Jojo Hedaya, founder @ Unroll.Me
About this video
Jojo Hedaya, founder and CEO of Unroll.me, recounts building an email management tool from scratch without technical experience. He covers the company’s origin story, unconventional growth tactics (including a viral ‘share wall’ and branded toilet paper at conferences), challenges raising venture capital, and eventual acquisition by Rakuten, emphasizing the importance of believing in your product, being unconventional, prioritizing users, and surrounding yourself with great people.
Key takeaways
- Jojo emphasizes that you don’t need a technical background, relevant degree, or wealthy family to start a company—what matters is passion, belief in your product, and persistence through the inevitable rejection and setbacks that startups face.
- Jojo’s ‘share wall’ (asking users to share on Facebook before accessing features) became Unroll.me’s most critical growth lever, converting 90% of users who encountered it; he advises finding the right social incentive and timing the ask for when users have already experienced enough value to trust the product.
- Jojo stresses that hiring for culture fit and potential (‘diamonds in the rough’) rather than traditional credentials, combined with caring deeply about your team’s wellbeing and compensation, creates the foundation for a company’s success and ability to scale.
Episode details: published December 29, 2018 · 770 views · 28:33 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The business ideas, figures and results discussed are the hosts’ and guests’ own claims, shared as brainstorming and entertainment — not verified facts and not investment advice.
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