How Clickup Went from 0 to $20M ARR… in 2 years

That’s right. In 2 years, ClickUp, a project management tool, generated 85K paying customers and gained a $4B valuation with annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $20M.

It gets even more interesting when you realize they did that while competing with the likes of Asana, Monday, and Trello.

Let’s take a look at their strategy.

The 6 steps ClickUp took to define their product-market

1) Determine your target customer

ClickUp’s target customer was literally anyone who wanted to be more efficient at managing their project.

2) Identify needs that current solutions do not satisfy

In 2017, there were many project management tools. But they only did one thing well, therefore, people had to use different tools.

3) Based on step #2, ClickUp created a unique value proposition

“One app to replace them all and help you save one day every week.“

4) Specify the features of your minimum viable product (MVP)

Based on market feedback, ClickUp created a set of features their MVP had to have.

5) Develop an MVP

Once they established the features, they developed their MVP, which started as a web app.

6) Put the MVP in front of real customers

Finally, ClickUp tested product-market fit by putting their MVP in front of real customers.