Johnny Boufarhat

Hopin: 4 to 820 employees and $5.65B in a year

Brianne says Hopin had ~4 employees at its first round; a year after she invested it had 820 employees and was valued at $5.65 billion, with founder Johnny building it because his compromised immune system kept him from in-person networking.

“when they initially raised their first round of funding, I believe they had around 4 employees. I caught up with Johnny last week and they're at 820. So I invested a little over a year ago. They're now valued at $5.65B.”

Hopin went 0 to $1B+ valuation in 10-12 months

Sam frames the episode: Hopin founder Johnny Boufarhat built a virtual-events platform that hit a $1 billion+ valuation in roughly 10-12 months, possibly the fastest ever, after COVID supercharged demand for moving in-person events online.

“this guy, his name's Johnny, started this business that went from zero to over $1 billion valuation in something like 10 or 12 months. I think that's— I think that's the fastest it's ever been done.”

Hopin: 230 employees and 50,000+ organizations on the platform

Boufarhat says that since launching in February, Hopin grew to 230 employees and had over 50,000 companies/organizations using the platform.

“we're 230 people now from an employee size perspective, sorry, a size perspective, and we have, you know, over 50,000 companies using the platform, well, organizations using the platform.”

Hopin's seed: $8M raised at ~$32M valuation from Accel

Boufarhat says Hopin raised about $8 million from Accel Ventures at roughly a $32 million valuation, agreed in November but closed by January/February right before the pandemic.

“We had raised, uh, from Accel Ventures, we had raised, uh, I think it was $8 million, $8 million at about $32 million valuation or something like that.”

Going remote breaks the old rules on how fast you can scale headcount

Boufarhat argues a fully remote model removed the constraints that normally cap hiring speed: no office moves every time you add 60 people, no limited local talent pool, and access to talent worldwide instead of just one city.

“a lot of the rules that were set beforehand in how fast you can scale were not the same as online. If you're hiring 60 people in a month, uh, from 4 in an office, you're gonna have to, uh, in, in real pro— in real life, you're gonna have to change offices like 10 times. Plus there's a limited pool of people that you can find, plus the notice periods, and you can't get people that can come within. So all these variables go away when it's remote. You can attract amazing talent from across the world.”

Steal thisGo fully remote to escape the office, local-talent-pool, and notice-period constraints that throttle how fast you can scale headcount.

Buy, don't build: lean on existing tools to scale fast

Boufarhat's core scaling mindset: never build infrastructure that already exists. Use cloud tools, agencies, and platforms (e.g. Salesforce instead of a homegrown CRM) so the team can move immediately rather than reinventing the stack.

“if you have to build your own CRM and not use Salesforce, it would take your company forever to start selling. But we used a lot of things that preexisted. That was the company mindset for this last 9 months. Anything that exists. So if we can use an agency that allows it, that does that for us, all that sort of stuff, let's do it.”

Steal thisDefault to buying or renting any capability that already exists off the shelf so your team starts shipping immediately instead of building infrastructure.

Hire managers, then directors, then VPs as headcount crosses thresholds

Boufarhat describes the org-building sequence he learned from other CEOs: hire managers first, add a director once you pass ~60 people, then hire a VP once you have enough directors. Once experienced leaders are in, 'the system is built' and they make everything else work.

“we hired managers and then as we got past 60 people, you realize you need a director. Well, you know, I spoke with enough CEOs who've done this because I had no idea what I was doing. And I still, you know, partially don't. So, you know, then you hire directors and when you have enough directors, you hire a VP and then, and then the system is built and you hire people that have done it before and then they make everything else work.”

Steal thisLayer in management as you grow: managers first, a director past ~60 people, then a VP once you have enough directors to need one.

Hire managers, then directors, then VPs as headcount crosses thresholds

Boufarhat describes the org-building sequence he learned from other CEOs: hire managers first, add a director once you pass ~60 people, then hire a VP once you have enough directors. Once experienced leaders are in, 'the system is built' and they make everything else work.

“we hired managers and then as we got past 60 people, you realize you need a director. Well, you know, I spoke with enough CEOs who've done this because I had no idea what I was doing. And I still, you know, partially don't. So, you know, then you hire directors and when you have enough directors, you hire a VP and then, and then the system is built and you hire people that have done it before and then they make everything else work.”

Steal thisLayer in management as you grow: managers first, a director past ~60 people, then a VP once you have enough directors to need one.

The 3% attendee-to-organizer conversion that made Hopin go viral

Boufarhat realized Hopin had a viral loop: 3-5% of people who attend an event on the platform go on to host their own. That high attendee-to-organizer conversion rate convinced him to raise venture money and push for explosive growth instead of bootstrapping.

“I realized that there was too high a conversion rate between attendees to organizers. Too many attendees, like attendee has a good experience to say, oh, let me host an event. We had a 3%, well, at the time it was 5%, now it's 3 to 4% conversion rate. I said, this is incredibly viral.”

Steal thisLook for a built-in conversion loop where users of your product become creators on it; a high attendee-to-organizer style rate is a signal to pour fuel on growth.

Two years sick at home reading The Hustle changed his pace of life

Boufarhat says being sick for two years and staying home listening to podcasts and reading The Hustle reset how he approached work. Coming out of remission, he felt he needed to do something fast, and the pace of his life permanently changed.

“because after I was sick for 2 years, I kind of like, and just kind of stayed at home, listen to podcasts, listen, read The Hustle, you know, stuff like that, you know, that you do. You know, I came out of it and I really, it was the perfect time for me to get out of the sickness because when it was through the remission, because I'm like, I kind of felt like I needed to do something very quickly.”

Sold his first app for ~$300K while still in university

Before Hopin, Boufarhat built and sold an app for around $300,000 during his university years, which he calls a ton of money for a 20-something but says in hindsight he should have kept building.

“Around $300,000.”

Hopin raised ~$180M total

Boufarhat says Hopin had raised roughly $180 million in total funding, which Sam notes means the business essentially has to become huge or risk failing given investor expectations.

“Um, a total about $180, I think, total.”

Do everything in parallel: 'life is short, go at full speed'

Boufarhat's operating philosophy after his illness: assume life is short and run at full speed, doing anything that doesn't strictly need to be sequential at the same time. He acknowledges focus matters and burnout is a risk, but credits this parallel-everything mindset for his pace.

“It was that life is short and, you know, go at it at full speed. And that was genuinely the mindset that I've taken in almost everything. I try not to, you know, anything that doesn't need to be done sequentially, I try to do it at the same time. And if, you know, if it doesn't have to be.”

Steal thisRun any tasks that don't strictly have to happen in order in parallel instead of sequentially to compress your timeline.