Building Without Funding: Control, Trade-offs, and Discipline

Adam Cooper (00:01.813) Okay, so today I'm joined by Tayfun Bilsel, the founder and CEO at clinked.com, a business collaboration and client portal platform. And Typhon, welcome to the Fractional CFO show.

How are you doing today? Tayfun Bilsel (00:16.3) Yeah, thanks for having me. Glad to be here, Adam.

Adam Cooper (00:19.063) No, thank you for joining and yeah, really looking forward to this one. And today we're diving into what it really looks like to grow a tech business without external funding. And we're going to talk about some of the trade-offs and the benefits, the pressures and the discipline that comes building with that constraint and why sometimes that can actually help create a stronger business.

So Tayfun, start, would you mind giving us a couple of minutes about your background, your journey and how how Clinked first came about? Tayfun Bilsel (00:49.39) Yeah, of course. I'm an entrepreneur with Cambridge MBA degree.

I also have a master's in software engineering and more importantly, the driving force behind Next Generation client portal called Clinked. And so a little bit about Clinked. So we have quite a bit of history actually. So picture this, it's year 2008.

At the time, a tiny startup came up with the idea of Facebook, but only for your company. And that little tool called Yammer. it was the time when many startups came alive. And this particular startup was really important because it spreads like wildfire inside organizations.

And then just a few years later, Microsoft came along and buys it for a billion dollars. and it was around that time we set up this business and that's how we started in 2008. And initially as a web operating system, then the platform became more of a social collaboration tool. And we started selling packages for smaller companies, businesses.

around $20 a month. But at the time, in the beginning, no one understood the value, no one paid for it. And eventually we put it. So we niche down and understood our market a little bit and a little bit more than needs of our clients.

And now we have several thousands clients across 40 plus countries worldwide. And we are one of the leading platforms for client services and client portal space. Adam Cooper (02:52.203) Okay, that's great.

And obviously you've got quite the track record there, and particularly in the time that you're talking about in 2008 and the early 2010s, the decision to build without raising investment was probably made you slightly unusual compared to some of your peers at that time. So let's talk about that decision. itself because that must have felt like the default path I guess at the time was to raise funding. So what made you decide early on to avoid that path and to avoid external funding?

Tayfun Bilsel (03:29.952) Of course, the beginning, I wasn't sitting there thinking like, I'm going to bootstrap this business from day one. It was more practical than ideological. So I still needed the money to build the products.

But the opportunity came from a company that I used to work for and from their CEO who believed in the idea early on. Yes, instead of raising capital from venture capitals or angels, the first funding was really a customer revenue. So it came from the first customer. And I was fortunate enough to have this first customer.

And as a result, we started getting early revenue. I think there is something very powerful about that. starting with the customer changes, the mindset completely. Even if you don't yet have a full finished product, you have a promise, you have a prototype, and most importantly, you are solving a real business problem for someone.

And that early relationship gave us some direction and we weren't building features in isolation or guessing what the market wanted. So we were building a real product with a real feedback from day one and delivering value to our first customer immediately. Adam Cooper (05:06.766) Yeah, now that's great.

And it sounds like absolutely a conscious decision from day one and something that evolved. And I wonder, did you ever feel pressure from your early customers to move faster? Did you ever feel pressure to sort of raise extra funding? Or was it a case of you saw the advantages of being customer funded, as you say?

Tayfun Bilsel (05:32.536) Yeah, there are different pressures. mean, one of the disadvantages of doing this early on is you're shaping the product based on this one customer feedback, right? And then it may not be the direction you want to go in the future.

So there are risks associated with this. So you need to rely on the promise that other customers will be like this particular, like, you know, first customer. If not, then you are cooked. Basically, you need to go back to the drawing board and then recreate the entire product.

So there are risks for that. And we had this problem, actually. So that's why we pivoted after this first customer. So we had to redesign the product.

But again, we were fortunate enough to get this first customer and funding revenue early on so that we can actually We can create prototypes, we can go to other customers. So I think that really helped us a lot. Adam Cooper (06:39.598) Absolutely, and I wondered, obviously you mentioned the timeframe where you launched around 2008 and that was obviously the financial crisis at that time.

Did that influence your decision around whether to raise funding or not? Tayfun Bilsel (06:56.098) Yeah, we wanted to raise funding, maybe not from day one, but after a while. we went to some investors and of course, like financial crisis did not help.

And at the time it was really, really difficult to raise funding, especially as a UK startup. Maybe if you were in America, US companies, tend to get early funding. So it's a bit more startup friendly if you are located in the US. So in the UK, it's a little bit more difficult, especially if you are not like, know, science company or, you know, doing something to do with like, you know, hardware innovation and so on.

So it was a bit difficult for B2B software companies at the time. Adam Cooper (07:52.495) Yeah, no, absolutely. I can imagine.

And do you feel that it's, you mentioned needing to pivot and sort of testing following that first customer. How, again, a lot of companies at the moment, know, in the climate we're in at the moment, which is comparable in many ways to 2008 in terms of fundraising, will be looking at funding themselves through customers and bootstrapping. Any lessons around how operating in that way helped you prioritize where to allocate your resources? Because you obviously got a limited set of resources in far greater way than you do if you're externally funded.

So how did you prioritize that product development in that situation? Tayfun Bilsel (08:41.87) So yeah, you need to prioritize things early on. Again, you don't have unlimited resources and funding.

And initially, yes, you need to prioritize based on what customers wanted. Again, after the initial first customer, the first 5, 10 customers are extremely important because the type of feedback you get from them then you can start shaping your product, you can prioritize things. And you look for common patterns. So not like very specific features they wanted for their specific company or needs.

It's more about finding patterns. Are there really common problems between those 5, 10 customers, your first 5, 10 customers? And solving them will help you scale. much better.

Adam Cooper (09:42.486) Yeah, that's really interesting. did you, so did you at the time feel that that was a benefit of having having to design the product in the light of what those customers wanted? Or did you feel that was a constraint at the time?

Tayfun Bilsel (09:58.862) It was a constraint because you had an idea about what you want to build, but that idea may not be what customers wanted. So you need to all the time, almost every day you do a self-check. Am I doing the right thing?

Am I building the right product? It's not about what you want. It's more about what customers want. At the end of the day, if you cannot...

meet their needs, no one's going to pay for it. I think having this check and getting this check this regularly will help you build the right products early on. Adam Cooper (10:40.366) I love that, I love that daily self-check as a way of using the constraint to help with the focus inside the business, that's so important and a real lesson for anyone listening who's in a similar situation today.

Lots of founders talk about growth but less talk about efficiency. I think it's something that we as CFOs when we're working with our clients definitely notice. And obviously having sort of a capital constraint and having a runway that is effectively constrained by virtue of it being your own money forces that, know, forces that efficiency. How did that change your mindset in terms of actual runway when that money was your own and your customers that you're working towards?

Tayfun Bilsel (11:30.062) Building Clinked without large external funding made us very conscious about capital efficiency from day one. When you're growing through customers revenue cash flow becomes incredibly important and you learn quickly to spend carefully and focus on what really creates value. For us financial discipline was never about avoiding investments but more about being intentional with it.

So whether it was product development, marketing or customer success, we always ask ourselves, is this sustainable long-term? And can we keep it long-term? especially customer acquisition costs and marketing spend, we tried to avoid simply buying growths. And we focused more on retention, customer value, and building a product people genuinely wanted to keep using and recommend to others.

Adam Cooper (12:37.346) That's really interesting. And I think that focus on customer retention is critical for all businesses. So the fact that you had that in mind from the outset, yeah, that's super, important.

And do you think that as a result, you focus more on long-term metrics when, you know, I think about the unit economics and the key performance indicators you're looking at for each customer? Did that really allow you to dive down and focus on those key performance indicators? in a more focused way. Tayfun Bilsel (13:08.

952) Yeah, definitely. When you have, of course, when you have handful customers in the beginning, then you have regular communication with them, face to face. You even go out and have lunch, dinner with them. And then you have very close relationships with first customers.

But over time, we had to build Excel file to keep certain information before you switch to CRM and things like that. But yeah, we always keep certain metrics in mind. But overall, yeah, the feedback has to be positive. Otherwise, if you start seeing red flags, you need to immediately address them.

Otherwise, yeah, you don't want to lose your customers earlier. Adam Cooper (14:05.932) Yeah, no, absolutely. And do you feel, obviously you said at the outset, you're now in 40 plus countries, you've got thousands of clients.

Do you think that lean mindset has continued? Have you been able to retain that as part of the company culture to date? Tayfun Bilsel (14:24.494) Yeah, definitely.

Even now, like when I have time, I still take a flight to go and visit our customers wherever they are. If they're in, most of them are in the States or Europe or UK. mean Australia is a little bit difficult, but like, you usually if they are Europe, US, I tend to go and visit them regardless of their size. So sometimes they are small, sometimes they are big enterprises.

So I tend to go and have connection with them. So this is in addition to our standard, like onboarding, in addition to our customer success approach and everything. So we have a team of customer success team and they regularly communicate with their clients. But I personally also like to get involved getting know our customers firsthand.

Adam Cooper (15:26.636) Yeah, so important. And just changing tack slightly, I wondered if, obviously you launched in 2008. So, you know, we're talking 18 years here and you've grown fast, given that you're now in 40 countries and the ability to have been able to sustain that growth over that period through all of those ups and downs of the sort of economic cycles that we've had is very impressive.

Do you think there's been a trade off in terms of that independence? It's brought you that control and you've been able to pivot when you've needed to to where you've needed to focus based on the customer revenue. But has there been a trade-off in terms of that control versus speed as a result of your funding decision? Tayfun Bilsel (16:10.

99) Yes. So staying independent gave us a lot of control over the product, the culture, the pace of growth and the decisions we make. And we could focus on building long-term value for customers rather than chasing short-term targets or investors' expectations. And I think one of the biggest benefits is clarity.

We've always been able to stay very customer-driven. and make decisions based on what we genuinely believe is right for the business. And the trade-offs, of course, is speed. So when you grow independently, you cannot do everything at once.

So you have to prioritize carefully. And sometimes growth is slower because resources are more limited. But for us, that slower and more deliberate growth created more stronger foundation. forced us to stay disciplined and efficient and very close to our customers.

Adam Cooper (17:15.968) And I can imagine at times that's been challenging, right? To maintain that patient, softly, softly approach when you've seen competitors who might have been more heavily funded growing more aggressively. Has that been a challenge?

Tayfun Bilsel (17:28.492) Yeah, this has always been a challenge. But I think having competitors are a good thing. So if you don't have any competitors, I you need to question your product yourself.

And it's a red flag. So I think having competition is a very healthy thing. But you need to differentiate from the competition. So you need to focus on your strength.

and then you need to build on it. So that's what you do. But yeah, just my advice to other fellow founders, please don't be scared of the competition. Just embrace it and then look at what they do well and then just identify your strengths and then focus on your strengths.

Adam Cooper (18:17.442) No, that's great advice. I think we've got our clip there for the promo, so thank you for that. in terms of the, like we mentioned, obviously you've been going for 18 years and we're in a tough economic climate at the moment.

With that sort of view in mind, do you think things are shifting back towards more of a sustainable model, towards more of a self-funding, customer revenue driven model? Tayfun Bilsel (18:45.346) Yeah, definitely. And if possible, because we did it early on when we were building certain features, we asked our customers to fund it.

And we said, yes, you're paying subscription. We know that. And you want this extra feature. And would you be happy to sponsor this feature?

So would you be happy to pay extra for that feature? If the answer is no, then you need to question the validity of that requirement. Like, know, is it really what they wanted or like, you know, they're just saying for the sake of, you know, saying it or do they really want this thing? So that's the kind of early validation.

So if they're willing to pay or sponsor that particular feature, that's a good sign. Then you need to check if you can... sell the same feature to other customers. that's also another kind of validation, is it scalable?

And so these are very important questions to ask when you identify the customer's needs. Adam Cooper (19:58.433) Yeah, I love that. I love the fact that you're using the customer requests as almost a focus group in terms of being able to then share that with other customers and see whether they're willing to pay for it, whether there's an appetite there and the scalability as a result.

Really, really useful. And I wondered in terms of, because I find it fascinating, we work with both funded businesses and self-funded businesses. I often wonder how... that changes the mindset around risk from an entrepreneur's perspective and that coupled with the fact that entrepreneurs are generally sort of know pro-risk rather than adverse risk as which CFOs can often be so it's always an interesting sort of view that I have and I wondered how you think your sort of perspective on risk has changed as a result of you being self-funded, being customer funded and not having that that financial safety net, I guess, of investors.

Has that changed you, do think? Tayfun Bilsel (21:02.498) Yeah, so one advantage of staying independent is that gives you the freedom to think long term. And we never had the pressure to grow at all costs or optimize for short term metrics just to satisfy, you know, the people or investors.

And that changes how you make decisions. So we still take risks, but they tend to be more thoughtful and sustainable. And we always ask ourselves, will this still make sense for the business and our customers in five, 10 years and not just the next quarter? Because if you're a VC funded business, you're chasing quarters.

So are we growing like, you know, 10, 20, 50 % every quarter? So that puts intense pressure on your company, not in healthy way. And I think it's very risky thing to do chasing like quarter. So you need to build your company for the long term.

And also it creates healthier relationship with growth. You focus more on building something resilient and strong customer relationship, good retention, solid cash flow, rather than chasing vanity metrics. And of course, external immersors can bring real value, huge value as well, especially in terms of like, know, scaling and experience. But for us being independent allowed us to build at a pace in a way that felt authentic to the business.

Adam Cooper (22:47.278) Now I'm sure. And I wondered, you mentioned there about focusing on more thoughtful decision making, more sustainable decision making. One thing I have seen and I wondered your view on is around sort of decision paralysis or analysis paralysis where if you don't have that pressure of an external investor and every spend feels significant and you are You're the CEO, you're the founder, you're making that decision.

How do you avoid that? How do you ensure that you're still keeping that momentum and that pace? Tayfun Bilsel (23:20.782) Yeah, when you're spending your own money, your hard earned money from real customers, it makes a huge difference as opposed to like, you know, spending someone else's millions.

And you need to be more careful with it. You need to prioritize better. then, and that extra pressure, extra stress. I think it's healthy, you know, then it helps you to make the right decisions in terms of like, you know, priorities.

Adam Cooper (23:58.839) Yeah, it's nothing like spending your hard-earned money to make you do that, absolutely. And I wondered, looking back on it, as we say, we're in a similar climate as when you started your business, but you've obviously been through a few cycles now. There's probably things that you repeat and you do again, and there's probably things that you change.

So I'm wondering, for other founders who are listening in, what do you think you would do differently if you were starting again from today? Tayfun Bilsel (24:26.338) Yeah, one thing I learned is that bootstrapping works really well when you're solving a clear problem and get close to customers early. having even one real customer at the beginning changes everything, changes perspective, and they help validate the idea, shape the product, and fund the next stage of growth.

And if I could do something differently, I probably would have invested earlier in certain areas like marketing and scaling processes. So, because in the beginning, I thought like, you know, the product would sell itself. which is not the case. Even though you have an amazing product, you still need to tell people about it.

Right. So the marketing is, I believe, the highest priority. in terms of early marketing. So even before you build your product, you need to start marketing your products.

You need to put it in front of maybe it's just the prototype, maybe the early version of your product, but you need to start marketing early on. So that's a big lesson for you because we spent the first couple of years just purely trying to build. the best product we could. And which is a mistake.

You need to start thinking about sales and marketing very early. Very early. Adam Cooper (26:07.296) Okay, that's great advice.

And then I guess the follow on question from that is you've bootstrapped the whole way, but when do you think founders genuinely should raise capital? Is it if you need that financing for marketing or sales, as you say, is there another scenario when you would recommend to founders not to take the bootstrapped route and to try raise funding? Tayfun Bilsel (26:35.854) If I would do it, I would raise funding during scaling.

So you need to first prove that you have a product that brings value to your customers. Then you get a few of them and then you need to build a strategy about like, how can I scale this business? Then prove yourself that you can actually scale with maybe tiny little budgets so you can test the market. Then when you are certain about, if I bring investors to this business with X amount of capital, then I would most likely get, you know, 5X, 10X results.

Then at that point, you should consider raising capital. So don't raise capital. just for the sake of raising capital. I know it's really appealing and it's really satisfying.

I would like to be able to say to my friends and everyone say, I raised like five million, 10 million. I think it's an amazing achievement. You are good at communicating the business, you're good at convincing investors, et cetera, which is really good skill to have. Can you actually sustain that?

Because if the next quarter and the following quarter, if you don't deliver the results, then you know what's going to do next, what's going to happen next. And that's why I'm saying you really need to raise capital when you are certain that you can scale this. Adam Cooper (28:26.21) That's brilliant, brilliant words of wisdom there to end on.

Really, really helpful, I think, and useful for the audience. And now I'll just move on to our final section, which we call our Business Book Bonus section. And this is where we ask our guests if there's a business book or a podcast or piece of content that's had a real impact on you and helped you during your journey. So Tayfun, is there anything that you would like to recommend to our listeners with that in mind?

Tayfun Bilsel (28:53.442) Yeah, there are a few books. I'm sure most founders know already Lean Startup is one of them. So it's a good book to read because it talks about the actual customer value before having a fully developed product.

So all the things discussed today. But my favorite by far is The Predictable Revenue from Aaron Ross. And that tells you how you turn your business into sales mission. I think it might be an older book, so it's not one of the latest new books, but it's really a good one.

Adam Cooper (29:38.154) Excellent, that's great. So lean startup and predictable revenue, which we've not had before from Aaron Ross. So we'll put those in the show notes for anyone so we can find them.

And before we wrap up Tayfun, is there anything we've not covered today that you'd like to share and where can people find out more about what you and what Clinked are doing? Tayfun Bilsel (29:57.602) Yeah, the best way is to check our websites and connect me on LinkedIn. Just type my name, Tayfun Bilsel.

So I'm quite active on especially LinkedIn. yeah, and visit our website. we, again, we provide white label client portal to professional services, financial services. And again, we are...

of the leading platforms, please check it out and connect with me on LinkedIn. Adam Cooper (30:31.86) Excellent, that's great. Well, thank you Typhon so much for joining me today on the Fractional CFO show.

Really appreciate your openness, your insight and your time. Thank you. Tayfun Bilsel (30:41.23) Thanks for having me, Adam.