How This B2B Technology Startup Reached Profitability in Its First Year of Business

How one tech startup reached profitability:

• For Checkin.com, a tech platform that enables consumers to sign up for brands and services online, hiring top talent proved integral to reaching profitability.
• Solving an unsolved problem better than competitors also paved the path to profit.
• Tapping into growing industries to piggyback on that growth is another way to drive profit margins.

The ability to generate earnings, not just sales, is elemental to the long-term viability of any business, yet many startups fail to make that leap. Checkin.com, a tech platform that enables consumers to sign up for brands and services online, managed to reach profitability in its first year in business, something few startups achieve. Here, Kristoffer Cassel, CEO and founder of the B2B startup, shares its path to profitability.

By solving ‘genuine problems for our customers, we were able to grow faster’

We’ve been lucky enough to have a profitable core business since we were founded back in 2017.

One key element for Checkin.com was that we identified a broken and somewhat forgotten piece of the online puzzle: how to make it easier for consumers when they want to become users to sign up for brands and services online. Businesses spend billions of dollars on attracting visitors to their brands or services, but often put very limited thought into how to help these visitors to actually become users of their service.

This was a problem we decided to be laser-focused on, and thereby improve a small — but very important — part of the internet. Our software solves that globally with one single and quick integration leading to more users signing up for the services. It really shines for products that are global, meaning they need to provide a great experience for users from many countries, and in regulated environments.

Some startups might develop software that they think people will want, but by the time they have finished polishing their product, it doesn't solve any genuine problems and fails. By following the principle to build what solved genuine problems for our customers, we were able to grow faster.

[Read: Experts Reveal Why These 6 Emerging Startups Are Poised for Long-Term Growth]

Piggy-backing on growing business sectors to grow along with them: ‘Our revenue scales with the success of our customers’

We have been lucky enough to focus on verticals that are growing rapidly as industries, such as fintech, iGaming and subscription services. Fast-growing industries usually also means rapidly changing markets and challenges. This fits well with our key ability to work extremely close to our partners when developing our software to make sure that it really solves regulatory compliance and user onboarding in the best way that suits them. This means that we work with partners that grow, and that grow even faster when using our software for checkins. The more users we help these services onboard in a user-friendly and compliant way, the more we increase revenue for the both of us. Our revenue scales with the success of our customers.

[Read: How These 3 Brands Turned Pandemic-Prompted Innovation Into Sales]

Recruiting top talent is critical to success

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, no one takes over the world unless you recruit absolute top talent to all parts of your company.

I think the most important factor behind every startup success is to really know your customers and thereby give yourself the opportunity to help them in areas they might not even know they had problems with. With one ear constantly towards the ground, your company can innovate and iterate over and over and find a successful market fit.

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