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Everything I've Learned from Growing My Startup to 10 Million Users with $0 in Funding
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Everything I've Learned from Growing My Startup to 10 Million Users with $0 in Funding

A Founder Shares His Biggest Lessons

Aytekin Tank
Entrepreneur, 2021
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9

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Aytekin Tank kept his day job long after he started Jotform. His approach to developing his company, which helps people create more functional online forms, was to find a solution to a common problem and to do it slowly. Now, fully 10 million people use Jotform products. Writing in Entrepreneur, Tank shares his best advice on how to build your business sustainably, from finding an idea to gaining customers to developing your company’s culture. For Tank, leading means setting parameters and providing support as staff members build their confidence and expand their knowledge. He discusses how to delegate well and advises getting help when you need it – before you start drowning in your inbox. 

Summary

 

Jotform’s founder took his time building his company, without outside funding.

Aytekin Tank started Jotform to help people create forms online. He developed accessible “what you see is what you get” methods so users could set up the forms they need. And, he did it without any outside funding. Jotform wasn’t an overnight success, but overnight success was never Tank’s objective.

His company’s 15-year anniversary inspired Tank to share some of the knowledge that helped him build Jotform successfully. His advice ranges from how to start a company to how to deal with culture, teams and growing pains.

The idea for your company should come “directly from need,” not from a brainstorming session.

Before Jotform, Tank created forms for the editors at a media company. The job was monotonous, so he crafted a template others could modify easily.He released a free version of his form-making product and continued in his day job. By the time Jotform had a stable...

About the Author

Aytekin Tank is the founder and CEO of Jotform and the author of Automate Your Busywork and many business articles on his blog, www.jotform.com/blog/. In 2016, Jotform was ranked as one of the “most entrepreneurial” privately-held US companies.

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