Colin Nederkoorn is the founder and CEO of Customer.io, a top customer engagement platform that enables companies to send the right message to the right user at the right time on the right channel. The platform is used by Notion and lots of other top SaaS companies to personalize user onboarding and more. 

When Customer.io was founded in 2011, there were analytics platforms and there were things you could do with that data, but as the mobile era was taking off – and user onboarding became even more critical – Colin recognized a need for companies to immediately send users messages based on the actions there users had just taken – or (and this was a lot harder to build) the action they had not taken. 

On this episode, we learn from Colin how he built and scaled Customer.io from slideware he pitched to early customers into a company that today boasts top clients and a lofty valuation. 

Plus, tips on how you can improve your own onboarding. 

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Key Moments:

[2:17] How Colin got into product management and early experiences

[5:00] Becoming head of product at DevPost (fka ChallengePost)

[7:00] “We were so naive that we just did, we did it.” – Founding Customer.io

[10:12] Onboarding and more ways companies use customer.io

[14:43] Why you shouldn’t optimize your onboarding too early

[17:17] Challenges at customer.io today and their emerging multi-product strategy

[19:12] AI vs. rules engines; and how Customer.io is using AI now and experimenting

[22:22] Why triggering a notification when a user has not done something is so much harder than if they have

[23:55] Infrastructure and constant scaling – one of customer.io’s biggest challenges

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CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com 

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