Podcasts about esben friis jensen

In this episode of the ProductLed Podcast, Wes Bush and Esben Friis-Jensen sit down with Roeland Delrue, CEO and co-founder of Aikido Security, to unpack how the company reached $40M+ ARR in just three and a half years in one of the most sales-heavy categories in software. Roeland shares how his team entered cybersecurity without a traditional security background, simply by living the problem themselves. After juggling eight different security tools and watching a security engineer quit from the sheer pain of triaging endless false positives, they decided to build the product they wished existed. The conversation digs into why Aikido took a radically product-led path in a market dominated by demos, gated trials, and opaque pricing. Roeland explains how transparent pricing, fast time-to-value, and a no-nonsense buying experience helped Aikido win trust with developers and security teams alike. They also get into the bigger growth story behind the business: why product-led motions scale so well, how compliance trends like SOC 2 create strong tailwinds, and why Aikido chose to build a multi-product platform from day one instead of another point solution. Toward the end, Roeland shares his view on AI in cybersecurity, where AI pen testing is already replacing human work, and where humans will still matter for a long time. It is a candid look at building a category-defining security company without following the usual playbook. Key Highlights: 01:46 - The Pain That Sparked Aikido How Roeland and his co-founders went from frustrated security-tool buyers to building their own solution. 04:40 - Why Cybersecurity Needed a PLG Rethink A sharp breakdown of why traditional sales-led security buying feels broken and expensive. 10:11 - Trust in Security Without Heavy Sales How Aikido built trust through product quality, compliance, transparency, and social proof. 15:24 - What Drove Aikido's Fast Growth Why self-serve foundations, fast setup, and faster time-to-value helped the company scale quickly. 18:06 - Compliance and AI Fueling Demand How SOC 2, ISO requirements, open source risk, and AI-driven software growth are expanding the market. 20:15 - Building a Security Platform Day One Why Aikido bet on an all-in-one platform instead of a narrow point solution, and how they keep quality high. 27:08 - Brownfield vs Greenfield Growth Roeland explains why Aikido started by replacing existing tools and is now moving into faster AI-driven markets. 34:16 - A Practical View of AI in Security Why Roeland believes the future is hybrid, with deterministic scanners and AI working side by side. 36:31 - Can AI Replace Human Pen Testing? Where AI pen testing already works today, where it still falls short, and what adoption barriers remain. Resources:

In this episode of the ProductLed Podcast, Wes Bush and Esben Friis-Jensen sit down with Jaleh Rezaei, co-founder and CEO of Mutiny, to unpack one of the boldest founder moves you'll hear this year. After building Mutiny into an eight-figure ARR SaaS company, Jaleh made the rare decision to shut down most of the original business and rebuild around AI agents. She shares why trying to run both a traditional SaaS company and an AI-native company at the same time created constant friction, slowed the team down, and made it impossible to move at the pace the market demanded. Jaleh walks through how she made the call, what gave her confidence to follow through, and what the first 90 days of the pivot actually looked like. That includes shrinking the team, moving to a smaller in-person setup, carefully migrating customers, and rebuilding company culture around speed, customer obsession, and founder-level context. The conversation also dives into why Mutiny shifted from sales-led to product-led growth, how self-serve products expose weaknesses faster, and why “showing” value beats explaining it, especially in AI. Jaleh also shares her view on what still counts as defensible in AI, why experience generation and analytics matter more than basic data movement, and how she personally uses AI across recruiting, meeting prep, and writing support. It's a candid look at conviction, timing, and what it really takes to rebuild for the next wave. Key Highlights: 01:41 - Why She Left 8-Figure ARR Behind Jaleh explains why combining a SaaS business with an AI-native business created roadmap, pricing, and execution conflicts that made a harder pivot inevitable. 05:01 - The Gut Check Behind a High-Stakes Pivot How she built conviction for a risky decision, what made “moving as fast as possible” the real north star, and the advice she gives founders facing the same choice. 11:13 - Reframing the Pivot as Mission, Not Failure Why walking away from a successful product did not feel like giving up, and how first-principles thinking helped her reconnect the company to its original vision. 15:05 - The First 90 Days of the Transition A behind-the-scenes look at shrinking the team, getting back to a small in-person setup, and creating the conditions needed to find product-market fit again. 17:01 - How Mutiny Migrated Customers Gracefully The detailed playbook for protecting customer trust during the transition, from partner selection and pricing negotiations to white-glove migration support. 23:03 - Building a Team for Startup Intensity Again How Jaleh thought about team size, in-office culture, and the level of intensity required to compete in the current AI market. 25:58 - What Founders Must Stop Delegating Pre-PMF Why founders need direct exposure to customer calls, onboarding, pricing conversations, and product friction if they want to move fast and make better decisions. 32:12 - Why the New Mutiny Had to Be Product-Led Jaleh shares why self-serve makes products better, how AI products benefit from instant hands-on proof, and why PLG also improved the sales-led motion. 40:22 - What a Real AI Moat Looks Like Her take on defensibility in AI, why simple data workflows will get commoditized, and why Mutiny is focused on experience generation, analytics, and self-improving systems. 45:15 - Jaleh's Highest-Leverage AI Workflows The practical ways she uses AI today across recruiting, meeting prep, and writing optimization, plus why she still believes strong writing needs a human point of view. Resources:

Most founders hear stories about lean SaaS companies and assume they are the exception. Jeremy Clarke lived one. In this episode of the ProductLed Podcast, Wes Bush and Esben Friis-Jensen sit down with Jeremy Clarke, founder of WebMerge and now the builder behind Quin, to unpack what it really took to grow WebMerge into a multi-million dollar business with an incredibly small team. Jeremy shares how WebMerge started as a simple PDF generation tool, why integrations became the growth engine that unlocked scale, and how a strategic hire helped expand distribution without bloating the company. He also gets honest about what has changed in today's AI market: thinner margins, tougher distribution, less generous free plans, and far more noise. The conversation also dives into the founder mindset behind building highly effective companies. Jeremy explains why staying close to support made WebMerge stronger, why he delayed hiring for as long as possible, and what drove his decision to eventually sell. From there, he opens up about building Quin, what it means to compete in a crowded AI category, and why word of mouth and customer trust still matter more than ever. If you want to build a meaningful software business without defaulting to a big team or venture funding, this episode is packed with practical insight. Key Highlights: 00:43 - From WebMerge to QuinJeremy shares what he's focused on today, why Quin is a much harder business to build than WebMerge, and how AI margins change the game.07:36 - The WebMerge growth playbookHow WebMerge evolved from a simple PDF tool into an integration-driven platform, and why partnerships became a major distribution engine.12:40 - How WebMerge really got off the groundThe early days of the business, the first customer outreach, and how a slow trickle of traction compounded into millions in revenue over time.16:36 - Why Jeremy bootstrapped from day oneJeremy talks through his decision to stay self-funded, avoid outside control, and build on his own terms.19:14 - How to reach $5M with almost no teamA candid discussion on why Jeremy delayed hiring, what work he kept for himself, and when he finally saw the need for a strategic hire.21:51 - Why founders should stay close to supportJeremy and Esben discuss support as a product advantage, how it tightens the customer feedback loop, and why speed matters so much.25:28 - Why he sold a highly profitable businessJeremy shares the reasoning behind selling WebMerge, including risk, lifestyle, hiring pressure, and the chance to join a larger story.47:18 - What still wins in a crowded AI marketJeremy explains what has changed in his new playbook, what has not changed, and why customer trust and word of mouth still matter most. Resources:

When Jeff Wang stepped into the CEO role at Windsurf, it was not part of some long-term succession plan. It happened in the middle of a full-blown crisis. In this episode of the ProductLed Podcast, Wes Bush and Esben Friis-Jensen sit down with Jeff to unpack the wild chain of events that followed the collapsed OpenAI acquisition, the founders leaving for Google, and the intense 72-hour window Jeff had to help save the company and protect 250 jobs. He shares how Windsurf navigated that moment, how the Cognition deal came together, and what it has been like leading one of the most closely watched teams in AI coding ever since. Jeff also gets into what made Windsurf so strategically valuable in the first place, from shipping early breakthroughs in autocomplete, chat, context engineering, and agent workflows, to building one of the first generally available coding agents on the market. Beyond the origin story, the conversation goes deep on go-to-market strategy, why free products worked early on, how token economics changed the game, and why enterprise AI adoption takes far more than handing teams a tool. They also explore Windsurf 2.0, the shift toward managing multiple agents at once, how Jeff uses AI in his own CEO workflows, and why founders need to obsess over painful problems, customer conversations, and product-market fit instead of flashy demos. Key Highlights: 00:00 - The 72-Hour Crisis That Changed Everything Jeff shares the short version of the OpenAI, Google, and Cognition saga, and what it was like stepping into the CEO role during a company-defining emergency. 01:40 - Why Big Tech Wanted the Windsurf Team A look at the execution speed, product breakthroughs, and agent innovations that made Windsurf one of the most valuable teams in AI coding. 04:10 - The Future of Coding Is Multi-Agent Jeff explains why developers are moving from one-on-one AI assistance to managing many agents at once, and how Windsurf 2.0 is built for that shift. 08:54 - How Free Became Their Growth Wedge From free autocomplete to on-prem enterprise deals, Jeff walks through Windsurf's early PLG motion and how it created awareness and pipeline. 13:10 - The Hard Truth About AI Pricing A candid discussion on token costs, self-serve subsidies, pricing pressure, and why raising prices can reveal whether you truly have product-market fit. 16:13 - Why Enterprise AI Sales Are Top-Down Jeff shares how Windsurf sells into large companies by focusing on transformation, adoption, security, and measurable outcomes instead of seat counts. 20:51 - What It Takes to Drive Real AI Adoption Why playbooks, training, and solving a meaningful first use case matter more than just rolling out a shiny new tool to an engineering team. 24:40 - Jeff's AI Workflows as CEO Jeff reveals how he uses AI and custom playbooks for go-to-market research, outreach preparation, and spotting product trends before opening dashboards. 32:32 - Jeff's Advice for Every Product Founder Build around painful problems, talk to hundreds of prospects, and learn to enjoy rejection because that is often where the real insight comes from. Resources:

In this episode of the ProductLed Podcast, Wes Bush and Esben Friis-Jensen sit down with Edith Harbaugh, CEO and co-founder of LaunchDarkly, the feature management platform used by more than 5,000 customers, including 25% of the Fortune 500. Edith shares how her experience at TripIt led to the insight behind LaunchDarkly, and why feature management became such a critical part of modern software delivery. She explains what it actually took to create a category in the early days, when many companies were still shipping software only a few times a year, and why listening to customer pain mattered more than trying to force a new movement on the market. The conversation also dives into LaunchDarkly's unusual balance of product-led and enterprise sales, why the company kept its free tier even as it grew upmarket, and the story behind its first real enterprise deal. Edith also opens up about returning as CEO, how AI is reshaping software delivery, and why she now sees LaunchDarkly as runtime control for the AI era. One of the biggest themes throughout the episode is Edith's leadership philosophy: work should be fun. For her, that means helping teams reduce toil, build better software, and stay connected to the real impact they have on customers. Key Highlights: 01:59 - What Feature Management Actually Does Edith breaks down feature management in simple terms, from beta rollouts and experimentation to location-based access and safe runtime control. 03:09 - The TripIt Insight Behind LaunchDarkly How constant mobile and backend releases at TripIt revealed a problem most software teams still had not solved. 04:47 - How to Create a Category People Want Edith explains why category creation was much harder than it looked, and how meeting customers where they were helped LaunchDarkly gain traction. 07:00 - Why Early Customers Chose Buy Over Build A look at how teams with homegrown flagging systems became some of LaunchDarkly's best early customers. 08:50 - Market Pull Matters More Than Pushing Why category creation only works when buyers already feel the pain, and how Edith looked for real pull instead of forcing the message. 12:23 - The Free Tier That Survived Enterprise Sales Edith shares why LaunchDarkly kept its free motion, even after realizing the company was becoming an enterprise sales business. 13:57 - The First Enterprise Deal Changed Everything The story of a customer who refused to buy on a credit card, and how that revealed the buying behavior that shaped the company's go-to-market. 21:02 - Why Edith Came Back as CEO Edith talks about stepping away, returning to the role, and why AI created the kind of moment that called for founder-led leadership again. 22:11 - LaunchDarkly as Runtime Control for AI As AI accelerates code production, Edith explains why launch, measurement, and control are becoming even more important. 27:11 - Why Founders Should Make Work Fun Edith shares her leadership philosophy on reducing toil, helping teams enjoy the craft, and building in markets you genuinely care about. Resources:

In this episode of the ProductLed Podcast, Wes Bush and Esben Friis-Jensen sit down with Nick Franklin, founder and CEO of ChartMogul, to talk about what is really happening in SaaS right now. Nick shares what he is seeing across 3,000+ subscription businesses and why the last three years have been the most disruptive period in SaaS history. He explains why AI startups are still buying traditional SaaS tools, why subscription pricing is far from dead, and how customer expectations have changed fast. Faster time to value, more functionality, and lower prices are now the baseline. The conversation also gets into how ChartMogul is adapting. Nick talks about their move into CRM, why combining revenue analytics with customer context creates new opportunities, and how AI can unlock deeper insights from complex subscription data. He also responds to the big question facing analytics companies today: if LLMs can query data directly, what role does a platform like ChartMogul play? Beyond strategy, Nick shares a grounded view on moats, competition, and what actually matters most in building a durable SaaS company. His answer is refreshingly simple: build a great product, charge fairly, support customers well, and keep improving every day. It is a thoughtful conversation on SaaS survival, product strategy, and what it takes to stay relevant in an AI-first world. Key Highlights: 02:43 - AI Startups Are Still Buying SaaS Nick shares one of the more surprising trends from ChartMogul's customer base. A big share of new customers are AI startups, and many of them are still using classic subscription pricing. 03:53 - Why SaaS Has Had Its Hardest 3 Years Nick explains why the last few years have been so tough for SaaS, from the post-COVID reset to higher interest rates and tighter funding. 08:03 - More Value, Less Money, Faster Delivery Wes and Nick unpack how buyer expectations have changed. SaaS products now need to deliver more value, reduce friction, and help customers get results much faster. 10:45 - Why ChartMogul Went Multi-Product Nick breaks down the move into CRM and why bringing together revenue analytics, customer history, and interactions creates a much stronger product. 12:35 - How AI Can Unlock Deeper Analytics Rather than replacing analytics tools, Nick sees AI as a way to help customers get more value from complex data through more natural questions and faster insight discovery. 15:25 - Can LLMs Replace Subscription Analytics Tools? Wes pushes on the biggest threat facing analytics platforms, and Nick explains why clean data, normalized metrics, domain expertise, and strong tooling still matter. 21:25 - Why Vibe Coding Won't Replace SaaS The team talks about why most founders should use AI to speed up their own roadmap instead of trying to rebuild products like Slack, Notion, or HubSpot internally. 26:28 - Moats, Benchmarks, and the Bloomberg of SaaS Nick shares how ChartMogul thinks about defensibility through benchmarking data, expert-led content, partner networks, and long-term trust. 33:39 - The New “Wow” for Analytics Products Nick talks about why basic metrics are no longer enough, what customers expect now, and how ChartMogul is thinking about creating more signal and insight. 46:16 - What Keeps Nick Building After 10+ Years To close, Nick reflects on why he is still building, what gives the work meaning, and why creating something lasting matters more than chasing an exit. Resources:

In this episode of the ProductLed Podcast, Wes Bush and Esben Friis-Jensen sit down with Travis Cannell, CEO and first employee at Vast.ai, the marketplace for on-demand, low-cost GPUs powering AI workloads around the world. Travis breaks down one of the biggest shifts happening in AI right now: the rise of inference. He explains why inference demand is exploding, how that shift is fueling Vast.ai's rapid growth, and why more teams are looking for flexible, affordable GPU access outside of traditional cloud platforms. The conversation also gets into how Vast.ai built a two-sided GPU marketplace with 20,000 GPUs, why its pricing model creates powerful marketplace dynamics, and what makes its software-first approach difficult to replicate. Travis shares how the company thinks about competition, customer support, GPU hosting economics, and why winning in a fast-growing marketplace depends on much more than just low prices. They also explore how AI is changing org design inside high-growth companies. Travis talks candidly about pausing hiring, using AI to accelerate engineering work, and why Vast.ai has leaned into an in-office culture while staying extremely lean. If you want a clearer picture of where AI infrastructure is heading, and how one company is scaling quickly with a software-first model, this episode is packed with insight.  Key Highlights: 02:34 - Why Inference Is Fueling the Next AI Boom04:15 - Inference Explained in Plain English06:15 - The Moment Vast.ai Hit Hypergrowth10:04 - Why Teams Choose Vast Over AWS12:34 - Building a Two-Sided GPU Marketplace17:03 - Competing on More Than Just Price18:52 - The Real Economics of Hosting GPUs25:21 - The Network Effects Behind Vast.ai31:31 - Building a Lean Team During Hypergrowth36:09 - Why AI Changed Their Hiring Strategy Resources:

What does it really take to build a great product? In this episode, Wes Bush talks with Nathan Barry, CEO of Kit, about how they've built a product-led business doing $40M+ in revenue. Nathan shares why staying close to customers matters so much, how Kit builds empathy across the team, and why the best product insights often come from watching users, not just collecting requests. They also get into what makes a product feel great to use, how Kit reduces friction with session recordings and gradual rollouts, and why free plans can be a smart long-term growth move. If you're building a product-led company, this episode is full of practical lessons on product quality, customer understanding, and playing the long game. Key Highlights: 0:54 - Kit's transparency as a growth lever02:26 - The successful product flywheel02:37 - Why analytics only tell part of the story06:29 - How Kit builds empathy across the team12:58 - What “best product” really means14:04 - Designing speed and polish users can feel18:29 - Building a culture that cares about quality23:08 - Reducing friction with data and rollouts30:19 - Free plans, moats, and long-term growth Resources: Kit: https://kit.comConnect with Nathan Barry on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbarry/

Chris Bach, founder of Netlify, joins Wes Bush and Esben Friis-Jensen to break down how Netlify became a default choice in modern web development. Chris shares how Netlify started as a bet on a new web architecture that moved beyond monolithic applications, and why bottom-up adoption through developers was not optional, but the only viable go-to-market path. They dig into what many founders skip: building a clear worldview of how the market is evolving, then reverse-engineering what needs to exist for that future to become real. Chris explains how this approach shaped Netlify's early product decisions, its ecosystem strategy, and the narrative that helped attract users, partners, and investors. The conversation also tackles a common founder dilemma: product-led vs. sales-led. Chris offers a simple filter, if you cannot deliver a “magic moment” quickly for an individual user, PLG may be the wrong motion. He also argues that trying to do both sales-led and product-led at the same time often leads to doing neither well. Finally, Chris shares how his investing approach grew out of ecosystem-building, why learning requires asking “stupid” questions, and how he now thinks about the next wave: agents as the new “user,” and the infrastructure required to support them. Key Highlights 00:00 – Why Netlify Became the “Obvious Choice” Wes introduces Chris and tees up the core theme: building a compelling worldview and executing it until the market sees your product as the default. 00:00:59 – Netlify's Mission: Escape the Monolith Chris explains Netlify's original bet on a new web architecture and why early enterprise use cases were limited without a supporting ecosystem. 00:03:34 – When PLG Works: Start With the “Magic Moment” A practical filter for founders: if an individual user cannot quickly experience value, PLG may be a mismatch. 00:07:31 – Pick a Motion First: Hybrid Comes Later Chris warns against trying to do sales-led and product-led at the same time, especially with limited startup resources. 00:11:17 – The Worldview Advantage: Context Before Product How Netlify spent serious time mapping where the web was headed, then reverse-engineered what they needed to build first. 00:15:41 – Storytelling That Wins: Small Story vs. Big Story Why messaging must change depending on the audience, and how Netlify avoided being boxed in as “just hosting.” 00:25:17 – Category Creation: Why Jamstack MatteredChris shares how coining “Jamstack” worked because it benefited the whole ecosystem, not just Netlify's marketing.00:29:08 – Ecosystem Fuel: Directories, OSS, and Deploy PreviewsTactics that helped win developer mindshare, including community resources and making open source easy to deploy.00:32:31 – The First 20: Targeting Influential Early AdoptersNetlify's early focus was literally a list of 20 key people, then expanding in concentric circles from there.00:35:34 – The Next Shift: Agents, Dynamic Web, and AXChris outlines his view of an AI-generated, on-the-fly web and why “agent experience” becomes a critical product frontier. Resources

Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp and HEY, joins Wes Bush to unpack what fuels his “challenger” approach to building software. Jason shares why he has been more public lately, how being an underdog shaped his motivation, and why he loves shipping products that surprise people, especially when a small team takes on problems most assume require massive headcount. They dig into Jason's product philosophy: build what you personally need, avoid “validation” theater, and let the market be the only real judge. Jason explains the difference between resonance and validation, why he believes asking customers hypothetical questions leads teams astray, and how strong point of view can be a durable differentiator when features get commoditized. The conversation also covers why 37signals writes books, why they do not obsess over attribution, how product-led growth became their default, and what it really takes to maintain products over time. Jason closes with advice for founders on risk, independence, and the billboard message he would share with every B2B SaaS builder. Key Highlights: 01:52 - Why Jason Got More Social (He's Building Again)03:10 - The Underdog Mindset and Where It Came From06:43 - Building to Surprise: Why HEY Went Full Stack08:10 - How New Product Ideas “Pick” You12:16 - Why Jason Refuses to “Validate” Ideas Upfront14:01 - Finding a Real Point of View Without Faking It20:11 - Why the Books Exist (Sharing the “Recipes”)25:53 - Product-Led Growth: Let the Product Sell Itself28:43 - When to Build More Products and When to Focus36:26 - Founder's Job: Inject Risk, Then Trust Your Gut Resources: Basecamp (Jason's company): https://basecamp.comConnect with Jason Fried on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonfried/

Most AI founders race to raise capital, hire fast, and outspend the competition. Wen Sang did none of that. In this episode of the ProductLed Podcast, Wes Bush and Esben Friis-Jensen sit down with Wen Sang, CEO and co-founder of Genspark, the all-in-one AI workspace that went from zero to $100M ARR in 9 months and $155M ARR by month 10 with a team of just 50 people. Wen gets into why they refused to spend a dollar on marketing until they hit $100M ARR, how a last-minute Super Bowl ad opportunity landed in their lap and 10x'd their traffic overnight, and why he thinks Silicon Valley's "focus or die" advice is flat out wrong for AI companies. He also pulls back the curtain on the recursive learning system that keeps Genspark's output quality ahead of the pack, and makes the case for why building broadly is actually the safer bet when you're AI-native. Key Highlights: 02:20 - How a Team of Tech Veterans Decided to Rethink Work from Scratch06:02 - The Wildest Growth Timeline You'll Hear This Year12:26 - Why They Refused to Spend on Marketing Until $100M ARR14:24 - How Genspark Made a Super Bowl Ad in 10 Days (Using Genspark)20:40 - Why "Just Focus on One Thing" Is Bad Advice in the AI Era23:23 - How 50 People Ship Like a Team of 50029:12 - The Real Reason AI Companies Are Growing So Fast Right Now37:10 - Why Their Website Is Basically Just the Product42:21 - The Internal System That Keeps Their Output Quality Ahead of Everyone Else44:12 - All-In-One vs. Best-in-Class: Which Actually Wins?49:12 - What Wen Would Tell Every Founder Building in the AI Era Resources:

Getting users to sign up is the easy part. Keeping them is where most product-led companies fail. Melissa Kwan built eWebinar to $2M ARR without a single full-time employee, but not without learning this lesson the hard way. In this episode, Wes Bush, with Esben Friis-Jensen joining, sits down with Melissa Kwan, cofounder and CEO of eWebinar, to break down what product-led growth actually looks like behind the scenes. They explore why more signups don't solve churn, why customer success is the real growth engine most founders overlook, and how Melissa structured eWebinar around contractors instead of employees to preserve flexibility and focus. Melissa also opens up about founder burnout that did not look like exhaustion, but like a slow loss of inspiration, and the internal work that helped her reset and regain confidence. Along the way, she shares her playbook for building a high-trust founder community through credibility, generosity, and thoughtful curation. Key Highlights: 02:09 - Just Under $2M ARR and a Contractor First Team Model 05:35 - What Changed in the Last 4 to 6 Months, AI Impact and Trials Cut in Half 07:01 - The Biggest Lesson: Customer Success and Onboarding Are the Growth Engine09:22 - Why Product-Led Feels Harder Than Sales-Led, Debugging Without Logs 16:13 - Lifestyle Design as Strategy, Building for Travel and Freedom 26:43 - Burnout Symptoms Founders Miss and Why It Is Not Just Exhaustion 29:30 - The Hoffman Process and Unpacking Self-Doubt 34:11 - “Progress Is Quiet. Winning Is Loud.” and the Mindset Shift to Sustain Momentum41:16 - Building a Founder Community by Giving First and Curating Quality 48:02 - Closing Advice: Retention First, Do Not Neglect Customer Success Resources:

For decades, the biggest barrier to building a SaaS company was technical talent. You needed a team of engineers to ship a world-class product. David Okuniev, Co-Founder of Typeform, believes that era is over. In this episode of the ProductLed 100 series, Wes Bush sits down with David Okuniev (Founder of Float) and Esben Friis-Jensen (Co-Founder of Userflow) to discuss why "Taste" is the only defensible moat left in the age of AI. David reveals how he is building his new venture, Supercut, by literally talking to Claude Code through a microphone - building full iOS apps in days without knowing Swift. He argues that since AI has commoditized the "How" of building software, the "What" and "Why" (Design and Taste) matter more than ever. They also explore why this shift allows for a "Minimum Viable Team" of just three people, why David regrets scaling Typeform into a large organization, and how to survive as a "Pioneer" founder without getting bogged down by professional management. Key Highlights: 01:21: The "Accidental" Origin: How a client project for a toilet showroom in Barcelona turned into Typeform.03:51: The Viral Launch: Generating 8,000 pre-signups and achieving immediate viral growth without traditional validation.09:53: The Taste Differentiator: Why design is the only way to distinguish yourself 13:00: The "Impulsive" Archetype: David's approach to building products based on intuition rather than validation.21:41: The "Professional CEO" Trap: Why David regrets stepping down and why founders should stay in the driver's seat.37:42: The Float Labs Model: How David runs a product lab to spin out new companies (like Supercut).42:09: The Minimum Viable Team: Why the modern startup only needs a Designer, a Tech Lead, and a Marketer.44:53: The "Tastemaker" Advice: You don't need to be a designer; you just need to be opinionated. Resources:

For decades, the biggest barrier to building a SaaS company was technical talent. You needed a team of engineers to ship a world-class product. David Okuniev, Co-Founder of Typeform, believes that era is over. In this episode of the ProductLed 100 series, Wes Bush sits down with David Okuniev (Founder of Float) and Esben Friis-Jensen (Co-Founder of Userflow) to discuss why "Taste" is the only defensible moat left in the age of AI. David reveals how he is building his new venture, Supercut, by literally talking to Claude Code through a microphone - building full iOS apps in days without knowing Swift. He argues that since AI has commoditized the "How" of building software, the "What" and "Why" (Design and Taste) matter more than ever. They also explore why this shift allows for a "Minimum Viable Team" of just three people, why David regrets scaling Typeform into a large organization, and how to survive as a "Pioneer" founder without getting bogged down by professional management. Key Highlights: 01:21: The "Accidental" Origin: How a client project for a toilet showroom in Barcelona turned into Typeform.03:51: The Viral Launch: Generating 8,000 pre-signups and achieving immediate viral growth without traditional validation.09:53: The Taste Differentiator: Why design is the only way to distinguish yourself 13:00: The "Impulsive" Archetype: David's approach to building products based on intuition rather than validation.21:41: The "Professional CEO" Trap: Why David regrets stepping down and why founders should stay in the driver's seat.37:42: The Float Labs Model: How David runs a product lab to spin out new companies (like Supercut).42:09: The Minimum Viable Team: Why the modern startup only needs a Designer, a Tech Lead, and a Marketer.44:53: The "Tastemaker" Advice: You don't need to be a designer; you just need to be opinionated. Resources:

ProductLed 100 - The Solo-Founder Playbook: How to Run a $1M ARR SaaS with 1 person Most founders believe scaling requires a massive headcount, co-founders, and VC funding. They think success is measured by the size of the team, not the efficiency of the revenue. In this episode of the ProductLed 100 series, Wes Bush sits down with Vincent Jong (Founder of Poolside Ventures) and Esben Friis-Jensen (Co-Founder of Userflow) to discuss the emerging era of the "One-Person Company" - businesses designed to generate millions in revenue with just a single operator. Vincent reveals his strategy for building a portfolio of lean, highly profitable SaaS companies like MeetBot. Together with Esben, they break down how AI tools like Lovable and Cursor have removed the technical barrier to entry, why "speed" is the new competitive moat against incumbents like Calendly, and the exact skill sets required to thrive as a solo builder. Whether you are a developer looking to launch your own venture or a founder trying to maximize efficiency, this episode offers a blueprint for building high-revenue, low-headcount businesses that are built to last forever. Key Highlights: 01:36: Why Vincent stopped looking for co-founders and started building alone03:09: The AI Tech Stack: How tools like Lovable and Cursor replace engineering teams06:07: Why building the product is the easy part (and selling is the hard part)13:17: Disrupting a Red Ocean: Why MeetBot entered the crowded scheduling market16:53: The Economics of Infinite Runway: Operating a SaaS for a few hundred dollars a month20:31: Speed vs. Scale: How one-person teams outmaneuver incumbents27:21: The "Launch Early" myth vs. the new bar for MVP quality37:44: Vincent's advice: Don't quit your job. Build on weekends Resources:

Most founders are terrified of "Red Oceans" or markets saturated with massive competitors. They think the only way to win is to find a completely untapped "Blue Ocean." In this episode of the ProductLed 100 series, Wes Bush sits down with Patrick Thompson (CEO of Clarify.ai) and Esben Friis-Jensen (Co-Founder of Userflow) to discuss why entering a crowded market is actually the smartest move a founder can make if you have the right strategy. Patrick reveals how he spent six months interviewing potential customers before writing a single line of code for Clarify, an autonomous CRM designed to disrupt the industry giants. Together with Esben, they break down the exact framework for validating problems, the power of business model disruption through pricing wars, and why "feature parity" is not the goal. Whether you are building a new startup or trying to carve out space in a competitive category, this episode offers a masterclass in customer discovery, positioning, and Go-To-Market execution. Key Highlights: 02:15 : Why Patrick spent 6 months on discovery before writing a line of code 06:53 : The "Red Ocean" Advantage: Why crowded markets are easier than Blue Oceans 10:10 : How to differentiate when features are commoditized 12:34 : Using price and ease of use as a wedge against incumbents 18:31 : The 3-Step Framework for building what people want: ICP, Channels, and Business Model 23:12 : Which acquisition channels actually work (Product Hunt vs. Founder-led Marketing) 30:04 : Why complex products still need human onboarding, even in PLG 36:49 : How to operationalize customer feedback for engineering teams Resources:

After building a successful VC-backed company, Esben Friis-Jensen took a different path — bootstrapping his next SaaS startup to $5M ARR with just a team of 3.In this episode, he shares why he turned down venture funding, how he built an efficient, product-led growth engine, and lessons on scaling smart without sacrificing ownership or speed. (00:00) - Introduction (00:32) - Meet Esben Friis-Jensen (02:30) - The Decision to Bootstrap (06:27) - Product-Led Growth Strategy (11:25) - Competing in a Crowded Market (18:54) - The Role of AI in Business Operations (22:08) - Efficiency and Execution in Small Teams (27:48) - Making Tough Decision (31:17) - Revenue Metrics (32:10) - Speed of Decisions (38:43) - Challenges and Benefits of Founder-Led Companies (40:49) - Joining a Bootstrapped Company  Never miss a new episode, join our newsletter on revenueformula.substack.com

Esben Friis-Jensen is the Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, a no-code builder for in-app onboarding and surveys that allows SaaS businesses to be more product-led. Userflow is 100% bootstrapped, and with just 3 people they have achieved 400+ customers and a 7-figure ARR (annual recurring revenue). Let's learn how they have been able to do this by having a product-led growth approach that focuses on the UI/UX of their product as well as building the strongest product possible. Show Notes [2:59] Do they just need a growth person, and how did the whole idea start? [5:35] Product-Led Growth facilitates the retention of direct customer feedback [8:13] What are the first big initial steps that he took to scale up his business? [11:43] You need to have a lot of integrity and certainty in what you're doing.You need to believe in the product that you're selling [14:15] How does he differentiate SEM from SEO? [17:12] What's the next big step that he took to 5x the business? [21:12] Esben walks us through how he refines value propositions [33:26] The more open your messaging is, the more different kinds of users you will have [42:44] How does his company maintain customer focus? [50:12] Esben's deliberate game plan for his business About Esben Friis-Jensen Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder of Userflow, a no-code platform for building onboarding guides and product tours.Before working on Userflow, he co-founded an application security platform called Cobalt. Additionally, he has a background as an Accenture consultant with more than three years of experience in test and deployment management of global IT implementations. Links Userflow Cobalt Monday Profile Esben's LinkedIn

Esben Friis-Jensen is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, the fastest way for user onboarding for modern SaaS businesses. He is also the Co-Founder and Adviser at Cobalt, a modern application security platform enabling businesses to run on-demand Penetration Testing and vulnerability assessments - Pentest as a Service. The goal of this episode is to accelerate learning while transitioning from sales-led to product-led. Esben will talk about the whole transition: What other leaders are doing in this transition and what mistakes they make to avoid doing it again.  Show Notes [01:09] A brief background about Esben [03:38] His thoughts when they started the product-led movement [07:11] Reasons why they started out as more sales-led [11:15] The challenges they experienced along the way [15:40] How they fostered organizational change  [18:55] The process they went through to get the rest of the team onboard [23:32] How they got buy-in from the teams in the process of transitioning [28:49] First quick wins they had in testing the unknowns [34:50] More advice on iteration from Esben [37:42] The next thing for him at Userflow [39:47] Where to find Esben About Esben Friis-Jensen Esben Friis-Jensen is originally from Denmark but has lived in the United States for the last eight years. Aside from Userflow and Cobalt, he has also worked as a consultant in the SAP division of Accenture, responsible for managing the test and deployment of global large-scale SAP implementations.  Link Product-Led Slack   Profiles Userflow Cobalt LinkedIn

How did Userflow grow to 4.6M ARR with a team of 3? In this episode of the Grow Your B2B SaaS Podcast, Joran Hofman interviews Esben Friis-Jensen, the founder of Userflow, a successful SaaS company that grew to 4.6 million ARR and was later acquired by Beamer. Esben's entrepreneurial path is a testament to the power of persistence, innovation, and strategic decision-making in the competitive landscape of the tech industry. Esben shares his entrepreneurial journey, starting from his days at Accenture to founding Cobalt and eventually Userflow. He talks about his motivation, personal life as a digital nomad, and his experiences in the startup world. Key Timecodes (00:39) Getting to Know Esben (02:15) Esben's Background and Motivation (02:59) Starting Userflow and Idea Generation (05:05) Bootstrapping vs. VC Backed (06:26) Lessons from Cobalt and Userflow (09:16) Scaling Userflow with a Small Team (11:30) Managing Customer Requests and Enterprise Clients (14:18) Leveraging SOC 2 Type 2 and Pricing Strategy (26:06) Leveraging AI in Userflow

saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love brought to you by https://saas.group/. In this episode #48, we are talking with Esben Friis-Jensen, co-founder of Userflow, (https://userflow.com/), a no-code tool for building customized in-app tours, checklists, and surveys that he bootstrapped to $4.6M ARR with just a team of 3 and then sold for what the gossip says is a whopping $60M. We talked about the team's focus on product-led growth and how having this strategy benefited the company during the due diligence and acquisition processes. Esben also shares the reason behind the exit and how they chose Beamer to be their acquirer. He also talks about the importance of having all documents, contracts, and data in one place from the very beginning because it speeds up due diligence and adds value to the acquirer.Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish twice a week - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group Stay up to date: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796 Twitter - https://twitter.com/SaaS_group Website - https://saas.group/

Links here! ⤵️ This episode covers:First simple actions to initiate switch to PLGManage cultural change: Sales -> Product led growthEmpty state or lots of data in the trial account?The 2 teams needed to go all in on PLGWhat your CS Team shouldn't be doingWelcome to Hot SaaS - the interactive podcast covering the hottest within SaaS

Esben Friis-Jensen and his cofounder, Sebastian Seilund, teamed up in 2021 to create Userflow, a no-code user onboarding product for SaaS companies. This week, it was announced that Userflow has been acquired by Beamer, a maker of product user engagement software that also used product-led growth strategies just like Userflow.  Userflow is profitable and growing, with over $4 million in ARR, 750 customers, and just three employees with no outside funding. Techcrunch reported that Userflow was acquired in a $60 million deal, supported by Beamer investors Camber Partners and other investors.  Esben told the Userflow story on the Practical Founders Podcast in episode 42 last year. This is an update about the recent acquisition and his thinking behind selling the company.   Learn more at practicalfounders.com.

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 growth.- Esben reflects on his entrepreneurial journey, acknowledging the lessons learned and the importance of past ventures in shaping current success.- Founders should think lean and prioritize gaining paying customers before seeking seed funding.- The realities of VC-backed startups; building smaller, potentially acquirable companies might be a more practical path to success.Resources Mentioned:Userflow websiteThis episode is brought to you by:Leverage community-led growth to skyrocket your business. From Grassroots to Greatness by author Lloyed Lobo will help you master 13 game-changing rules from some of the most iconic brands in the world — like Apple, Atlassian, CrossFit, Harley-Davidson, HubSpot, Red Bull and many more — to attract superfans of your own that will propel you to new heights. Grab your copy today at https://FromGrassrootsToGreatness.com Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don't get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com #product #marketing #innovation #startup #generativeai #AI

Mike Smart of Egress Solutions has an exhilarating discussion with successful entrepreneur Esben Friis-Jensen. He is working on his second start-up in less than 10 years. Esben adds a unique perspective on the product-led growth (PLG) initiative with offers his thoughts on how the enterprise software business will shift and change in the future. We discuss the progression of PLG and how it will change how software companies organize teams to improve their effectiveness. Esben is Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, a no-code onboarding flow builder that enables customized in-app tours and checklists. Previously he was Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at Cobalt, a security platform that offers Pentest as a Service (PtaaS). Esben began his career as a consultant with Accenture responsible for the deployment management of global IT implementations. Esben' Bio: Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, a no-code builder for in-app onboarding and surveys, allowing SaaS businesses to be more product-led. Prior to Userflow, Esben co-founded Cobalt, which today is a 200+ employee company. Esben holds BEng in Mathematics and MEng in Mathematical Modeling from Technical University of Denmark (DTU). ----------- Guest: Esben Friis-Jensen | Linked In: Esben Friis-Jensen Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love brought to you by https://saas.group/. In this episode #35, we are talking with Esben Friis-Jensen, co-founder of Userflow, (https://userflow.com/), a no-code tool for building customized in-app tours, checklists, and surveys. Userflow was able to bootstrap to over 500 customers and millions in ARR with a team of just three people. Esben shares some hacks they use at Userflow for customer retention. Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish twice a week - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group Stay up to date: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/1479... Twitter - https://twitter.com/SaaS_group Website - https://saas.group/

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, our host Alex Theuma is joined by Esben Friis-Jensen, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow and SaaStockUSA speaker, who shares how SaaS orgs need to change to support PLG. In this episode you'll hear: ⚡️ What shapes Esben as a person & entrepreneur ⚡️ Why he's bootstrapping Userflow ⚡️ How the current market is impacting him and his clients, and what he's doing to navigate through it ⚡️ Why Userflow takes a PLG approach to building the business ⚡️ The hardest thing about product-led growth ⚡️ PLUS what Esben's most looking forward to at #SaaStockUSA & more!

Esben Friis-Jensen was a technology professional in Copenhagen, Denmark before he and three Danish friends moved to San Francisco in 2013 to start a new startup called Cobalt. Cobalt.io grew steadily and raised several rounds of VC funding to become a sizable cybersecurity software company in Silicon Valley. Cobalt serves large businesses with a platform and services for larger companies to efficiently test and find security holes in their websites and web applications.  Esben left Cobalt in 2020 to start Userflow to help software companies attract, sell, onboard and support their customers without human touch altogether using a product-led growth approach. Userflow is a no-code onboarding software to easily build in-app explanation guides, checklists, and videos for software product companies to improve free trial conversion and new customer onboarding for expanded retention. Userflow has a free trial and uses its own software to improve conversion and onboard customers without human intervention. Userflow is profitable and growing with over $3 million in ARR, 600 customers, and just three employees with no outside funding. Esben handles all growth and lives in San Francisco and his cofounder Sebastian builds the product with their UX designer in Denmark, so about $1 million annual recurring revenue per employee. Learn more at practicalfounders.com.

In this episode of the Love Selling Hate Sales podcast, Joshua is joined by Esben Friis-Jensen, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow. He shares his insights on product-led growth slowly becoming a staple in the Software as a Service (SaaS) space.While there is still much to improve on in the use of data for sales improvement product-wise, Esben considers product-led growth as a catalyst for B2B SaaS. The thing is, we're already seeing these changes today, but we also need to know where to look. HIGHLIGHTSESBEN: THE CURRENT GAP IN SALES AND PRODUCT ANALYTICS"Data has always been there for product people. But even for them, often it's not very well done. But sales and marketing are data-driven in the sense of classic sales and marketing metrics but they're not data-driven when it comes to how customers are using the product or what is it they do inside the product and adjust accordingly."ESBEN: THE NEED FOR A B2B CRM FOR SAAS"Today, with Salesforce and Hubspot, they're like legacy solutions. They were built for another era, they were not built for Software as a Service. They don't do very well with handling product data. They don't do very well handling subscription-based models and usage-based models which are like the most popular pricing models in SaaS." ESBEN: A MINDSET TO ADAPT WHEN NEGOTIATING"Procurement is not the one making the decision. The end-users, if they already make the decision, procurement is just there to try to get a better price. They already made the decision so its' not going to go away because you challenged them a bit on the pricing."  Find out more about Esben and his work in the links below:Esben Friis-Jensen | Userflow | ProductLed Community About Josh Wagner: Josh is a growth advisor and the host of the Love Selling Hate Sales podcast. He specializes in helping executives understand modern marketing and sales to drive growth in a scalable way.  To learn more about Josh and his work, follow the links below:Josh Wagner | ShiftParadigm.com | JoshuaDWagner.com | LoveSellingHateSales.com

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Esben Friis-Jensen, Co-Founder of Userflow Key Takeaways How to bootstrap your business to 1M+ ARR with just two employees. Product Led Growth (PLG) vs Sales Led Growth: Cobalt vs Userflow Challenges of transition from Sales Led Growth to Product Led Growth Two different ways to build a successful company: VC backed and bootstrapped

"Hvis jeg bygger det rette produkt, så skal kunderne nok komme af sig selv". Citat: En meget naiv iværksætter... Eller hvad? I selskab med Esben Friis-Jensen fra Userflow bliver vi klogere på 'product led growth'. Et begreb, der begynder at vinde frem, enten som den primære vækststrategi, eller som et vigtigt supplement til virksomhedens andre salgsaktivteter. Men, hvad er product led growth og hvorfor mener Esben, at det er er værd at tage seriøst? Husk at du kan abonnere på At Turde FM i din podcast app og du kan finde mere inspiration på:

Product-led growth (PLG) is such a hot topic right now. But how do you know if this product-led motion is right for your business?  In this episode of The Revenue Engine Podcast, Esben Friis-Jensen, the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, shares his perspective on how to set up a PLG motion for success. Esben is a huge champion of the power of product-led and shares best practices around a PLG motion - and explains why it is not just a motion - it's a mindset.

Is a good user onboarding really that important for your SaaS product? What are the most common mistakes to avoid in creating one? In this episode, we speak with Esben Friis-Jensen from Userflow, a no-code user onboarding builder for product-led tools. We learn about the importance of onboardings, the mistakes most SaaS tools make when designing one, and what goes into creating a good onboarding. We also get what it means to find your “Aha!” moment, and how that can greatly help with designing your onboarding for success. ⏱ What you'll find and when: 00:00 Intro 04:34 The Userflow team and deciding equity split between founders 10:57 The Userflow growth strategy 13:35 The most common user-onboarding mistakes companies make 16:29 How to design an effective onboarding 22:46 Implementing data directly into your product 25:33 Product-led growth for a $600 product 31:23 Figuring out your Aha! moment 34:16 Bootstrapping vs. VC 37:50 Flash questions

Esben Friis-Jensen is the Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, a no-code builder for in-app onboarding and surveys that allows SaaS businesses to be more product-led. Userflow is 100% bootstrapped, and with just 3 people they have achieved 400+ customers and a 7-figure ARR (annual recurring revenue). Let's learn how they have been able to do this by having a product-led growth approach that focuses on the UI/UX of their product as well as building the strongest product possible. Show Notes [2:59] Do they just need a growth person, and how did the whole idea start? [5:35] Product-Led Growth facilitates the retention of direct customer feedback [8:13] What are the first big initial steps that he took to scale up his business? [11:43] You need to have a lot of integrity and certainty in what you're doing.You need to believe in the product that you're selling [14:15] How does he differentiate SEM from SEO? [17:12] What's the next big step that he took to 5x the business? [21:12] Esben walks us through how he refines value propositions [33:26] The more open your messaging is, the more different kinds of users you will have [42:44] How does his company maintain customer focus? [50:12] Esben's deliberate game plan for his business About Esben Friis-Jensen Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder of Userflow, a no-code platform for building onboarding guides and product tours.Before working on Userflow, he co-founded an application security platform called Cobalt. Additionally, he has a background as an Accenture consultant with more than three years of experience in test and deployment management of global IT implementations. Links Userflow Cobalt Monday Profile Esben's LinkedIn

Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder of Userflow, a no-code platform for building onboarding guides and product tours. Show Notes: • https://saasclub.io/319 Join Our Email List • Get weekly SaaS learnings, new podcast episodes, and actionable insights right in your inbox: https://saasclub.io/email/ Join Our Community for Free • SaaS Club is the community for early-stage SaaS founders and entrepreneurs: https://saasclub.co/join

Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder of Userflow, a no-code platform for building onboarding guides and product tours.Show Notes:• https://saasclub.io/319Join Our Email List• Get weekly SaaS learnings, new podcast episodes, and actionable insights right in your inbox: https://saasclub.io/email/Join Our Community for Free• SaaS Club is the community for early-stage SaaS founders and entrepreneurs: https://saasclub.co/join

In this episode of the Love Selling Hate Sales podcast, Joshua talks to Userflow Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer Esben Friis-Jensen. Esben talks about product-led growth and how the shift from traditional sales-led operations is changing the game for B2B Software as a service (SaaS) companies. Through strategies such as freemium models or limited free trials, SaaS companies are redefining the roles of sales and customer success departments and may even indicate the need for a new type of CRM better suited to subscription-type revenue models. If Esben and other product-led growth evangelists are right, we may be already underway to a disruption that will change how we do business altogether. HIGHLIGHTSTransitioning from a product-led to sales-led organization and back againHow product-led growth is the future of SaaS Product-led models still need sales and customer success peopleSilos impede the connectivity of data in many companiesThe case for a software as a service CRMHow the product-led model is changing procurement conversations Should we merge sales and customer success? QUOTESEsben: "Product-led growth is reducing the need to have sales and customer success involved in certain aspects,  but it's not removing the need. I would say it's changing the role of sales and customer success to basically be a bit different and I think it's still a journey that many companies are going through." Esben: "In my experience, even in a sales-led modeling, the best AEs were the ones who understood the use-cases, understood the product. Like if there was a question about the product, they didn't have to go and ask a solutions engineer, how do I do this, right? They really knew the product inside-out and if the customer had a use-case, they could say, yeah that's how you do it because that shows integrity." Esben: "I think there's a need for a new player to come in and actually build a software as a service B2B CRM. Today, with Salesforce and Hubspot, they're like legacy solutions. They were built for another era, they were not built for software as a service. Today, you can mention many things but they don't do well with handling product data. They don't do very well handling subscription-based models and user-based models which are like the most popular pricing models in SaaS." Esben: "I've always been a big spokesperson for to some extent, merging sales and customer success. Because I think the best customer success people are the ones who can do sales, and the best salespeople are the ones who can answer the customer's questions and give proper support." Learn more about Esben and his work in the links below:Website (Company): https://userflow.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esbenfriisjensen/Community: https://productled.com/About Josh Wagner: Josh is a growth advisor and the host of the Love Selling Hate Sales podcast. He specializes in helping executives understand modern marketing and sales to drive growth in a scalable way. To learn more about Josh and his work, follow the links below:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joshwagnerazCompany website: https://www.leadmd.com Personal Website: https:///www.joshuadwagner.comPodcast: https://www.lovesellinghatesales.com

Userflow co-founder and Chief Growth Officer Esben Friis-Jensen has devoted his career to providing SaaS businesses with the tools necessary to drive product-led growth. In this episode, he explains why, in what some have termed the “end user era”, product led companies are outperforming their sales-led peers, and dissects what marketers need to know to deliver on the promise of product-led growth. From the importance of making the product the focus of your marketing, to publishing transparent information about pricing on your website, offering an on-demand product demo, creating use cases, and ensuring your content matches what you can actually deliver through the product, Esben goes into detail on the elements of a successful product-led growth strategy. Check out the full episode to learn more.

Esben Friis-Jensen, Chief Growth Officer at UserFlow, sits down with Morgan to discuss what makes product-led growth unique and how companies can make that transition. Esben lays out the fundamental building blocks of a product-led company, how it informs decisions for marketing & sales, and where companies often go wrong in the transition. Based on his experience transitioning his previous firm to product-led, this discussion goes deep on the many mistakes companies make when considering a PLG go-to-market strategy.Connect with Esben Friis-JensenLinkedInWebsiteIn this episode, we cover:Main differentiators of product-led growth (1:00)Transitioning to product-led at Cobalt (4:10)Why product-led is about company culture (9:25)Are sales teams needed? (13:10)Why expertise matters in product-led firms (19:40)Replacing staff with product (21:50)Processes replacing people (24:50)Why UX needs customer insights (29:40)Product-led marketing (32:40)Outbound sales at product-led companies (35:40)Esben's Power Hour (40:15)Follow Nicholas Thickett on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nicholasthickettFollow Morgan Smith on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/morganjsmithVisit our site b2bpowerhour.com to learn more about our upcoming live shows, community, and more.

Esben is the Co-founder and CGO at Userflow, which offers the fastest and most user friendly onboarding flow builder for SaaS/Online businesses on the market. Prior to Userflow, Esben co-founded Cobalt.io, a 200+ employee company which he stepped down at the beginning of 2021. He has a background as an Accenture consultant with more than 3 years of experience in test and deployment management of global IT implementations. In this episode we cover: 00:00 - https://getshoutout.com (ShoutOUT) Costumer Messaging via SMS, Email, WhatsApp & Messenger 00:50 - Intro 02:17 - The PLG Strategy Definition 05:20 - Tips to Create Auto Selling Products 07:10 - The Features Of The Great Product 09:00 - Giving The Right Solution At The Right Time 11:10 - Make The Customer Onboarding Happen 12:51 - Examples Of Successful Onboarding 14:53 - How They Built Userflow 17:22 - Esben's Role On Building Userflow 21:42 - Esben's Favorite Hobbies To Get Into a Flow State 22:48 - Esben's Piece of Advice for His 25 Years Old Self 24:23 - Esben's Biggest Challenges at Userflow 25:03 - Instrumental Resources for Esben's Success 27:57 - What Does Success Means for Esben Today 31:00 - Get in Touch With Esben Get In Touch With Esben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esbenfriisjensen/ (Esben's Linkedin) https://userflow.com (Userflow) Mentions: https://logrocket.com (LogRocket) https://mailchimp.com (MailChimp) https://www.saastr.com/author/jasonlkn/ (Jason Lemkin) Books: https://www.amazon.com.br/Product-Led-Growth-Product-Itself-English-ebook/dp/B07P6288ZF (Product Led-Growth by Wes Bush) Tag Us & Follow: https://www.facebook.com/SaaSDistrictPodcast/ (Facebook) https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital (LinkedIn) https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (Instagram) More About Akeel: https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber (Twitter) https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar (LinkedIn) https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast (More Podcast Sessions)

Esben Friis-Jensen is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow. He sees the importance of helping the underserved for SaaS companies and is shaking up the industry. He sits down with fellow disruptor and host KJ Helms to talk about how he is disrupting the SaaS industry.    Takeaways:   The key to disruption is making sure you look around and seeing what can be improved upon through technology. The new way of thinking for SaaS companies is having the focus of having the product drive more of the growth. You want to make sure your technology is better but you also want to make sure it is simple to use, if it's too complex then no one will use it.  Make sure that you are able to focus 100% on the product and let others handle the onboarding of new clients.  When you are disrupting, you are serving the underserved to help them get out their pent up frustration. You want to surround yourself with people you can trust and you know can get the job done.  If you have tried to use a product and don't understand it, then give a call to talk about it rather than immediately calling someone and setting up a meeting at the beginning.    Quote of the show:   8:01 “I think in general software makes things better. What then ends up happening is. You sometimes end up adding too many things, uh, and making it complex and that is of course not good. So then you have to rethink again and how can I make it smarter, better UX and so on. But in general I think software always makes things better, but then the next step is making the software better.”   Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esbenfriisjensen/ Company Website: https://userflow.com/   Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755 Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvODE5NjRmY2EtYTQ5OC00NTAyLThjZjktYWI3YzAwMmRiZTM2LzNiZTZiNzJhLWEzODItNDhhNS04MDc5LWFmYTAwMTI2M2FiNi9kZDYzMGE4Mi04ZGI4LTQyMGUtOGNmYi1hZmEwMDEyNjNhZDkvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M=  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption YouTube - https://youtu.be/8LjQpH4S4Mc See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is no right or wrong path when raising money for your startup. You just have to understand the trade-offs for whichever choice you make.   Today, I welcome Esben Friis-Jensen, Co-Founder of Cobalt and Userflow, who has raised a bunch of money through bootstrapping to give us different perspectives on scaling.   Esben and I dive into the principles that he had as he was co-founding and growing his two multi-million dollar companies, which you all will surely learn from.   Hit the play button now if you want to scale your business in the most effective way! We'll talk about: Introduction [00:00] Esben's first company, Cobalt, and his transition into Userflow [01:50] What urged Esben to start his own company [04:05] How Esben and his co-founders raised $40 million for Cobalt [6:40] The rationale behind founding Userflow [09:51] Growing Userflow with two full-time employees and one freelancer [11:53] Differentiating yourself through your product [14:36] Where Userflow's first hire will come from as they expand [19:20] The value of having team members with more generalist roles [22:14] Resource Links: Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/) Download Startup to Scaleup: A 4-Part Framework to Grow Your B2B Business to $10 Million (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/) Cobalt website (https://cobalt.io/) Userflow website (https://userflow.com/)   About Our Guest: Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder of Userflow, a high growth bootstrapped SAS business that scaled with only two full-time employees.  Esben is also one of the co-founders of another high growth company called Cobalt which raised almost $40 million through bootstrapping. Connect with Esben Friis-Jensen : LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esbenfriisjensen/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/esbenfj       Connect with me and learn more about growing your business: Email: BT@BrettTrainor.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretttrainor/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrainorBrett Twitter: https://twitter.com/Brett_Trainor Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bretttrainor/ If you liked this episode, please don't forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.  

Esben Friis-Jensen, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Userflow, joins Noah on the show to talk about the value of product-led growth to fuel your startup. He also talks about how he was able to improve his startup journey on the next round as a founder.Friis-Jensen shares how essential onboarding is for every SaaS company. It sets the tone and trend for customer retention by promoting use of any SaaS solution. Providing a self-service option reduces cost and is a great fit for B2B, where customers want to learn and customize the solution on their own.Friis-Jensen took the plunge from an established startup because, as an entrepreneur, he believed in the value of building his own destiny. In Userflow, he follows a bootstrap model that provides more capability to map their own destiny without the pressure of a VC dictating growth trajectories.Friiis-Jensen is a proponent of product-led growth. A strong product with constantly updated features will sell itself and attract customers. This can be combined with automated onboarding and campaigns to dramatically reduce CAC. He calls for balance and thinks people still fuel the growth — it cannot rely on full automation or you will risk detaching from your customers.Business leaders looking to implement a product-led growth strategy will love the ideas Friis-Jensen throws out there. His take on keeping customers connected while automating smartly provides great outlook for any SaaS company.Twitter - @esbenfjWebsite - userflow.comLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/esbenfriisjensen/This episode is brought to you by Content Allies.Content Allies helps B2B tech companies launch revenue-generating podcasts. Build relationships that drive revenue through podcast networking. We schedule interviews with your ideal prospects and strategic partners so that you can build relationships & grow your business. You show up and have conversations, we handle everything else. Learn more at ContentAllies.com

This episode's guest on the SaaS Revolution Show is Esben Friis-Jensen, Co-founder and CGO of Userflow. Esben discusses how he grew his SaaS to a seven-figure business with just 2 people. Esben shares: - How to bootstrap the company to a seven-figure mark with a small team - How to build a strong, user-friendly product to drive growth and more. Listen to the full episode for Esben's lessons, watch the video below and subscribe to the podcast. Become a SaaStock Founder Member - join a private community of ambitious SaaS founders scaling to $10M ARR. Apply now: https://cutt.ly/2ECKuDW

Userflow gør det nemt for software as a service virksomheder at bygge guides og onboarding inde i deres produkter uden at bruge dyr udviklertid. Og kære lytter, i denne episode har vi at gøre med en iværksætter (Esben Friis-Jensen), som har været i gennem lidt af hvert. Du bliver taget med hele vejen fra Danmark til Buenos Aires , hvor han 2013 stiftede virksomheden Cobalt, som kom ind i acceleratorprogrammet Boost.vc med base i Silicon Valley, som bliver drevet af Adam Draper, der er 3. generation af meget anerkendt investorfamilie. Draper-familien var nemlig blandt de første til at investere i Hotmail og Skype.  I 2020 måtte Esben dog sige stop, selvom Cobalt buldrede derudaf og havde rejst 240 mio. kr. i både en Serie A og B runde, (pause) og hvorfor det var nødvendigt må du vente med at høre i episoden. Dette er Esbens historie - lyt med i vores podcast. Episoden er produceret af PodTribe Media og bragt til dig i samarbejde med Simply.com Vært: Mark Anthony See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, a no-code builder for in-app onboarding and surveys, allowing SaaS businesses to be more product-led. Prior to Userflow, Esben co-founded Cobalt, which today is a 200+ employee company.How to contact Esbenhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/esbenfriisjensen/--------If you enjoy this micro podcast, please subscribe and leave a review.You can find me on Twitter @CSMToolboxDon't forget to use the hashtag #CSMToolbox if you find an upcoming mobile or web app that can help us improve and enhance our customer engagement. Connect with Isabel Ruiz  https://bit.ly/2NDfOvyJoin our CSM Toolbox LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/company/csmtoolbox/

Esben Friis Jensen is the co-founder of Userflow, a user onboarding software. Onboarding is an increasingly important piece of go-to-market, especially for software with a free trial or freemium experience. You just can't rely on a sales rep to guide a user through your app so it has to feel intuitive.In this episode, we get really tactical in terms of giving advice on how to optimize onboarding, including:Which companies do onboarding well and what can we learn from them A step by step process to optimize your own onboardingWhat kinds of tools do you use in your onboarding stack Is there a future for onboarding with a more human touch (e.g., Superhuman style)

Userflow lets your team build customized in-app tours, checklists and surveys, without code. It's a tool to help drive onboarding and trial conversions. It was a conscious choice of the Userflow team to focus on product-led growth from day one. They try to avoid hiring people to solve problems and look into improving the product instead. “The essence of product-led growth - it's an approach where you think product first instead of people first.”Topics covered in this episodeWhat is product-led growth and what is the difference between product-led and sales-led growthThe SaaS industry maturing into PLGHow too much customization can make it harder to move away from sales-led motionsExamining if PLG is working within a companyHow to tackle support questions proactivelyThe best tools for product-led growthLinks and ResourcesEsben Friis-Jensen on LinkedInEsben Friis-Jensen on TwitterUserflow Listen to the episodeAs always, you can find this episode — along with all previous episodes — in your podcast player of choice. Just search for “SaaS Open Mic”. If you enjoy it, please take a moment to leave us a review, it'd really help us reach a wider audience. Thank you! 

Esben Friis-Jensen is the Co-Founder of Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, a no-code builder for in-app onboarding and surveys, allowing SaaS businesses to be more product-led. Prior to Userflow, Esben Co-Founded Cobalt, which today is a 200+ employee company. At Cobalt, Esben was a part of a product-led growth initiative and the piqued his interest to go all in and join a company in the space.

Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder of Userflow, a no-code platform for building onboarding guides and product tours. Show Notes: https://saasclub.io/291 Join My Free Email List Get weekly SaaS learnings, new podcast episodes, and actionable insights right in your inbox: https://saasclub.io/email/

Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder of Userflow, a no-code platform for building onboarding guides and product tours.Show Notes:https://saasclub.io/291Join My Free Email ListGet weekly SaaS learnings, new podcast episodes, and actionable insights right in your inbox:https://saasclub.io/email/

Summary How can your product drive growth, adoption, and market itself? That’s the idea behind product-led growth. Esben Friis-Jensen from San Francisco-based Userflow explains what it means, how it works, and how user onboarding plays a large part in it. Ready to grow your SaaS? Episode Victor [00:12] Welcome to Product Stories. We explore how […]

Today on the show we have Esben Friis-Jensen, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow. In this episode, we talked about Esben's experience building out the sales team at Cobalt and how they kicked their sales motion off the ground, what triggered the need for customer success 3 years in, and what the benefits are of having sales incentives as a customer success manager.We also discussed how customer video interviews keep the Cobalt team on the same page when it comes to their ideal customer profile, why product led growth led Esben to join Userflow, and we dove into how being late in the market helped differentiate Userflow from its competition. As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.

Esben Friis-Jensen is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, the fastest way for user onboarding for modern SaaS businesses. He is also the Co-Founder and Adviser at Cobalt, a modern application security platform enabling businesses to run on-demand Penetration Testing and vulnerability assessments - Pentest as a Service. The goal of this episode is to accelerate learning while transitioning from sales-led to product-led. Esben will talk about the whole transition: What other leaders are doing in this transition and what mistakes they make to avoid doing it again.  Show Notes [01:09] A brief background about Esben [03:38] His thoughts when they started the product-led movement [07:11] Reasons why they started out as more sales-led [11:15] The challenges they experienced along the way [15:40] How they fostered organizational change  [18:55] The process they went through to get the rest of the team onboard [23:32] How they got buy-in from the teams in the process of transitioning [28:49] First quick wins they had in testing the unknowns [34:50] More advice on iteration from Esben [37:42] The next thing for him at Userflow [39:47] Where to find Esben About Esben Friis-Jensen Esben Friis-Jensen is originally from Denmark but has lived in the United States for the last eight years. Aside from Userflow and Cobalt, he has also worked as a consultant in the SAP division of Accenture, responsible for managing the test and deployment of global large-scale SAP implementations.  Link Product-Led Slack   Profiles Userflow Cobalt LinkedIn

Userflow lets your whole team build customized in-app tours, checklists and surveys, without code. Website - https://userflow.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/getuserflow