Finding Product-Market Fit: A Startup’s Toughest Challenge
Every startup works towards product-market fit, but how do you really know when you’ve reached it? Without it, scaling too early can be a costly mistake - yet waiting too long can mean missing the market. In this episode, we break down the process from early validation to measurable traction, sharing lessons from our own journey at Flinn.ai.What we cover:The different stages of product-market fit and how to measure progress.Common myths vs. reality - why “you’ll just feel it” isn’t enough.The metrics that matter: NPS, retention, churn, and referral rates.How we approached product-market fit at Flinn.ai, from LOIs to our first paying customers.The nuances of achieving PMF in B2B SaaS vs. B2C.
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34:51
From Remote-First to Hybrid: Adapting Work Culture in a Growing Startup
When we started Flinn.ai, we embraced a fully remote approach to attract Europe’s best talent and provide flexibility for our team. Over time, as we grew from 3 to almost 30 people, we refined our approach to remote work.We will talk about:Why a fully remote setup worked so well in the pre-seed phase and the shifts we made as our team expanded.The role of off-sites in building strong team connections.How we’ve balanced the benefits of flexibility with the need for in-person collaboration.Why we trust our team to decide where they work best, inspired by Spotify’s philosophy that “employees aren’t children”.
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22:22
€6M Secured: Our Seed Round Unfolded
In this episode, we share our experiences and lessons learned while raising our €6M seed funding round for Flinn.ai. From preparing our pitch deck to navigating over 50 investor meetings, we reflect on the key steps we took and the challenges we faced along the way.We cover:How we structured our seed round and the preparation process.Strategies for reaching out to investors and handling multiple meetings.Balancing fundraising with day-to-day business operations.What to expect from investment committees and how to handle multiple term sheets.
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40:06
From 0 to 100k ARR: Our Lessons Learned
In this episode, we share how we transformed Flinn.ai from an idea to a revenue-generating machine. We reflect on our experiences, from initial cold calls to sealing deals, and the crucial lessons we learned along the way to hitting 100k ARR.We talk about:The crucial role of founders in early sales efforts.Our experiences with different sales channels, and our key takeaways from our experiments.How we approached pricing, structured our first contracts, and navigated early-stage negotiations.How aligning product development with sales efforts helped us achieve our revenue goals.
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34:10
Mastering Early-Stage Product Roadmapping
In this episode, we are looking into how to connect your product roadmap to your vision and goals, and how to approach roadmapping as an early-stage startup. We will talk about:How to get sales and product aligned behind the roadmapWhy it is import to distinguish between your roadmap and your backlogWhat it means to balance predictability and adaptability and why this mattersBest practise around prioritization and roadmapping toolsIf you want to read more about this topic, then check out Markus deep-dive article about "The playbook to fix your product roadmap" and us on Linkedin to not miss other important insights -> Markus & Bastian.
Bastian and Markus are experienced startup builders and founders of Flinn.ai. They candidly talk about their challenges, learnings, and experience while building the company from the ground up.
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