
Ilan Cedillos
186 posts

Ilan Cedillos
@ilancedillos
leading comms @attio. formerly ran comms at @segment.















we just killed software engineering btw

I sat down with @nicolasosharp, founder of Attio, to talk in depth about how his company is disrupting the $80 billion CRM market. Attio has raised $116m, is 4x'ing ARR and is one of the fastest growing companies in Europe. We talk about: - Why Attio went against all conventional wisdom and spent years 3 years building the product before launching - Why Attio doesn’t hire ‘Software Engineers’ and who they hire instead. - How Attio chose investors who would back a long-term bet against multi-billion $ incumbents - How Attio is building CRM from first principles for the AI era - Who should you avoid hiring at all costs, and who should you hire for your startup And so much more. If you’re interested in learning about the story of how Nick built Attio into the incredible company it is today and is disrupting one of the most important software categories, you’re going to want to see this. Enjoy // Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:39 Why Attio spent 3 years building their product before launch 5:05 The Power of Building Systems, Not a Box of Features 9:05 How to know when it’s time to launch 13:30 Nick’s Playbook For a Killer Product Launch 18:09 How To Go From an Investor to a Founder 23:05 How Failure Led to Attio's Big Break 28:07 Why startups need to hire "Hidden Gems," 34:05 Fundraising 49:36 Why Attio Invests In Inexperienced Talent 55:07 The Case For Not Hiring Software Engineers (& Who You Should Hire Instead) 1:02:46 The 8 Persona Hiring Framework 1:09:05 How Attio doesn’t use OKR's 1:27:11 Where does Nick's Ambition and Grit come from? 1:36:59 How Attio is Building CRM from First Principles for the AI era 1:45:29 How to Successfully Market In A Crowded Industry 1:51:10 Breaking Down Attio’s Viral Marketing Strategies 2:02:15 The Change That Had The Biggest Impact on Customer Conversion 2:05:04 Why Attio created A “Reverse Trial” 2:10:16 Why Nick is building from London, not Silicon Valley 2:22:48 The 10-Year Vision for Attio


Really excited to share that @attio has raised $52m in Series B funding, led by GV with participation from @Redpoint, @Balderton, @PointNineCap, and @01Advisors. Over the past two years, we’ve seen rapid growth. 5,000 customers now run their GTM on Attio, including @lovable, @meetgranola, @modal, @replicate, @railway, and @public. We’re also on track to 4x ARR this year. CRM is entering its most exciting era. AI is reinventing the interface, killing manual work, and finally capturing customer context in full. But that’s only half the story. CRM isn’t just another tool. It should be the backbone of your GTM stack. If you want to scale, you need a CRM you can actually build on. This is our vision for Attio. We’re building a true AI-native CRM platform that can run code, integrate anywhere, and give every team the freedom to build their own applications, functionality, and GTM systems. Fully programmable, endlessly extensible and built for scale. If you can imagine it, you can build it. Grateful to my co-founder @byteofbits, and to the support of our investors: @mcbmichael (joining our board), @alexbard, @wanderingvc, @ric0seq, and @dickc. And most importantly, to our team, who’ve made all of this possible. The journey is just beginning. Back to building.







