Leapsome’s co-founder Jenny von Podewils interviewed on the Startup Insider podcast

Listen to Jenny von Podewils’ interview on the Startup Insider podcast

Our co-founder and co-CEO Jenny von Podewils joined German podcast Startup Insider to discuss Leapsome’s 60-million Series A funding round — and lots more. Jenny shares our founding story, how we remained profitable, competitive, and fast-growing while bootstrapped, and why we decided to raise funding for the first time since Leapsome’s 2016 inception.

Jenny also shares insights on the future of Leapsome — including doubling down on our thriving US expansion with a New York office, the continuous development of our people enablement platform, and the challenges of growing from a startup into a scaleup.

Startup Insider focuses on news and developments in the German startup scene. You can listen to the full podcast episode (in German) here, or keep reading to find out the interview’s key takeaways!

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Why Jenny & Kajetan started Leapsome

Jenny shared that what motivated her and her co-founder, Kajetan von Armansperg, to start Leapsome, was the realization (after experiences in fast-scaling environments) that most businesses lack systems for company alignment and structured processes for employee development.

This foundational shortfall leads to deteriorating company cultures — and ultimately, organizations that can’t retain their talent. With market developments and the expectations of the Millennial and Gen Z workforce, the need for a people enablement solution like Leapsome is stronger than ever.
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⭐️ Leapsome is the only platform that closes the loop between performance management, employee engagement, and learning!
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Find out how Leapsome can help you develop your people and scale your business by chatting with our product experts.
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From startup to scaleup

Despite being bootstrapped until recently, Leapsome has been profitable almost from the very start. But considering our exponential growth and continuous US expansion, Jenny and Kajetan saw the perfect timing to raise our first round of funding.

Leapsome’s growth is comparable to that of other B2B SaaS companies our investors (Insight Partners, alongside Creandum and Visionaries Club) have partnered with — particularly remarkable given that this growth came from customer revenue, having bootstrapped to more than 1,000 customers.

Jenny largely attributes the fast development to the founders’ background in product engineering and sales, starting off with a small — but high-performing — team that quickly delivered and improved upon the product, and investing the cash flow back into the company’s growth.

With Leapsome‘s continued growth and success, our goal is to become the global leader in the people enablement industry.
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Leapsome’s foundations for success

Our co-founder attributes Leapsome’s success to multiple factors, which she shared to support founders hoping to grow sustainably and build a thriving organization. 

Jenny mentioned the need to set company OKRs that align business goals and purpose within the organization. She also explained the importance of defining company values, what makes a team successful, and what to focus on moving forward — having clear alignment on where the company is going and how it will get there is crucial for success.

Our co-founder also talked about Leapsome’s focus on hiring people that support our company values and will contribute to our existing culture, as well as how essential it is to live these values as founders.
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The journey ahead

The next steps for Leapsome with the funding include further expanding into the US market (where we’re already thriving!), opening a New York City office, and continuously developing our people enablement platform — with many new features to support employee learning, rewards, and forming habits.

Jenny feels excited about the upcoming changes and challenges we could address in the future, including scaling our processes, keeping our unique company culture as we grow, and upholding our values of transparency and ownership.
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⭐️ Learn more about Leapsome’s Series A funding round!