PostHog just raised $75M Series E at a ~$1.4B valuation—but the real story is what happened before it clicked.
In this episode, PostHog co-founder James Hawkins walks through the 6 pivots that came before PostHog: why early-stage is brutally hard, how they decided what to build next, and the exact moments that told them they were finally onto something.
We cover:
Why 0→1 is harder than $1M→$100M
The pivot framework they used to stop thrashing
Why selling to developers changed everything
The launch + distribution tactics that worked
How the “MVP bar” changes in an AI world
James also shares what PostHog is building next—and how it could turn product analytics into actual code changes.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro05:41 The 4.5-year preparation before quitting13:16 Why traditional validation is dangerous territory17:45 Targeting developers: the bluntest stakeholders26:58 The NFL child analogy: when to pivot vs. persist28:14 Why the engineer retention tool failed32:37 Improving the process: why your website is the sales team36:03 The idea maze of territory management tools44:25 Building in 2026: the magic bar for new products47:54 How to use competition as a validation shortcut56:14 The PostHog aha moment: inverting the meeting01:02:18 The Hacker News pre-mortem launch strategy01:10:34 The pivot from open source to 90% cloud revenue01:16:53 Future: code editors that build products for you
