Rhyming years and changing gears: what long-term building taught us

Modern startups are largely built for exits. Funding models, hype cycles and attention spans have all coalesced around 3 to 5 year timeframes. Building a product with such short expectations affects the way a company operates, and by extension, affects virtually every decision in the product.

There is another approach.

Thinkst Canary has intentionally rejected external funding through our existence. For over a decade, we've focused hard on one product (or two if you really squint). This has taught us lessons about product-building, and guided company culture in unexpected ways.

We've learned to celebrate legacy code, obsess over company-culture, and fixate on customer love. Each year is different, but there are parallels in the trials and tribulations from our past.

In this talk I'll share these experiences, offer a view on how it's worked for us, and argue that exits don't need to be the end goal.