How I Built A $1.4B Software Giant Called AmplitudeㅣSpenser Skates, Amplitude

Dive into the story of Spenser Skates, who, after a successful stint at MIT and an initial foray into the startup world with Sonalight, a voice recognition app, identified a groundbreaking opportunity. This realization led to the founding of Amplitude, a company focused on enhancing how businesses understand customer interactions through product analytics. Initially, Amplitude emerged from the challenges and insights gained at Sonalight, highlighting the importance of deeply understanding user behavior and the critical role of product data in driving business decisions.
Under Skates' leadership, Amplitude has not only achieved a top ranking in product analytics but has also expanded its offerings to include experimentation and insights-driven Customer Data Platforms (CDP), catering to over 1,800 customers, including tech and retail giants. This journey showcases Skates' evolution from an engineer intrigued by the potential of technology to positively impact society, to a CEO steering a company integral to the digital product development landscape. Skates' approach, characterized by a deep commitment to data-driven decision-making and a culture of humility and growth, exemplifies the transformative potential of aligning technology with customer needs to drive innovation and business success
#Amplitude #SpenserSkates #entrepreneur
00:01 Intro
01:32 How I Quickly Pivoted from a 'Pretty Good' Idea to a $1.4B Idea
04:25 Lessons Learned from the Failure of My First Startup, Sonalight
08:16 How to Successfully Acquire Your First Customer and Monetize
11:58 How To Become the Market Leader
16:13 Advice from the Entrepreneur Who Built a $1.4B Company at Age 36
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[@leadgenjay]

Spenser's pivot from Sonalight to Amplitude is a classic example of how agility can redefine success.

[@neugey]

I hope Spenser is right about it never being too late. Starting my business at 52. I've been a consumer in this space for over 25 years and starting on my service totally unlocked the passion I always had for solving this problem and intertwined with passions from my childhood. To be frank I wouldn't have had the stones to do this 10 or 20 years ago. You have to be willing to stand on your own in a huge way.

[@dopemusic6414]

Everybody has their unique journey and timeline. You have 52 years of knowledge and life experience that can't be learned as a 20- or 30-year-old. This is the perfect time for you to start. Good luck!

[@mpumelelongcamphalala4006]

Let's go! About to start mine too... It's scary but we all have to start somewhere... Let's go!

[@bullionmaster]

good on you mate. 👍

[@brandonreed09]

Just make sure the problem you are trying to solve is a widespread problem and not just a problem for you. It's also better to build a pain killer, not a vitamin.

[@GrantonTheFly]

​@@brandonreed09no one is so unique that their problem won't relate to anyone else. Scratching your own itch is a great way to start, because the Internet allows you to reach others with the same problem.

[@El_Diablo_12]

3:00 importance of solving problem you care about 5:50 why it’s important to talk to customers and deeply understand them That was really good. No fluff, only value.

[@stash_necklace]

Thank you for all of these interviews 😍

[@megatimstar]

These videos are unbelievably good. Please continue with these interviews, extremely valuable to be able to hear from these leaders in their fields. Thank you EO team

[@ugochukwuchinwuba1418]

Focus, dedication, life commitment 👏🏼👏🏼

[@alfredgreem6872]

Thanks for this ❤

[@CodeSnap01]

Humble and true entrepreneurship

[@aaronaBio]

Jezzz. I’m inspired! What a great video.

[@ahsanmohammed1]

Excellent. Really need info on those key inflection points. First prototypes. First customer. First five. First ten. First fifty. Hundred. Thousand. Million. And the nuances around them.

[@bshimekit]

A wonderful insight! Tnx 4 sharing.

[@CSgof___yourself]

Amplitude is awesome. The insight we get into our mobile applications is next level. Product, engineering and support are all up in that dashboard.

[@BransTiong]

Crazy stuff 🔥

[@kafenaded]

Love his ambition, I got a lot to learn. What pain or problem are you solving? I am curious.

[@EcomCarl]

Spencer Skates' journey with Amplitude is a testament to the power of pivoting based on deep customer insights. 🚀 Entrepreneurs should take note of the importance of adapting and evolving their products to meet real user needs, a strategy that can propel a startup from initial struggles to remarkable success.

[@StephenOgu]

This is amazing

[@sumitbansal3238]

Thanks!

[@johnngugi550]

great.. thanks for sharing.👍👍

[@chanellioos]

Hell yeah! I love this guy!

[@UsernameR8]

Great content

[@deoarlo]

Everything he said is so spot on

[@kartik8n8]

Very practical advice when he asks to consider where one is in their personal space. 10k hours practice, expert coaching, enthusiastic family support as per Harvard review, insightful.

[@yuncita123]

09:27 my fav part

[@PSModelling]

This is a good example of how your direction can become emergent once you embark upon a path. What I don't quite get in this example is that surely it should be relatively obvious that the quality of the voice app is causing high churn, I mean just using it yourself should give you some idea how useable it is and if you'd keep using it.

[@akathir]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Coming Up 01:32 - Chapter 1: How I Quickly Pivoted from a 'Pretty Good' Idea To a $1.4B Idea 04:27 - Chapter 2: Lessons Learned from the Failure of My First Startup, Sonalight 08:19 - Chapter 3: How to Successfully Acquire Your First Customer and Monetize 12:00 - Chapter 4: How To Become the Market Leader (What You Need to Beat the Competition) 16:15 - Chapter 5: Advice from the Entrepreneur Who Built a $1.4B Company at Age 36 18:13 - Outro

[@NezihBenJemia]

Thanks

[@johnsebastian6358]

inspiring 😊

[@sitrakaforler8696]

A life commitment 🎉

[@myestery]

One of my goals is to be featured on this channel at some point.

[@shanushankyy]

All the best :)

[@iirgendsonTyp]

Impressive

[@MySaluto]

I'm doing SaaS for small companies, I have no idea how to talk with customers, even thought about it make me halt. With no talking, I can;t iterate across products, so I have stuck with more and more features, it's obvious for me that you need to talk about it and try to sell it, companies can do without it. So, I'm just stuck, and there's no help from my networks of programmers like me, and no cofounders skilled with sales. I'm pretty sure that product worth my efforts, but currently MVP and no sales. Zero sales...

[@SaturdayWinter]

Don't focus on product dumping or features, focus on understanding how your product can solve XYZ problem for your ideal customer personas. Learn their industries, what they're focused on, and the challenges & painpoints that they experience and are trying to solve. Sales is hard, but all it is at the end of the day is just conversations trying to uncover pain.

[@Elmesal]

Lol his face is literally the fusion of Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura XD

[@Astral100]

Where did get the money to do all of that? Especially develop a product for years without even seeing the first dollar?

[@mrxtreme005]

He received Investments from investors

[@Arestkaramazov]

YC

[@thebluebeyond2329]

I am willing to sacrifice everything to be successful 😂 in Tech. I want this trade off.

[@ssic_network]

One question I’d like to ask him as this is a question I have for most of these types of founders as Iam one myself at SHARK SPORTS INVESTMENT CLUB …..but how do you go about discussing with engineers 🧑🏼‍💻 about how to create this model without them stealing your idea. You guys always gloss over that which is a VERY PARAMOUNT part of the story 😅

[@videoshamza]

Idea is one thing. Implementing is a whole different ball game. It takes a lot of grit, resilience and a bit of luck to get it off the ground

[@ssic_network]

@@videoshamza bro this is totally irrelevant to my question. For the simple fact the idea is the foundation. You run the risk of ppl who may actually work harder than you or even are more resourceful than you. So my question to him stands as is….

[@videoshamza]

@ssic_network a founder with his own unique idea must be devoted to making it a reality. Startups are not easy so if a founder has a great idea but thinks someone could work harder than Me and commercialise it, perhaps the founder is just an idea guy. Great founders are able to do 'whatever it takes' to turn their idea into a reality. In some (v few) circumstances idea could be a patent and that's different. Great founders also prioritise speed over other things. Sometimes the idea can be copied and still the large market size can absorb multiple players. Hope this helps

[@TestAutomationTV]

Massive scaling

[@ytb-theo.y]

do anybody need a video editor

[@RichReportcom]

He sounds like a chat bot, "Make the world a better place..." etc.

[@rahmanmusah4470]

wow. Could you please interview African Entrepreneurs?

[@dopemusic6414]

Elon Musk.

[@jessemwakajumba6552]

Tope Awotona - Calendly Segun Otulana - therapy brands (sold for 1.2 Billion) CloudTrucks - Tobenna Arodiogbu And many others! Would be great

[@kcm624]

Why is it necessary to be working so hard though? Losing touch with friends, making whole life about the company.

[@mrsabbih]

He explained it

[@stupidguy97]

That is his choice; you don't have to do the same.

[@deprivome938]

No one wants to live an average life and would like to build generational wealth for there families. When your selfish and only care about yourself you would ask this question

[@eliodrallag4806]

"I'm okay with that" that's what he says.We have our own too.

[@philip3707]

It's not. A lot of people start normal companies and live normal lives. It's only part of building a billion-dollar company.

[@shreejeshp19]

Great journey! A co-founder myself where we are facing an issue of scaling due lack of investor interest. Any Angel investors here? We have 100k users, revenue generating and a product within media and entertainment world…

[@fabdan5745]

Hey there! What’s your product about? And, do you have a link that takes me to it [your product]? I’d love to know more about that awesome product you’ve built.

[@AB-fq4mr]

#1 sign you’re a trust fund baby: It takes you years for it to occur to you you should charge for a product… This reminds me of that one episode where Paris Hilton thought Walmart sells walls.

[@kw6143]

That’s a cynical stake. Given that the founder came out of Y Combinator, it’s most likely that they raised a lot of money from VCs. Many VCs are happy with hypergrowth at a loss (Blitzscaling). The idea is to dominate the market first and then monetise.

[@stupidguy97]

#1 sign you're low-class and will be forever broke: you write a comment like this.

[@ProffesorGomez]

As soon as they mention “college” and “friend co founder” I click off

[@ProffesorGomez]

@@Rammyrichwhat does that have do with mindset lol, I’m not interested in academic and team effort storys. I want the lone wolf story simple as that not mindset problem, just interest. I’ve herd enough of these story’s to soak up learn but not enough of the non academic lone wolf story’s, those I believe hide better treasure. “Don’t judge and the shall not be judged” brother

[@Dan-tq4nj]

@@ProffesorGomez hahaha lone wolf? Not having a co founder just means u do twice the job. Is your inner alpha male wolf (or whatever is going thru your head) ready to do this?

[@ProffesorGomez]

@@Dan-tq4nj lmao it’s not about alpha stuff lol that terminology is stupid. I’m simply talking about not everyone can find a cofounder and at some point it un optimal to keep trying to find one.

[@biggestdummie]

He did not build it. The team of people working there built it.

[@StingSting844]

Building a product is not just code. That's 20% of the work especially in startups

[@philip3707]

@@StingSting844 And there are a lot of talented product people working there and always have been.