Starting a company can be daunting, exhausting, and expensive, but with the right focus and idea - extremely rewarding; take it from Andrew Filev, Founder and CEO of Wrike. In this session, he will outline the do's and dont's that he learned bootstrapping Wrike. Where it makes sense to invest your precious resources when to outsource, and how to save yourself money without cutting corners.

1. 5 Lessons Learned from
My Bootstrapping Days
Andrew Filev
Founder and CEO, Wrike

2. About Andrew
• Born in St. Petersburg, Russia
• Lived in Silicon Valley since 2005
• Married with two kids
• Founded Wrike in 2006, Launched at LeWeb
here in Paris
• Wrike had nearly 4,000 paying customers when
we received our Series A funding
• Today, Wrike has over 19,000 customers and
over 700 employees

3. Why bootstrap?

4. LESSON #1:
Your customers are
your most important
investors

5. Hone your product/market fit
• Focus on customer discovery
• Answer your own support tickets
to understand customer needs
• Engage customers when they
sign up or cancel
• Measure activity in your product
to understand adoption and
engagement

6. Make sure your efforts are scalable
• Avoid becoming a custom development shop for your largest customers
by building capabilities that help every business
• (In most cases) Don’t chase partnerships or “marketplace” integrations –
focus on your core product
• Freemium models are great, but what happens when you start charging?
Will customers convert?

7. LESSON #2:
Failure can come from anywhere,
but success always comes
from people

8. How we hire?
• No ego
• Has curiosity and desire to explore
the business
• Is passionate about work and your
company’s mission
• Knows how to get work done

9. Hiring while bootstrapped
• Value of equity, mission, and career growth
• Early investments in recruiting pay off big dividends later
• “Deep dives” to test competence - or try contract to hire
• References help identify folks who can “talk the talk, but can’t “walk the
walk”
• When hiring from a big company, stress-test culture fit

10. LESSON #3:
Use your size as an advantage

11. Out-execute larger competitors
• Respond to the market quickly
to seize opportunities
• Focus early efforts on differentiation,
not playing “catch up” on
commoditized features
• Align your activity with impact

12. Work with discipline and efficiency
• Use OKRs (objectives and key results) to set measurable goals
and track performance
• Templatize routine work, automate, and reduce repetitive tasks
• Keep visibility high on all your projects to understand the status
of key initiatives and help move work forward

13. LESSON #4
Use Agile to nail-and-scale growth
functions

14. Test and iterate product and
marketing
• Run A/B tests of ads and messaging
and put money behind only what
works
• Test sales processes. Where can
automation help? Where do you need
human touch?
• Don’t just “growth hack” – invest in
activities with predictable returns

15. LESSON #5:
Raise on your terms

16. Raising after bootstrapping
• View investment as the fuel for your well-honed machine - not the
cash to build the machine
• Higher valuations are the result of traction and demand

17. Are you ready to bootstrap?
1. Focus on product/market fit
2. Hire the right people
3. Leverage size for differentiation
4. Invest in what works
5. Turn traction into value

18. Thank You!