On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Greg Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of Thinkific.

With over 400+ employees and 10M+ students, tech unicorn Thinkific brings the incredible power of education and business to entrepreneurs across the globe.

Greg shares his lessons learned from building Thinkific from 0 to IPO through navigating many hard fought battles.

Specifically, Greg shares:

5:12 - Finding early customers and product-market fit  

13:31 - How customer acquisition has evolved from the early days

17:15 - The long-term vision for Thinkific

24:32 - Prioritizing what to build first

29:13 - The early days of raising funding

32:11 - The recommended way to build relationships with investors

40:38 - Why choose IPO over raising more venture dollars

50:32 - Key factors that drive excitement from investors

53:03 - Avoiding burnout and staying on course

59:56 - How to source candidates

106:08 - What he would (& wouldn’t) do again when building a unicorn


Learn more at https://tractionconf.io


Connect with Greg Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregsmith-thinkificceo/?originalSubdomain=ca

Learn more about Thinkific at https://www.thinkific.com/

This episode is brought to you by:

Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.

Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca 

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