On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show Alex is joined by Chris Hall, CEO at Dutch marketing tech company Bynder. In the conversation they touch on the pillars that define the journey of a CEO – from scaling and growing the company, its culture and its people to the personal transformation a CEO undergoes and how to deal with it. One key lesson he has picked on the way is that the most satisfying thing about being a CEO is seeing every person succeed in the right role.

Before he could be the CEO that spends the majority of his time figuring out how his employees could thrive and excel, Chris was busy being the entrepreneur that fixed everything. He wrote terms and conditions in Bynder’s first contracts, set up design teams and sold the solution, among many other things.

Founded in 2013, Bynder was a spin-off from Label A, a web development agency Chris ran with his co-founders Roland Keijzer and Stefan Pelders. The company bootstrapped its way to $10 million ARR in the following three years.

“When you are bootstrapped, your only problem is cash,” Chris says. “Every purchase you make feels like it’s coming from your pocket.”

To seize the potential Bynder had for growth, it needed the sort of cash injection that comes with VC funding.

By August 2016, Bynder secured a $20 million Series A round. Chris had to very quickly transition from the entrepreneur that fixed everything to the CEO that would let go and allow others to do it. He also had to look for the answer to the fundamental question – how do you make decisions when money is no longer an issue.

In the year and a half since then, the company has doubled in headcount and currently has offices in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, London, Boston, Dubai, and Barcelona. It counts over 250,000 brand managers, marketers and creatives as its customers.

Chris’s greatest strength on the CEO journey? Not spending his time on worrying too much and instead of enjoying the successes on the way.

Listen on to hear:

  • How to stop micromanaging people.
  • How to tackle the challenges of being the CEO of a venture-backed scaling company.
  • How to balance the act between listening to your own gut and what blogs and podcasts are telling you to do.
  • How to get and keep the right people at the different stages of a company growth.
  • How to create an authentic and genuine culture and live up to the words you put out as CEO.

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