How do you go from nobody knowing your product to 1 million users in a month?

In this episode, I sit down with the founder of Lumin to talk about building a product from Christchurch that now helps businesses around the world create, edit, collaborate on and sign documents online.

We talk about:

- how Lumin started

- how they found product-market fit

- why solving visible frustration online can lead to massive growth

- what Stanford taught him about scaling

- how AI and ecosystems are changing software

- why Christchurch is producing globally ambitious companies

Lumin started as a PDF editing tool and has grown into a broader productivity platform covering document editing, collaboration, agreements and e-signing.

Check out Lumin here:

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If you enjoy conversations about startups, Canterbury business, founders and growth, subscribe for more.

Recorded at Red Nine Studios, Christchurch.

CHAPTERS

00:38 What Lumin actually does

02:15 How Lumin handles contracts

03:09 Stanford and the US startup world

05:03 Why he went to Stanford after building Lumin

06:02 From engineering to software

06:59 The homemade boat story

10:20 Lessons from engineering in Christchurch

12:25 Why he built Lumin

13:32 His earlier app success before Lumin

15:10 How Lumin got 1 million users in a month

17:13 From startup to 130 million users

20:00 AI, ChatGPT and where Lumin fits

21:16 Why ecosystems matter in business

22:37 Christchurch’s growth mindset

23:41 The founder ecosystem in Christchurch

25:39 Why Lumin went global first

28:12 Advice for young founders

29:34 Build the plane while flying it

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