How Todd Olson of Pendo Got His First Customers

Welcome to Inc.’s Founders Project podcast with Alexa Von Tobel, where we bring you tales of guts, inspiration, and drive that define the entrepreneurs building the future. Each week, we dig into a founder’s professional playbook and uncover what makes them tick. On this week’s episode:

A three-time entrepreneur and seasoned product leader, Todd Olson is on a journey to give businesses deeper insight into their products and users’ behavior. At Pendo, his Raleigh-based company, he’s helped over 2,300 customers–from Salesforce to Toast–build product-led organizations: “Most companies ship something and they move on to the next thing,” he says. “We ship something and then we obsess over people using it.”

Nearly a decade into building Pendo, Olson feels he’s finally found the entrepreneurial success he’s been seeking throughout his career. Olson shares how he got his first customers through community-driven events, why companies should have separate product and engineering leaders, and how he incorporates his family into the company, often cooking for investors and customers in his home.