Ep141 – Alex Zaccaria (Co-founder & CEO – Linktree) on viral growth, customer focus and intuition

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep141 – Alex Zaccaria (Co-founder & CEO – Linktree) on viral growth, customer focus and intuition March 4, 2021 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep141 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & CEO of Linktree, Alex Zaccaria. Alex started his career in the music industry. With his brother Anthony, he co-founded Bolster, an agency that specialises in running digital and creative campaigns for music festivals and events. Through the agency, they identified a problem they kept facing on behalf of their clients, how to effectively share multiple links on social media. They built a tool to help solve that problem for their clients. That tool is called Linktree and is now used by over 10M users globally including celebrities such as Selena Gomez and Jamie Oliver and brands like Redbull and HBO At the end of last year, Linktree announced they had raised their first round of external funding, raising $10.7M in a round led by AirTree and Insight Partners. In this interview we covered a range of topics including: The importance of understanding why users are using your productsHow they achieved viral growth to 10M usersHow Alex developed a partnership with Facebook during the early days of BolsterManaging engineering teams as a non-technical founderTheir journey to raising $10M and deciding which investors to raise from& much more! Show notes: 1.57 – Where Alex’s desire to become an entrepreneur came from 3.48 – The influence Alex’s family and upbringing had on his career journey and what he learned from them5.38 – Launching Bolster with some of the largest festivals in Australia as clients9.45 – How they secured a partnership with Facebook through working around the existing system11.53 – Alex’s approach to learning quickly and continuously13.15 – Why meeting a customers needs is the most important step when building a platform16.36 – How Linktree has changed from the first version and how the idea began19.14 – Welcoming and utilising big name, early customers of Linktree 21.10 – How linktree was started as a side hustle and what it would be today if it was started differently24.45 – The importance of listening to consumers and having conversations to determine their needs26.32 – Building vitality for a ready to market product30.35 – Why Linktree prioritises simplicity in product design 33.38 – Utilising product managers as a non-technical founder to prioritise features36.39 – Intuitive decision making and having the right people around you39.40 – Working with a technical lead and development team effectively 43.01 – The challenges of scale 46.04 – The process to raising $10M 49.09 – How to pick the right VC partner when raising 52.29 – What Alex would do differently when raising capital again54.51 – The importance of developing a product naturally and authentically57.51 – Staying ahead of the competition as a market leader 58.49 – Maintaining culture whilst growing team size Links mentioned: Alex’s businesses: LinktreeBolster  People mentioned: Nick HumphreysMike Bywaters John HendersonMel and Cliff from Canva Previous episodes mentioned: Creating a winning culture with Mahesh Muralidhar (Ep139) VC partners: InsightAirtree Special Thanks: Special thanks to Nick Humphreys, Mike Bywaters and John Henderson for their help with research for this interview ? . Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected]@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams Other channels: Don’t have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep141_-_Alex_Zaccaria_Co-founder__CEO_-_Linktree_on_viral_growth_customer_focus_and_intuition.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-moz-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea:-ms-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep141 – Alex Zaccaria (Co-founder & CEO – Linktree) on viral growth, customer focus and intuition appeared first on Startup Playbook.