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Marie and Philip (her co-founder and life partner) launched Tally, a free form builder, from their living room during COVID lockdowns.

Five years later, they hit $5M ARR with just 10 people and zero funding.

In this episode, Mari shares how giving their product away for free became their biggest growth engine, why she said no to their most requested feature for 5 years, and the unexpected channel that 5x'd their revenue almost overnight.

Try Tally for Free: tally.cello.so/QZlNWuM7kjG
Find Marie on X: x.com/MarieMartens

👉 Try Distribb for Free: distribb.io

Chapters:

0:00 - Intro
1:04 - From corporate job to startup life
6:44 - The failed startup before Tally
9:43 - How Tally was born during COVID
11:08 - Why simplicity is their biggest edge
13:11 - The freemium flywheel that drives growth
15:28 - How they decide what to build
17:46 - Getting real feedback from users
22:41 - Building in public: does it actually help?
25:37 - Key lessons from 5 years of building
28:39 - The channel that changed everything
32:35 - Making freemium actually work
38:28 - What they would do differently
42:27 - Building a team after years as a duo
47:31 - The future of Tally and the SaaS apocalypse
50:24 - How to protect your SaaS from AI