$10M ARR, one pivotal LinkedIn strategy, and countless failures.
Stefan Smulders faced the odds, pivoted, and built Expandi.io into a $10M ARR powerhouse.
But how can you do it too?
Join us in the latest episode of Grow with the Flow, where Ferdinand Goetzen and Clement Dumont sit down with Stefan Smulders, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Expandi.
Over the years, Stefan failed with multiple ventures before making a critical pivot that led to the creation of Expandi.io. He shares eye-opening insights from being deep in the LinkedIn trenches.
Within this episode, we also covered:
✅ Lessons learned from multiple failed startups
✅ LinkedIn’s best growth tactics
✅ Expanding to the U.S. market as an EU B2B SaaS
✅ How Stefan balances health and wealth
…and much more!
As always, we shared a “kudos” and a “facepalm” of the week, dove into a popular social post from our guest, and asked some rapid-fire questions.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, like, share, and rate wherever you listen — it really helps us grow and get found!
Stay tuned for more!
Useful links👇
Check out Expandi - https://expandi.io/
Connect to Stefan on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/smuldersstefan/
Follow The Growth Syndicate on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/thegrowthsyndicate
Check our website if you need help with building your growth engine https://www.thegrowthsyndicate.com/
Subscribe to our Substack for even more content https://thegrowthsyndicate.substack.com/
Highlights:
00:00 - Stefan's origin story
10:16 - How Stefan decided to pivot into Expandi
13:40 - Expandi's first version
16:24 - Did Stefan provide a framework for using Expandi?
17:27 - How Stefan (Expandi) beat the LinkedIn policy game
22:22 - LinkedIn best practices
31:39 - Expandi’s outbound philosophy
32:55 - Expandi's growth strategies
37:21 - Taking your European SaaS to the US market
42:08 - Stefan as a founder growing outside of Amsterdam
44:00 - Challenges of a founder with $10M in ARR
48:42 - Stefan's controversial opinion
49:50 - Stefan's biggest failure
51:00 - Who does Stefan learn the most from?
52:00 - Kudos and facepalms
55:30 - How Stefan balances health and wealth (LinkedIn post)
1:00:33 - Rapid-fire questions
#linkedin #bootstrapping #startups #saas
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