. Although for more than a decade Lucid Software focused mainly on its flagship product, Lucidchart, the team always built the company with a platform in mind. It’s because of this mindset of optionality and scale that the company can quickly adapt when opportunities arise. Karl shares what his team focused on to build for scale early on, an...
Mar 08, 2023•21 min•Season 1Ep. 94
On this episode, Stacey Epstein , CMO at Freshworks shares key lessons from the hyper-growth journey of the first India-founded B2B SaaS company to go public in the US – going from a 6-member, $1 million start-up to a 4,000+ member, $300 million scale-up leading up to IPO. Customer-focused businesses foster a company culture dedicated to improving customer satisfaction and relationships, and that singular focus has made all the difference for Freshworks. Specifically, Stacey covers: ...
Feb 22, 2023•22 min•Season 1Ep. 93
On this episode, Mada Seghete , Co-Founder, Managing Director and VP Marketing at Branch shares their culture playbook from zero to a $4 billion company. From high-growth companies, to a changing environment due to a global pandemic, to a recession — companies have to adapt more than ever. Mada discusses what culture is, how you define it at an early stage, and how you measure it and maintain it through both high-growth and fast-paced environments. Specifically, Mada covers: - Defining culture a...
Feb 08, 2023•16 min•Season 1Ep. 92
On this episode, Jonathan Yaffe , Co-Founder and CEO at AnyRoad shares how to drive growth through experiential marketing from his experience working with large brands like Red Bull, Budweiser, Tabasco, and Honda. Today, brands of all sizes recognize the value of experiential marketing — studies show that 76% of consumers prefer to spend their money on experiences. So how can brands provide memorable experiences that keep customers coming back for more and drive growth? Specifically, Jonathan di...
Jan 25, 2023•17 min•Season 1Ep. 91
On this episode, Melissa Rosenthal , Chief Creative Officer at ClickUp discusses which rules to break to skyrocket your company's growth. Competition is stiff in today's startup world. With so many innovative ideas and business models, it's no wonder that companies are running on all cylinders to stand out and generate revenue. So how do you gain a competitive edge to accelerate growth? And how can infusing creativity into your brand set your company apart? Melissa knows firsthand how to stand o...
Jan 11, 2023•20 min•Season 1Ep. 90
