1Password’s Growth Story | How They Went From Bootstrapped To $6B Company

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1Password’s growth story | How they went from bootstrapped to $6B company | Jeff Shiner (CEO)

7d ago 1:08:08

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Jeff Shiner is the CEO of 1Password, the access management company used by over 100,000 businesses and millions of individuals worldwide. He joined 1Password as CEO in 2012, when the team was just under 20 people. Under Jeff’s leadership, 1Password expanded into B2B, launched a SaaS platform, and scaled from a small family-run operation into a global company. In 2019, Jeff led 1Password through its first-ever funding round – a $200M Series A from Accel – to build out its go-to-market team and accelerate product development. Before joining 1Password, Jeff held senior roles at IBM and led teams through multiple acquisitions and integrations.

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In today’s episode, we discuss:

Why bootstrapping isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be
The switch from a consumer product to B2B
Launching before billing — and why that worked
When being “too secure” nearly killed the product
Becoming CEO… without telling anyone
Much more

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Referenced:

1Password: https://1password.com
Accel: https://www.accel.com
Arun Mathew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arun-mathew-b7186412/
David Teare: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveteare/
Floodgate: https://floodgate.com
LastPass: https://www.lastpass.com
Mike Maples: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maples/
Natalia Karimov: https://1password.com/company/meet-the-team/natalia-karimov
Roustem Karimov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roustem/?originalSubdomain=ca
Sara Teare: https://1password.com/company/meet-the-team/sara-teare
Shopify: https://www.shopify.com
Tobi Lütke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiaslutke/

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Where to find Jeff:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jshiner

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Where to find Brett:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson

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Where to find First Round Capital:

Website: https://firstround.com/
First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast

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Timestamps:

0:03 – How Jeff got involved with 1Password

2:01 – How 1Password was initially set up

10:41 – The secret CEO

13:44 – What Jeff’s first six months encompassed

16:13 – The lightbulb moment that caused a pivot

17:50 – 1Password’s unusual company journey

22:08 – Creating an aligned product roadmap

29:19 – Retaining a customer-centric focus at scale

30:40 – Why 1Password’s first B2B product failed

39:43 – How Jeff thinks about competitors

46:44 – Building different go-to-market functions

52:45 – Staying bootstrapped for 15 years

57:17 – Jeff’s one regret

1:02:00 – 1Password’s most pivotal moments

147 episodes

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