It's Surprising How Much Small Teams Can Get Done - Sam Chaudhary of ClassDojo

TL;DR

ClassDojo co-founder Sam Chaudhary recounts how a tiny team grew the product to 90% of US K-8 schools and >200,000 schools globally by obsessively listening to teachers, letting product-driven word-of-mouth drive growth, and building a grassroots teacher community.

Key insights

• Sam and cofounder Liam spammed Paul Graham with daily metric updates for a week after Demo Day; PG eventually replied “It is customary to respond to offers of funding” and wrote a check.
• The first version of ClassDojo launched after only 6–7 weeks of user research, during which Sam emailed thousands of teachers (asking “what’s the worst problem you face?”) and taught summer school to
• Early growth was entirely organic: one teacher using the product would spread it to other teachers in the same school, and viral loops were not engineered.