ScaleUp & Up

How We Built a Calm Company – Without the Chaos (Amir Salihefendic)

How do you scale your company to millions and billions in ARR? Well, if you ask your average founder or a VC, there are a couple of steps one must take to quickly scale the business after finding the product market fit. On the other hand, some founders don't take the usual route but rather build their company over time — often bootstrapping and investing the profits back into the company rather than raising money and aiming for an exit a few years down the road. One such company is Doist [https://doist.com/] which is behind a popular productivity app called Todoist [https://todoist.com/]. Recently, we had the chance to talk to its founder and CEO, Amir Salihefendic [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amix3k/], about his experience with scaling the product to 30+ million users while being a remote-first company that doesn't share the usual Silicon Valley values. Throughout the talk, Amir highlighted how persistence and passion for the product pushed him and the team to deliver value for such a long time. He admits that initially, he only wanted to create a side hustle that generated a couple of thousands of dollars. However, after seeing how users loved the product and how passionate they were about it, he knew that he had to scale the operation. Still, Amir opted for bootstrapping the company and growing it moderately — only hiring when there was a real need for a new role. Being an asynchronous organization long before work-from-home became a thing during the pandemic, our guest admits that the competition was fierce during the year 2020. Still, since every major tech company is pushing for a return to the office, things have returned to normal with Doist maintaining its reputation among remote-first companies. Amir was open about the leadership challenges of a bootstrapped company, but he also noted that he firmly believes in sustainable growth and wealth distribution — creating more financial options for the company's employees, who are its backbone. *** Engage with your customers over WhatsApp, SMS and iMessage – just like Uber, HubSpot and Meta → bit.ly/44xYxqy [https://bit.ly/44xYxqy] *** Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:36 - What is the episode about? 01:48 - Growing for 20 years 05:26 - What is CEO's job? 08:19 - Being a good communicator 11:02 - The benefits of writing 14:00 - Stock options for employees 16:33 - Not going for the VC money 18:15 - Sharing the wealth with people 19:29 - Remote first culture 21:41 - Saying NO to meetings 24:55 - Building trust with the team 26:48 - What is a CALM company? 28:29 - You need to shut off 33:49 - Lessons from challenging periods 35:58 - Marketing for 30+ million users 38:57 - Creating unique product 43:06 - Find people that care 46:52 - What is the end game?

Raising $350 Million for Rho Banking (Alex Wheldon)

"Most people don't get into entrepreneurship because they are passionate about accounting" — says Alex Wheldon [https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwheldon/], co-founder of Rho Banking [https://www.rho.co/], a New York-based technology company that raised 350 million dollars to disrupt the business banking sector in the United States. Still, it goes without saying that even if you have the best possible product out there, your company has to be good at managing money. Otherwise, you might go down faster than you think. That is the exact reason why Rho Banking was founded by Alex and his co-founder Everett Cook, who grew it into one of the most well-respected fintech scaleups, which is now valued at almost half a billion dollars. We caught up with Alex during his recent visit to Belgrade, Serbia, where IBB and Mia Biberovic had the opportunity to talk about his beginnings in music production and advertising to becoming a serial entrepreneur with a knack for innovation in the regulated industries. "I truly believe in challenging conventional solutions and seeing the potential to solve fundamental financial management problems for businesses", said Alex who revealed that he wasn't initially interested in finances, but he learned through experience that managing cash flow and maintaining financial discipline are crucial to sustaining and growing a business. "Rho, in a way, reflects this philosophy by aiming to simplify and enhance financial operations for businesses". Our guest explained why Rho is not a bank, but is offering banking services and partnering with banks that are more inclined to offer traditional services such as lending and are not focused on the technology part. That is exactly the gap that Rho is filling in, with Alex explaining how their products are helping various businesses across different industries manage money more effectively — from early startups to well-established companies. Despite his background in advertising, Alex uncovers why Rho is deeply focused on referrals for customer acquisition and not ads. He firmly believes that this approach allows Rho to maintain a close connection with customer needs and refine the product based on feedback. He also reveals how the company fundraised all the way to Series B and how his experience from the dot-com boom helped him deliver a greater value to investors. *** Engage with your customers over WhatsApp, SMS and iMessage – just like Uber, HubSpot and Meta → bit.ly/44xYxqy [https://bit.ly/44xYxqy] *** Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:42 - What is the episode about? 01:54 - Not a bank, but... 03:15 - Musician with a knack for advertising 05:39 - Don't be foolish with your (company's) money 07:34 - The rule of First Principles 09:13 - Who are Rho's customers? 12:00 - Starting a business 14:05 - Working with competitors 19:14 - Truth behind funding 23:35 - Disrupting regulated industries 25:44 - Culture of risk evaluation 30:03 - Does the product change with scale? 34:08 - Looking for talent outside US 37:47 - Building out the culture of entrepreneurship 39:37 - The future of Alex in Rho

Hacking Revenue Growth with Design (Andy Budd)

Why do we hire designers? Is it just to make things look pretty or can they actually drive revenue? Well, according to Andy Budd [https://andybudd.com/], a proper design legend, one of the first UX designers in the United Kingdom and a VC nowadays, it's the latter. We caught up with Andy during our recent visit to the How To Web [https://www.howtoweb.co/] conference in Bucharest, where we had the opportunity to pick Andy's brain on design and growth. He talked about the things that founders miss when it comes to design and about the things that designers miss and often overlook when it comes to actually running a profitable and scalable business. As somebody who works on bringing those two sides closer through mentoring and consultancy work, our guest shared his views on product-led and founder-led marketing, noting that many founders are focused on product development and often overlook the significance of effective marketing and sales strategies: "The founder’s involvement in sales and marketing is crucial for connecting with customers and building a successful growth strategy." Throughout the episode, Andy took the time to explain why retaining users is a common challenge for startups, as founders often assume customers will instantly see the value of their product. He emphasized the need to prioritize usability and user onboarding, noting that customers usually need guidance to understand and utilize a product’s features fully. He stated: "Founders should really resist the urge to continually add new features and instead focus on optimizing existing features to provide clear, accessible value." Continuing our conversation, Andy underlined that UX plays an important role in a product’s success. Our guest encouraged founders to value design not just as an aesthetic element but as a strategic tool that can improve user engagement and business outcomes. He also noted that design leaders should focus on measurable outcomes and collaborate with other departments to demonstrate the impact of design on the company’s growth and success — especially nowadays when organizations are trying to streamline their budgets. Saving the best for last, Andy also gave us an insight into his latest book, The Growth Equation. [https://andybudd.com/book] This book summarizes the past 30 years of his work and discusses valuable principles for growing companies, teams, and revenue. *** Engage with your customers over WhatsApp, SMS and iMessage – just like Uber, HubSpot and Meta → bit.ly/44xYxqy [https://bit.ly/44xYxqy] *** Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:49 - Falling in love with web design 03:38 - Discovering CSS 05:55 - Starting the first UX agency in UK 10:29 - Publishing "The Growth Equation" 13:37 - Founders on the frontlines 15:33 - It's not just about the product 20:47 - Usual mistakes about retention 25:40 - Understanding users 29:49 - What founders need to know about design 32:10 - Designing for profit 33:57 - Proving why design is valuable 37:09 - Design 2.0 39:56 - Being a team player

How We Grew Paddle to $75 Million in ARR (Andrew Davies)

What is the role of marketing in a successful tech company? Do marketers only care about the brand, or are they more user-focused? In today’s episode, we talked with Andrew Davies [https://www.linkedin.com/in/andjdavies/], CMO of Paddle [https://www.paddle.com/], a unicorn valued at over 1,4 billion dollars. We explored the critical role of marketing in navigating the multiple ceilings that scale-ups face as they grow – particularly the importance of investing in a brand to avoid escalating customer acquisition costs. Andrew opened up about the thoughts and fears that keep him up at night, particularly the challenge of understanding and reaching new customer segments as the Paddle continues to scale. He emphasized the need for continuous innovation and testing to uncover new areas of growth - especially when expanding beyond a tightly defined ideal customer profile.   Paddle’s CMO addressed the challenges of navigating market fluctuations and the importance of observation over prediction in understanding market dynamics. He also discussed the company’s approach to product-led, sales-led, and marketing-led growth strategies and the differences between these strategies.   Towards the end, Andrew touched on the importance of branding for tech companies, discussing how a strong brand can reduce customer acquisition costs and enhance demand generation. Our guest concluded with practical advice on fostering a brand that resonates with customers and drives long-term success. *** Engage with your customers over WhatsApp, SMS and iMessage – just like Uber, HubSpot and Meta → bit.ly/44xYxqy [https://bit.ly/44xYxqy] *** Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:22 - What keeps you up at night? 03:41 - Testing is key 05:08 - Serving small businesses globally 07:09 - Recognizing the challenges in SaaS 09:44 - Signs of recovery 11:56 - Looking for markets outside US 13:36 - Marketing for scaleups 16:33 - How is Paddle helping other businesses? 18:14 - Growing with acquisitions 21:25 - Buying audiences for marketing purposes 23:00 - Different types of growth 27:51 - Product led growth 29:29 - Aligning the team 31:22 - Relationships with analysts 36:50 - Branding for scaleups 38:47 - Branding lessons from Paddle 42:52 - Actually investing in marketing 44:04 - Acquiring ProfitWell (the documentary) 46:36 - Content marketing done right 51:27 - AI impacts marketing talent 53:47 - Scaling skills and expertise

How I Grew Netlify To $33 Million In Revenue (Mathias Biilmann)

How does one go from a music journalist to a founder and CEO of one of the most recognizable companies in the web dev area? This week, we talked with Mathias Biilmann Christensen [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-biilmann-christensen-a5a3805/], who, alongside his co-founder Christian Bach [https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbachdk/], started Netlify [https://www.netlify.com/] - a web builder / hosting company that supports more than 35 million websites globally. Matthias shared his journey of building Netlify and the concept of Jamstack [https://jamstack.org/], which he coined to revolutionize web development by separating the user experience from backend logic. Throughout the episode, he explains how nurturing a community and investing in it pays off big time. Our hosts IBB and Mia Biberovic explored the early days of Netlify, including the company's strategy of targeting key influencers in the developer community and the importance of a product-led approach. Mathias talked about Netlify's pricing model, which included a free plan that catered to open-source projects, helping to drive adoption. Speaking of supporting the community, Biilmann explained how he and his team intentionally branded Jamstack to be inclusive and larger than just Netlify. He emphasized the significance of genuine community building and the pitfalls of trying to position oneself at the center of a new category. We also touched on the cultural differences between the tech ecosystems in the United States and Europe, with our guest highlighting the unique optimism and risk-taking mentality found only in Silicon Valley. He shared personal anecdotes about his background as a music journalist and how his journey into tech was shaped by his passion for programming and problem-solving. Finally, Matthias opened up about the human challenges faced in entrepreneurship, particularly during his co-founder’s battle with cancer, and the importance of maintaining a healthy perspective on identity and roles within a startup. He concluded the talk by discussing the value of a distributed company culture and how music continues to play a significant role in his life, drawing parallels between music and programming - saying how composers were the first programmers! Interested in the whole interview? Click the video below or find us on Apple Podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/scaleup-up/id1728068419], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6z3sk3AHzi5u2i9srIYjST], or Pocket Casts [https://pca.st/5y1gprwf]! *** Engage with your customers over WhatsApp, SMS and iMessage – just like Uber, HubSpot and Meta → bit.ly/44xYxqy [https://bit.ly/44xYxqy] *** Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:18 - What is Jamstack? 04:24 - Scaling Netlify 11:26 - Make scaling easier and more successful 17:38 - Early investors 20:54 - Why is Europe GOOD and BAD for startups? 26:16 - Setting up corporate and human values 37:25 - Personal story of Mathias Biilmann