Jeff Shiner is the CEO of 1Password, the access management company used by over 100,000 businesses and millions of individuals worldwide. He joined 1Password as CEO in 2012, when the team was just under 20 people. Under Jeff’s leadership, 1Password expanded into B2B, launched a SaaS platform, and scaled from a small family-run operation into a global company. In 2019, Jeff led 1Password through its first-ever funding round – a $200M Series A from Accel – to build out its go-to-market team and accelerate product development. Before joining 1Password, Jeff held senior roles at IBM and led teams through multiple acquisitions and integrations.
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In today’s episode, we discuss:
- Why bootstrapping isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be
- The switch from a consumer product to B2B
- Launching before billing — and why that worked
- When being “too secure” nearly killed the product
- Becoming CEO… without telling anyone
- Much more
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Referenced:
- 1Password: https://1password.com
- Accel: https://www.accel.com
- Arun Mathew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arun-mathew-b7186412/
- David Teare: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveteare/
- Floodgate: https://floodgate.com
- LastPass: https://www.lastpass.com
- Mike Maples: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maples/
- Natalia Karimov: https://1password.com/company/meet-the-team/natalia-karimov
- Roustem Karimov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roustem/?originalSubdomain=ca
- Sara Teare: https://1password.com/company/meet-the-team/sara-teare
- Shopify: https://www.shopify.com
- Tobi Lütke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiaslutke/
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Where to find Jeff:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jshiner
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Where to find Brett:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
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Where to find First Round Capital:
- Website: https://firstround.com/
- First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
- This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
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Timestamps:
0:03 – How Jeff got involved with 1Password
2:01 – How 1Password was initially set up
10:41 – The secret CEO
13:44 – What Jeff’s first six months encompassed
16:13 – The lightbulb moment that caused a pivot
17:50 – 1Password’s unusual company journey
22:08 – Creating an aligned product roadmap
29:19 – Retaining a customer-centric focus at scale
30:40 – Why 1Password’s first B2B product failed
39:43 – How Jeff thinks about competitors
46:44 – Building different go-to-market functions
52:45 – Staying bootstrapped for 15 years
57:17 – Jeff’s one regret
1:02:00 – 1Password’s most pivotal moments
