#130: Profitable Product-Led Growth to $30 Million Before Big Exit – Joe Hyrkin

Practical Founders Podcast

Joe Hyrkin is the former CEO of Issuu, a content publishing platform for interactive marketing content. Issuu allows you to easily publish printable and PDF materials in various formats to websites and social media. It’s a global product-led success story with millions of customers and a successful and sustainable business.

Issuu was started by four Danish founders before the company was moved to Silicon Valley in 2013 when Joe was hired as the CEO. Joe ran the company for almost 12 years, growing it profitably most years to almost $30 million in revenue before it was sold in mid-2024 to Bending Spoons, an Italian holding company that is an active acquirer of software companies.

Joe talks about working with their early venture capital investors with a practical and patient approach. In 2021, Issuu raised $20 million in debt to invest in marketing and address technology issues, which helped them grow faster before being acquired.

Quote from Joe Hyrkin, former CEO of Issuu

“From 2016 to 2020, we ran Issuu profitably, with what I like to call a ‘pro-grow’ approach—profitable and growing. Then, we raised debt to grow faster to about $30 million in revenue. The final year before we sold, we got back to profitability. So we got to profitability twice.

“By being profitable, you’re committing to your customers that you’re going to be around and that they will not have to go find some other solution. You’re communicating to your team that this company can be counted on. In 2024 and 2025, everybody wants profitability, unless you’re an AI company.

“Not having a profitability plan actually creates a lot of risk. I’m not saying you always have to be profitable, but you always have to have a foundation to know how we get to profitability. It’s a different way of thinking.”

Links

• Joe Hyrkin on LinkedIn
• Issuu on LinkedIn
• Issuu website
• Bending Spoons website

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This week’s podcast is sponsored by my friends at Cypress Growth Capital. For 15 years, Cypress has provided non-dilutive growth funding to bootstrapped SaaS founders, including many successful founders I’ve interviewed here on this podcast. Message Cliff Sentell at Cypress to have an open discussion about your options.

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