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 which is behind a popular productivity app called Todoist. Recently, we had the chance to talk to its founder and CEO, Amir Salihefendic, 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.

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Engage with your customers over WhatsApp, SMS and iMessage – just like Uber, HubSpot and Meta → bit.ly/44xYxqy

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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?

"Most people don't get into entrepreneurship because they are passionate about accounting" — says Alex Wheldon, co-founder of Rho Banking, 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.

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Engage with your customers over WhatsApp, SMS and iMessage – just like Uber, HubSpot and Meta → bit.ly/44xYxqy

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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

Why do we hire designers? Is it just to make things look pretty or can they actually drive revenue?

Well, according to Andy Budd, 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 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. This book summarizes the past 30 years of his work and discusses valuable principles for growing companies, teams, and revenue.

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Engage with your customers over WhatsApp, SMS and iMessage – just like Uber, HubSpot and Meta → 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