This podcast episode was published on 3/26/24. You can listen to it here.
In this episode of the Inflection Podcast, Anebi had the pleasure of speaking with Yana Welinder, the Founder of Kraftful, a company that provides AI-powered tools for product teams. Yana shares her journey as a product manager and leader, which led to the inception of Kraftful. She discusses the various inflection points and pivots that shaped Kraftful into what it is today.
Kraftful's Start
Kraftful started as a solution to standardize user experiences in product teams, which Yana perceives as a need during her time as Head of Product at a previous company. Despite not initially focusing on product hunt as a growth channel, Kraftful has had multiple successful launches on the platform.
Pivoting
Yana also talks about the strategic partnership with OpenAI and how early access to GPT technology helped shape Kraftful's direction. The company's decision to double down on a single GPT-powered feature, which gained significant traction, was a pivotal moment. This move required communicating with users about deprecating other features, which turned out to be a positive experience due to the supportive community of early adopters.
YC Community
The conversation then shifted to Kraftful's experience with Y Combinator (YC). Yana describes the intense but rewarding journey, highlighting the ongoing benefits of being part of the YC community, such as smoother fundraising and hiring 70% of the Kraftful team through the YC platform.
Do What Doesn't Scale
Anebi and Yana also discuss the importance of doing things that don't scale, a concept popularized by YC's Paul Graham. Yana emphasizes the value of engaging directly with users, even as a Founder and CEO, to build a core user base that loves the product.
To learn more about Kraftful, click here.
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