It took him 4 years to launch—then he hit $1M ARR in 30 days. | Siqi Chen, Founder of Runway

Siqi was the CEO of a hot startup doing $20M a year. Then COVID hit. Overnight, revenue went to zero. He had to lay off 95% of his staff. In the chaos of trying to save the company using broken spreadsheets, he found his next big idea: Runway.

But the path wasn't a straight line. Siqi spent four years building the product before fully launching.

In this episode, he breaks down why product taste matters more than A/B testing, and the insane viral launch strategy that overwhelmed his sales team and generated $1M ARR in a single month.

Why You Should Listen

• How a viral marketing campaign added $1M ARR in just 30 days.
• Why "user love" is a trap.
• Why it took 4 years of building in the dark to create the "Figma for Finance."
• How to mentally survive losing 95% of your revenue and staff overnight.
• Why startups are a test of stamina, not intelligence.

Keywords

startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, viral marketing, fintech, financial modeling, finding pmf, startup growth, founder stories, Siqi Chen

00:00:00 Intro
00:04:09 The COVID Crash: From $20M to $0 ARR
00:20:36 The V1 Trap: Great UI, Zero Willingness to Pay
00:36:25 The 4 Year Build: Comparing to Figma and Notion
00:46:53 The Viral Time Locked Jacket Launch
00:53:04 Adding 1M ARR in 30 Days
00:53:45 The PMF Moment

Send me a message to let me know what you think!