Building a 10 person unicorn - Max Brodeur-Urbas, Gumloop

Company Overview & Growth Strategy - Gum Loop, founded a year and a half ago, focuses on workflow automation and has scaled to nine people after raising a Series A as a team of two [1][9] - The company emphasizes product-led growth (PLG), relying on inbound interest rather than outbound sales, which contributes to rapid scaling [11][12] - Gum Loop's customers include large companies like Instacart and Shopify, with Shopify rolling out the product company-wide [10][11] Hiring & Team Culture - Gum Loop prioritizes hiring exceptional individuals and maintains a small team to enable faster movement and minimize meetings [9][10][16] - The company uses "work trials" to assess candidates, integrating them into the team for several days to evaluate fit [16][21] - Gum Loop fosters a culture of rapid iteration, challenging the team to ship features quickly, while also emphasizing fun and team-building activities like company retreats [31][32][33][34] Internal Operations & Automation - Gum Loop minimizes meetings to allow employees deep focus time for building product [22][23][24] - The company automates internal processes using its own product, Gum Loop, to improve efficiency [26][27][29] - Gum Loop uses AI chatbot data to inform product decisions, automating tasks that would otherwise consume significant employee time [29]