Edward Ford
Last updated 31 October, 2021.
Mikko Honkanen is the Co-founder & CEO at Vainu.io—a bootstrapped Finnish SalesTech SaaS company. Whether you are bootstrapped or not, a CEO, a founder, or working in sales and marketing, you’ll come away from this episode with some invaluable growth lessons and advice.
We go back to Vainu’s early days and discuss where Mikko got the original idea to start Vainu, what they prioritised at the beginning, and how they bootstrapped their growth. While many SaaS companies are obsessed with getting funding and raising capital, Mikko discusses why they decided to fully bootstrap Vainu and what key factors drove their organic growth.
Mikko is also the first ever Finn to come on The Growth Hub Podcast 🇫🇮 (it only took us 34 episodes).
In this episode Mikko shares his experience of growing Vainu, which has bootstrapped its way to +15M ARR, and Mikko talks about:
- Why the founding team decided to bootstrap
- How Vainu validated demand and established product market fit
- Differentiation and positioning within the crowded martech & salestech space
- Challenges Vainu faced with internationalisation
- Scaling localised product & marketing
- How Vainu pivoted their strategy when entering the US market
- The impact bootstrapping had on Vainu’s go-to-market strategy & demand gen tactics
- The Vainu sales and marketing playbook
Stay tuned to the end of the episode where Mikko takes on our fast five challenge and shares his best piece of advice for fellow SaaS marketers.
Make sure you subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud & Spotify so you never miss an episode of The Growth Hub podcast.
And let us know what you think by tweeting to us @SaaSGrowthHub
Enjoy the show!
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Links:
Vainu >> vainu.io/
When Breath Become Air >> www.goodreads.com/book/show/258993…eath-becomes-air
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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
