On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes John S. Kim, Co-Founder and CEO of Sendbird.

Sendbird is the world's no.1 chat API, serving over 100M monthly chat users across leading companies such as Reddit, Delivery Hero, Yahoo!, Rakuten, Paytm, Accolade, Livongo, and DHL.

John shares the four techniques that enabled his company to become a billion-dollar company at breakneck speed.

Specifically, John covers:

2:37 - Career pivots from software engineer to gamer

4:35 - What made him start the company

8:33 - Why he applied to YCombinator

11:18 - How he acquired his first customers and found market fit

15:21 - Things he learned to help sell better

21:06 - What it means to become a platform company

23:39 - Deciding when is the right time to add additional products

25:00 - The four techniques founders should apply to business and life

35:38 - How to transition from individual contributor all the way up to executive

40:03 - Helpful lessons in creating autonomy for the team

42:02 - The Human Capital Framework

44:48 - Emotional capital, cognitive empathy, and the trade-offs of agreeableness

52:11 - Empowering your teams to be more and more autonomous

59:55 - Key steps to making successful hires

1:01:54 - The order people should be hired in

1:04:28 - What he wishes he did more of and less of

1:01:18 - Navigating his biggest fear as a leader

1:11:36 - Top KPIs that leaders should measure

Learn more at https://tractionconf.io

Connect with John S. Kim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doshkim/

Learn more about Sendbird at https://sendbird.com/

This episode is brought to you by:

Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money, faster, without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.

Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca

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4 Rules to Navigate Uncertainty & Build a Billion-Dollar Company with John Kim, Sendbird

Traction