Interview with Productboard co-founder and CTO Daniel Hejl
We at Startup Weekend Prague have a great pleasure to see successful founders mentor participants. We sat down with productboard's Daniel Hejl to talk about his own experiences, as well as his advice to founders.
Could you please introduce yourself and your role at productboard and Startup Weekend?
I am Daniel — co-founder and CTO at productboard. In 2011, I attended the IPO48 event and I have immediately fallen in love with the startup community. In 2012, I attended one of my first Startup Weekends where I met my future co-founder Hubert. We started working together in 2014 and since then we have gathered over 2500 customers and raised $65M in venture funding. During our journey, we had a chance to talk to over 1000 product leaders and startup founders to learn about their challenges and what they consider to be the best practices for customer research and product strategy. Besides working on productboard I enjoy sharing those learnings as a mentor — especially during Startup Weekends given my history.
What inspired you to be part of the startup community?
As an engineer, I was initially excited about the idea of hacking for 48 hours straight and trying to build something from the ground up. But I quickly learned that building a successful startup is about much more than just knowing how to write code. You need to solve problems that people actually care about.
What is the one important thing you would recommend to young founders?
Fall in love with the problem you are trying to solve for your customers. The solution that will end up working might be vastly different from your initial idea, so don’t get too hung up on it that much. But a deep understanding of your customers and their needs is what will make you successful.
What is the most important quality for a person to have a startup?
Empathy. As a founder, your job will be all about working with people — your customers, investors, and employees. You will end up hiring people that are better than you for (almost) every aspect of your business. Your job will be to make sure they stick around and thrive.
What would be one idea you would like to see someone to work on at Startup Weekend?
Anything in the mental health space.
Find your most exciting new problem at the next SWPrague!
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