When Klaviyo became a public company in 2023, we celebrated a moment over a decade in the making. In this episode of Spotlight On, Andrew Bialecki shares learnings from Klaviyo’s unique growth story, from the diligence that came from bootstrapping to the 'unfair advantage' gained by scaling a startup outside a typical tech hub. 

Klaviyo is an intelligent marketing automation platform. Under Andrew’s leadership, Klaviyo has grown to support over 143,000 brands. The discussion covers how a startup changes during various stages of growth and offers an open look into the evolving nature of the CEO role—from the earliest stages to operating as a public company. 

Conversation highlights:

• 00:00 – Background and Klaviyo’s founding story
• 06:03 – Reflecting on the hustle it took to gain early customers
• 10:27 – Challenges & benefits of bootstrapping, what Andrew would do differently today
• 18:36 – Launching in Boston and learnings for startups building outside of a tech hub
• 22:47 – Building enduring partnerships like Klaviyo x Shopify
• 27:20 – How Klaviyo stays ahead by being a customer of their own products.
• 32:54 – Benchmarks Andrew looked for during the pre-IPO journey
• 35:53 – Klaviyo AI, and the impact Andrew sees from the technology in the future
• 41:00 – Advice for the challenges a founder faces as their roles change and evolve

Featured: Andrew Bialecki, CEO and Co-Founder of Klaviyo and Ping Li, Partner at Accel

Learn more about Accel’s relationship with Klaviyo:

• Accel & Klaviyo
• Our Investment in Klaviyo: e-Commerce Communication and Personalization at Scale 
• KVYO IPO: Congrats, Klaviyo! 

Watch more episodes from this season:

• S2E1 | Klaviyo’s Andrew Bialecki on proving a tech startup can be built anywhere
• S2E2 | Webflow’s Vlad Magdalin on the biggest lessons learned from bootstrapping and raising capital 
• S2E3 | Syrup’s James Theuerkauf on building an AI-powered product that cuts through the noise
• S2E4 | Sysdig’s Suresh Vasudevan on embracing a “challenger mindset”
• S2E5 | CrowdStrike’s George Kurtz on building a generational company
• S2E6 | Accel’s Amit Kumar and Ivan Zhou on being an effective startup partner when things don’t go according to plan
• S2E7 | Remote’s Marcelo Lebre on the future of the global workforce
• S2E8 | Gamma’s Jon Noronha on how early-stage startups can challenge industry incumbents
• S2E9 | Monte Carlo’s Barr Moses on creating a playbook for a product that’s never been built before
• S2E10 | ConductorOne’s Alex Bovee on the critical ingredients of a high-growth startup
• S2E11 | Netskope’s Sanjay Beri on building an iconic company through controlled innovation
• S2E12 | Chainalysis’ Jackie Burns Koven on building trust in new technologies
• S2E13 | Wonder's Marc Lore on blending vision and execution

Access Spotlight On Season 1 episodes here.

‍