Navigating Dark Days and Entrepreneurial Journeys

In this episode, Kate Syuma dives into a conversation with Marie Martens, co-founder of Tally, to explore the journey of building a profitable business around a product that is 99% free.

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

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Welcome to Growthmates with Kate Syuma — Growth Advisor, ex-Miro. This season, “In the Company of Women,” is about celebrating women who successfully balance work, family, and creative passions while building meaningful careers.

Growthmates is where top product and growth leaders share real strategies and insights to help you turn ideas into successful products. Learn from experts at Dropbox, Adobe, Amplitude, Canva, and more in deep dive interviews with Kate Syuma, ex-Miro Head of Growth Design and founder of Growthmates.

Marie and her co-founder Fillip — who is also her life partner — took the road less traveled, bootstrapping Tally after their first startup idea collapsed during Covid. Instead of chasing VC funding, they built a thriving product with no ads, no sales team, and no outside investment. She also dives into budget-friendly marketing tactics, lessons from scaling a startup without external investment, and the mindset shifts needed to make bootstrapping work.

Tune in to hear Marie’s firsthand experience on building a sustainable business by focusing on users, not investors.

🔗 Find more insights on growthmates.club and follow on your favorite platforms for more episodes.

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In September, I focused on a few key conferences, prioritizing quality over quantity. While one event had 700 attendees, the smaller one with 150 offered a much higher ROI. The best part was meeting like-minded founders, Marie and Filip from Tally.so, whose journey from a failed idea to a bootstrapped success was truly inspiring.

Their community-driven approach resonated with me and made the entire experience worthwhile. One of those connections made the entire emotional investment of speaking at that event worth it. So, I invited Marie to my podcast, and here we are.

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Key highlights from this episode 👇

* From a travel marketplace to a bootstrapped success: Marie started with a travel marketplace before pivoting to Tally. She shares how COVID reshaped their vision and led to a form builder loved by thousands.

* Bootstrapping a $2M ARR business with no external funding: Marie and her co-founder bootstrapped their way to $2M ARR, relying on product simplicity, word-of-mouth, and community-driven growth.

* Balancing parenting, life partnership, and building a startup: Marie shares how she balances entrepreneurship, parenting, and working with her life partner — plus the key habits that keep it all together.

* Growing without ads: Instead of paid marketing, Tally scaled through influencer partnerships and organic community growth. Marie reflects on their Product Hunt launch and what she’d do differently today.

* What makes Tally a "lovable" product? Simplicity, intuitive UX inspired by Notion, and transparent pricing (just one tier!)—Marie explains the key design and business decisions that made Tally stand out in a crowded market.

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Where to find Kate Syuma:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterina-syuma/

* Newsletter: https://www.growthmates.news/

Where to find Marie Martens:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariemartens/

* X (Twitter): https://x.com/MarieMartens

* Tally.so: https://tally.so/

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What we covered:

(00:00) Introduction & Meet Marie Martens (07:00) Starting Business in 2020 (15:29) Building Boundaries (20:46) Sacrifices To Be Made (30:53) Launching on Product Hunt (48:00) Zooming Out Is Important (53:00) Why Bootstrapped?

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📕 Useful Resources and other related Podcasts:

* Marie Martens shares How We Bootstrapped to $50k MRR with Team of 2 at SaaSOpen 2023 in NYC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70uUNfpnWuI&ab_channel=NathanLatka

* Marie Martens Tally's Product Hunt Launch: Our Checklist for Success: https://blog.tally.so/product-hunt-launch/

* Bootstrapping to $150K MRR by doing less, better: https://blog.tally.so/bootstrapping-to-150k-mrr-by-doing-less-better/

* Tally’s Bootstrapped Journey to 500,000 Users and $160K MRR:

https://knowledge.gtmstrategist.com/p/tallys-bootstrapped-journey-to-500000-users

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