The Breakout Growth Podcast

AllTrails CEO Shares Unconventional Growth Approach that Helped Land $150M in New Capital

Jan 25, 2022

Ron Schneidermann, CEO of AllTrails, discusses his unconventional growth strategy that landed the app a whopping $150 million in funding. He reveals how focusing on product/channel fit before traditional market fit transformed AllTrails into a favorite for outdoor enthusiasts. Ron shares insights on navigating startup challenges, the importance of sustainable growth, and the impact of COVID-19 on user engagement. He also emphasizes humility and strategic alignment with investors as keys to fostering a thriving company culture.

01:04:11

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Episode guests

Ron Schneidermann

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

AllTrails succeeded by prioritizing product/channel fit over conventional product/market fit, capitalizing on existing organic user engagement prior to significant product improvements.

Financial discipline enabled AllTrails to delay fundraising until profitability, thus fostering sustainable growth and attracting $150 million for calculated future expansions.

The company values humility and curiosity in its hiring practices, creating a collaborative environment essential for navigating fast-paced growth and team adaptability.

Deep dives

The Unique Growth Journey of AllTrails

AllTrails experienced a distinctive growth trajectory in which product channel fit emerged before product market fit. When Ron Schneiderman joined as CEO, he noticed that while there was a substantial organic audience accessing the platform, the product itself failed to meet user expectations, resulting in high bounce rates. However, this initial product channel fit allowed the company to build a strong foundation for future growth by prioritizing improvements that responded to the feedback and needs of the audience. This counterintuitive approach emphasizes the potential effectiveness of leveraging existing organic channels to refine product offerings over chasing immediate product market fit.

Intro

2min

Exploring Growth and Outdoor Enthusiasm through AllTrails

4min

Navigating Startup Growth and Sustainability

21min

Navigating the Challenges of Leadership and Self-Doubt

4min

Navigating Growth and Strategic Expansion

30min

Connecting People to Nature: Insights from a Job Interview Experience

2min

Embracing Humility for Sustainable Growth

2min

This week’s episode of The Breakout Growth Podcast is sponsored by Rise with SAP and features Ron Schneidermann, the CEO of AllTrails. Conventional wisdom says that you need product/market fit before you can grow, but sometimes conventional wisdom gets it wrong. For AllTrails Product/Channel Fit came first.

Today, outdoor enthusiasts love the AllTrails mobile app and website and use them to navigate and enhance their adventures with hand-curated trail maps, and other useful tools like crowdsourced photos and reviews. But, when Ron started, he found that the product was actually quite a mess. Fortunately, he looked beyond that when he saw the acquisition data and realized a big opportunity lay ahead.

If he and his team could overcome their product challenges and leverage existing SEO and other organic channels that were already working surprisingly well to attract the right type of users, then he believed they could deliver on their mission to kindle the spirit of adventure and help millions of people enjoy and connect outdoors.

Today, AllTrails is on a tear. The profitable company has over 1 million paying users, recently raised $150 million in new funding, and has big plans to continue growing around the world. For anyone analyzing potential opportunities or developing a growth strategy, this is a conversation sure to get you saying, “wow, I never thought about it that way.”

Before you jump in, check out this week’s sponsor, RISE with SAP S/4Hana Cloud. If you have ambitious goals, SAP is the technology partner you need to scale and drive innovation. Instead of relying on stitched together solutions to manage business finances, operations, and customer relations, leverage the flexibility of SAP’s cloud-based ERP solution to gain the insights that will help drive your breakout growth success.

RISE with SAP Link: bit.ly/3u27Ay6

Please take a moment to subscribe as we talk growth with Ron Schneidermann, AllTrails CEO.

We discussed:

* “I am not a Zero to one Guy,” taking on the AllTrails leadership challenge (05:00)

* Why Ron is a big believer in Product/Channel fit (08:01)

* “Pouring too much water on a seed causes it to rot;” avoiding traps with paid channels (00:00)

* “My job is to get out of the way” - How Ron views the CEO Role (09:40)

* Raising money and sticking to your values (10:20)

* “Humility is our culture” (58:40)

And much, much, more . . .

Get full access to Growth with Sean Ellis at seanellis.substack.com/subscribe

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The Breakout Growth Podcast

AllTrails CEO Shares Unconventional Growth Approach that Helped Land $150M in New Capital

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

The Unique Growth Journey of AllTrails

The Importance of Financial Discipline

The Role of Product-Driven Growth

Culture and Hiring Philosophy

Future Aspirations and Global Ambitions

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts