20VC: The Chess.com Memo: The Most Untold Story in Startups; Scaling to $100M Revenue, 150M Members and 700 People, All with Zero Venture Funding | Erik Allebest, CEO @ Chess.com

Erik Allebest is the CEO @ Chess.com, the #1 online chess service on the planet with more than 150+ million members and 15+ million games played each day. Erik has scaled the company to over 700 people and $100M+ in revenue with no venture funding.

In Today’s Episode with Erik Allebest:

1. From Unemployable to $100M+ Revenue Founder:

• How did Erik make his way into the world of tech and startups?

• Was his MBA worth it? How does he advise others on whether to get one or not?

• What does Erik know now that he wishes he had known when he started?

2. Scaling to $100M Revenue with No Venture Funding:

• Why did no one want to invest in Chess.com in the early days?

• What did Erik do differently as a result of not raising any venture funding?

• What would Erik have done if he had money from the start?

• What are Erik’s biggest pieces of advice to founders with funding today?

3. Hard Lessons Scaling to 150M Members:

• What are 1-2 of Erik’s biggest lessons on how to scale users with zero budget?

• What customer acquisition worked? What did not work?

• How important was COVID and The Queen’s Gambit to memberships and sign-ups?

• What are the single biggest mistakes Erik sees founders make on customer acquisition today?

4. Parenting, Marriage, Metrics and Money:

• Why does Erik not care about money or capitalism today?

• How has Erik’s style of parenting changed over the years? What works? What does not?

• What does Erik believe is the secret to marriage? What have been his biggest lessons?

• Why does Erik hate metrics? If so, how does he run the business towards goals and output?