Andrew bootstrapped Wrike and grew it from 0 to a $2.2B exit by doing the exact opposite of what every startup book tells you. No pivots. No talking to customers before launch. No narrow niche. Just 17 years of relentless focus on one problem while everyone else was pivoting every 18 months.
In this episode, he breaks down exactly why bootstrapping saved his company (and why VC would have killed it), why he ignored customer development and just built in a bunker, and how manning the support phones himself became his secret product development weapon.
Now building Zencoder (AI coding agents), he shares why the future isn't about replacing developers but making every human "superhuman" at their job. This is mandatory listening for any founder questioning conventional startup wisdom.
Why You Should Listen:
- Grew to $2.2B with no pivots for 17 years while competitors kept "failing fast"
- How he doubled revenue every year from $0 to $100M+ ARR
- Why manning support phones himself was better than any customer development process
- Why copycats helped Wrike grow faster
- The future of AI agents
Keywords:
Wrike, Andrew Filev, bootstrapping, 2 billion exit, product market fit, SaaS, Zencoder, AI coding agents, no pivot strategy, collaboration software
00:00:00 Intro
00:03:30 Moving to Silicon Valley from Russia to build for millions
00:10:06 Going all-in after previous side projects failed
00:11:27 Why he never pivoted once in 17 years
00:18:47 Launching without talking to customers first
00:24:12 Manning support phones and discovering the real roadmap
00:29:01 When Microsoft Project, Basecamp, and Jira were the competition
00:34:31 The only job definition—double the business every year
00:54:16 Why Developers won't be replaced, and become superhuman
01:01:57 The $2.2B exit and making employees' dreams come true
01:04:36 Finding product-market fit at Zencoder vs Wrike
01:06:55 Focus on people—everything traces back to them
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
