How Calendly's Founder Succeeded on His Own Terms

Apr 30, 2023

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Breaking the Rules: How Calendly's Founder Succeeded on His Own Terms

From scheduling nightmares to a $3 billion startup, Calendly is the hero we need to save us from the chaos of setting up meetings. They've raised $350 million to help us plan and track our virtual meetings, and their secret weapon is a simple but effective function that helps us manage open spaces in our calendar.

The best part? Calendly is already profitable, and it's been that way for years. So while they may have started with just $550,000 in funding (including the life savings of the founder), they're now valued at over $3 billion. Talk about a return on investment!

So, let me introduce you to Tope, the man, the myth, the legend behind Calendly! He's based out of Atlanta.

Tope is one heck of a rebel! Instead of following the typical Silicon Valley playbook, he did things his own way. He built a profitable business right from the start and only raised $550k for the first 9 years of the company. Talk about frugal!

And get this, Tope didn't write a single line of code for the initial product. Nope, he outsourced it to a dev shop in Ukraine.

But wait, it gets even better! Tope spent the first six months of the company's life doing market research instead of building the product.

And get this, he didn't even bother interviewing a single customer before launching the product! But hey, Tope wasn't all about ignoring customers. He was actually obsessed with his competitors' products. He spent 3-4 months trying out every single scheduling app that existed.

And last but not least, Tope is a true trailblazer. He started the company as a single non-technical black immigrant founder. I mean, talk about defying the odds!

Read the best article that shares a detailed story here