Niklas and I have never really liked talking too much about ourselves. But sometimes we have to. Reflecting on it, we probably both learned from an early age that results matter much more than talk. Writing something smart on a website (or social media) isn’t what matters. Results matter.
I grew up in a dojo and learned how to fight from a young age. Martial arts (whether it’s Taekwondo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling or Boxing) at higher levels teaches you many life lessons that I think everyone ambitious will need to learn sooner or later in life. Fighting humbles you. It teaches you that the fight you have in front of you is often more internal than external, it teaches you that the loud competitor is not the one to worry about and it teaches you that time in the dojo is what builds winners.
Niklas grew up playing competitive chess. In these arenas, you don’t win by talking - you win by doing.
“Fighting humbles you.”
At Planhat, we’ve never been noisy. We spent our first five years bootstrapped. No marketing, no sales: full focus on product and engineering. We kept our head down, knowing that if you want to build a high-rise, then you need to spend a lot of time building solid foundations.
Since building Planhat on someone else's platform was never an option (how is that ambitious?), we knew that building a truly next generation CRM would be insanely difficult.
So we went back to what came natural: be bold, be fearless, think long-term and spend time in the dojo perfecting the craft.
“No marketing, no sales: full focus on product and engineering.”
“Everyone is an individual contributor, so leaders do before they delegate.”
At Planhat, we know that our success comes from making better-than-average decisions over a very long time-horizon. It’s not the feature, the deal we won or the campaign. Waking up every morning, making marginally better decisions compounds into dramatically better results.
We’re relentless in our pursuit.
