David Darmanin

Business books on leadership often cite certain qualities that make a great leader, such as discipline, focus, determination, and perseverance. It feels like the stories of “great” leaders start with waking up at 5am, plunging into ice baths, or wearing the same style of outfit every day.

But in my experience, great leadership is not only about your daily routine but also about your willingness to connect with your team on a human level. In other words, to be vulnerable. 

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by all the tasks you have to complete, your jam-packed calendar or a looming deadline that you can’t seem to start—or that feeling like you can’t possibly do it all?

Who hasn’t, right? 

Last year we wrote about how Hotjar went from idea to 60,000 beta signups in 6 months. As we inched closer to the end of the 6-month Hotjar beta phase, we had no idea what would happen once we started asking for payment.

We had just over €100,000 left in the bank after paying salaries for 9 months. I had worked as a consultant during this time, billing clients from the company and not taking a salary myself. I had planned to keep these funds available so we could weather a storm should Hotjar not take off.

Luckily, we were covering our operational costs within two months of stopping the beta. Having seen this result, we had the confidence to invest more personal funds into Hotjar and have a small treasure chest to build the team from. This allowed us to continue building on the success of our beta and ultimately reach €1 million in ARR in just 6 months.

With 17,385 users in Hotjar and only a small team to build and support the product, as well as run the company – we quickly realized we have to be smart and efficient in the way we communicate with our users. We're also obsessed about delivering great service.

So how do we deliver top-notch service with limited resources? Here is the setup we use: