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Growthmates: Create and Grow Meaningful Products & Careers

From Zero to $2M ARR with Life Partner | Marie Martens (Co-founder at Tally.so)

Mar 4, 2025
Marie Martens, co-founder of Tally, a popular form and survey platform, shares her inspiring journey of bootstrapping the business to $2M ARR with her life partner, Filip. The discussion covers the challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and their pivot from a failed travel startup to Tally’s success. Marie emphasizes balancing entrepreneurship with family life, effective marketing strategies, and fostering community engagement without chasing VC funding. Her insights are a mix of practical advice and personal experiences, making for an engaging conversation.
01:06:55

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Marie Martens and her co-founder pivoted from their original startup idea to create Tally, a form builder that thrived despite COVID-19 challenges.
  • Balancing family responsibilities with entrepreneurship, Marie and her partner established clear work-life boundaries to effectively manage their dual roles.

Deep dives

Building Tally: Origin Story

Tally, a form and survey builder, originated from a travel influencer marketing platform concept conceived by co-founders Maite and Philip. Their trip to Mexico in 2018 sparked the idea of connecting travel influencers with small hotels to promote them, but this project underwent a pivot due to unforeseen circumstances. Aiming to create a marketplace model to facilitate barter deals, they initially struggled to materialize their vision until Philip's previous venture was acquired in late 2019, providing them the financial runway to commence their entrepreneurial journey. However, as they launched Tally in early 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges, leading to a complete reevaluation of their business direction.

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