After leaving his previous business with $2.5M, Zeb Evans, Founder of ClickUp, decided to create a Craigslist competitor.

He put together a team he trusted and began to build. One of the first projects they took on was to build an internal productivity tool as none of the options on the market actually made them more productive (counter-intuitively). And none of them could serve as an all-in-one productivity app.

Quickly the team realized that this internal tool was actually the bigger need. It had a real vision and was solving a massive problem.

Companies are too tool-heavy. On average, using 89 apps in 2022 (this number skyrocketed to 187 for companies with over 2k employees). Toggling tax from using all these apps adds up to 4 hours per week – about 10% of working time.

ClickUp could give people their time back. Actually making them more productive.

Zeb put all his money from his previous business into ClickUp and the team went all-in.

In less than two years they bootstrapped their way to profitability and $20M ARR. Insane!

And just like that, the one tool to rule them all was born.

From then on ClickUp has skyrocketed with their latest valuation at $4B.

This is the story of how ClickUp went from Zero to One. Click here for the full deep dive 🚀

ClickUp’s Growth

After deciding to go all-in on ClickUp, the team spent 7 months building. They knew they were entering one of the most competitive software industries. So they focused heavily on user experience, design, and branding. They thought this would make them appear bigger and punch above their weight.

They were right.

ClickUp launched in mid-2017, and in less than two years had reached $20M ARR. With no outside funding. And no marketing budget.

From here ClickUp started taking on investment and growth only sped up. And ClickUp started collecting milestones:

• June 2020: 100k+ customers (about three years after launch).
• October 2020: $36M ARR.
• Jan 2022: $85M ARR and 200k+ customers.
• Jan 2023: $150M ARR and >100% YoY growth.

ClickUp now serves over 2M teams with ~10M total users.

Some of their current customers include teams at Google, Nike, Netflix, Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, IBM, and Booking.com.

Key Success Factors (KSFs)

There have been many reasons for ClickUp’s rise to success. But what stood out most to me is the process they took to PMF.

ClickUp focused on creating Natural PMF. I.e., product-led growth combined with virality and organic growth. Rather than the more traditional route of raising investor funds to purchase users on the way to PMF (Artificial PMF).

This way ClickUp could focus on building a better product. Which in the end created a faster route to PMF. And eventually, an easier path to raising money and scaling.

Why?

Because they had built an obsessed fan base of active users and advocates by listening to their customers' needs and delivering on them.

ClickUp created a Natural PMF Flywheel. Combining three key aspects:

🌻 1. Focused on organic users

Zeb and the ClickUp team have always been obsessed with helping their customers. They know that what matters at the end of the day is solving real problems for your users.

So they set out to do that before you even become a customer.

Actively helping potential users to build the ClickUp brand and community.

From early on they focused on writing useful and actionable content for their target customers.

This meant writing about topics such as:

• How to manage projects. 👩‍💼
• How to work effectively in a remote environment. 🌍
• How to be agile and move quickly. 🏃‍♂️

They consistently posted at least one article a day for years.

And although returns were slow at first, they understood that content is a long-term game. Unlike many of their competitors at the time who were not focusing on content or SEO – leaving a clear path to giving ClickUp an edge.

ClickUp now ranks for over 60k keywords today.

What they’ve also done to rank, build trust, and take customers from competitors is having dedicated competitor comparison pages – showing how ClickUp can better solve their users' problems than the alternatives.

Building this foundation of content has proven to be critical years later. As they now generate over $12M worth of clicks – all for free.

What’s great about organic users is that they are often your best promoters. ClickUp leveraged this. They love users who promote their product – and they make it easy for them to do so, e.g., with seamless team invites.

Talking about teammates, what I also love about ClickUp’s growth strategy and product is that the tool becomes inherently more useful and fun to use when your team also uses it – meaning users were naturally incentivized to promote it.

Further leveraging the snowball effect you get from organic users.

💬 2. Drove their vision with user feedback

ClickUp built an authentic feedback loop with their customers to bring them closer to Natural PMF. Listening to their needs, developing a real connection with them, and building a trusting two-way relationship. All while keeping ClickUp’s vision in mind.

Organic user are your best promoters when you get them involved in the product development.

This meant speaking to users – collecting feedback, having zoom calls, meeting in person. They used this to build a real connection with their customers.

Then they used this feedback and connection to see what was working, what wasn’t, and what needed to be added to their product.

But this can be a tricky balancing act to manage. Because while it’s important to action customer feedback, you also don’t want to become a feature factory or just a carbon copy of what already exists. It is your product at the end of the day.

So ClickUp made sure to be careful in fusing user feedback with their vision. Making sure that every new feature, product, or integration kept in line with their mission to help give people their time back.

Listening and then also delivering to their users created this authentic feedback loop for ClickUp. Building extreme trust, a loyal community, and allowed their product to stand out.

⏩ 3. Iterated and shipped fast

This final step completed their Natural PMF flywheel and allowed ClickUp to shine as a North Star for anyone trying to use Product-Led Growth.

Because although it is important to drive organic users and listen to their feedback – what pulled everything together for ClickUp was shipping fast. They delivered on features, requests, and bug fixes. And they delivered fast.

In 2022 alone, they added 100+ new features and integrations.

This confirms and strengthens their users’ trust in them and turns them into your best advertisers. Because they feel heard.

ClickUp are very clear to choose progress over perfection. A core value at the company. Because they believe that high frequency compounds over time – getting to perfect at a faster rate.

So they launch a new release every Friday. Consistently.

This speed and consistency became a massive competitive advantage – their competition couldn’t keep up. They knew they would improve them with the help of their users.

ClickUp used this bias toward action and learned to tolerate the risk of failure in order to build a better product that their customers felt a part of.

Tactics to replicate ClickUp’s success

Focus on UX, branding, and design 🎨

ClickUp entered one of the most competitive software markets – project management and productivity tools.

They were up against industry giants. Asana, Monday., JIRA, and more.

When you’re in a position like this, you need to punch above your weight.

You’re David. They’re Goliath.

But one way you can stand out and appear bigger than you are, is by obsessing over exceptional UX, professional and unique design, and strong branding.

This is something ClickUp did (and still does) brilliantly. Their user experience is awesome (from personal experience), their design is vibrant and inviting, and their branding has a unique and memorable voice.

ClickUp used these three things to keep them in your mind.

So when you do need a tool for project management – your first thought is ClickUp.

Focusing on these key aspects leads users to think you are competing in the same weight class as your competitors – even though you’re not quite there yet.

Build what matters most for your users 🏗️

Link to all the tactics you can use to replicate in your business here.