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  • I’m Jakob Knutzen, co-founder of Butter. Ask me anything! 💥

    Jakob Knutzen
    83 replies
    Hey everyone 👋 I’m Jakob and I’m currently working on Butter, which is a video conferencing tool that lets you plan, run and recap super-engaging sessions from one place. We’ve launched on Product Hunt twice before, so super grateful to be able to do an AMA here! I previously founded StreamCrux, a game-streaming startup. It failed 😅, but it’s where I learned how to run a fully remote company. Ask me anything about building remote companies, product- and community-led growth, facilitation, remote work and the future of collaboration!

    Replies

    Aaron O'Leary
    Thanks for taking the time to do this, Jakob! Butter has such a strong personality, especially for a meetings platform, how did you manage to do that so well? It's so fun and approachable!
    Yuliia Mamonov 🇺🇦
    Hi Jakob! Thank you for taking the time for an AMA. It's always super exciting! If you don't mind me asking, how do expect to overcome the competition in a highly-competitive niche like this, with giants like Zoom holding a giant share of the market? What helps you beat the competition? Were you worried or did you ever doubt the project in the beginning for these reasons? Thanks for answering!
    Kevin T.
    I worked with someone I thought was a friend until we had the most miniscule of disagreements and he went, as a friend said, "apeshit." How do you find trustworthy people to work with, especially if everyone is sweat equity to start?
    Eraj Ismatulloev
    Hi Jakob, thanks for the AMA. Butter has a slick UX and UI, kudos on that! Let's say that video conferencing is a "game", do you see Butter playing this "game" or changing the "game", and how so?
    Eraj Ismatulloev
    @jakob_knutzen1 great point, thanks for the insights! Agreed, on the synchronous collaboration tool part! I've done some pieces of training online in the past in which navigating between Zoom and Miro/Mural/Lucidspark was both tedious and time-consuming (new links, new tabs, etc.), hindering the training flow and causing extra confusion for people.
    Kovid Batra
    I am standing 15 days away from my PH launch what should I be doing today to make this launch a success?
    Kovid Batra
    @jakob_knutzen1 this helps. Also, do you have access to PH support groups like these. https://docs.google.com/spreadsh... If you would like to use this you can use this and share if you have access to any.
    Paul VanZandt
    Hey Jakob, I'm the founder of a new online collaboration tool, and we're still figuring out who is the best target to sell to. Who do you think has the most applicable use case for online whiteboards and task management tools? Thanks for connecting with the PH community!
    Paul VanZandt
    @jakob_knutzen1 Thanks for the advice, Jakob! At Fresco, we're trying to take inspiration from how you handle usability and engagement to make whiteboarding less of a slog. Good luck on the launch tomorrow!
    Valerie Krämer
    Thanks for taking the time, Jakob! 💜 I love Butter! Especially the waiting room experience, haha. What's your biggest challenge at Butter atm and how do you plan to overcome it?
    Varun Varma
    What is your core channel of acquiring customers?
    Edward Cederlund
    Hey Jakob, Butter is nice. I built a a product focused on crowd technology which generated authentic crowd noise and crowd visualization, which got acquired by Bizzabo a little over a year ago. Two questions if you don’t mind: 1. What’s the current state of the video conferencing market? 2. What are your thoughts on hiring talent overseas to manage any manual, time-consuming tasks to help your core team focus on strategy and results? Asking 1 just out of curiosity as I haven’t touched the space for a few months. And 2 because that’s what we did to do a lot more, with less, when building our business. Thanks 🙏
    Edward Cederlund
    @jakob_knutzen1 yes, I do like butter too ;) interesting! thanks for the answers. did not know Around was acquired by Miro. a follow-up question :) what are your plans for Butter moving forward given the consolidation you are talking about?
    Edward Cederlund
    @jakob_knutzen1 just saw Butter 2.0 launching soon. I guess we'll know tomorrow, then?
    Kyle Tummonds
    How did you come up with the idea? Also, what have been your biggest struggles so far?
    Mark Lamb
    Good on you for challenging the goliaths! So will butter have a free version like all the incumbents? How do you intend to gain traction against systems like teams and google meet when they are used by those organisations who are fully immersed in that providers tech stack?
    Mark Lamb
    @jakob_knutzen1 so you're going to try go with a land and expand approach? Just a thought - is there anyway you can implement the unique parts of butter into the existing goliath tools using their extensions/apps functionality? Or are the changes too core to the product functionality to be able to achieve that? Even if it were a cutdown experience, it could bridge the gap and work in your favour.
    Maria Yermolenko
    Hi Jakob! How do you motivate a fully remote team? Do you add any informal activities? Thanks!
    Ajay Yadav
    As a founder how do you manage personal finance when the product is not generating revenue?
    Vijay Singh Khatri
    Superb, Can you please help me with finding the best way to achieve your goals without losing concentration?
    Tehrynn
    Are you smooth like butter? Like a criminal undercover?
    Tehrynn
    This is a song reference, but a better question would probably be how important do you value onboarding with a new product?
    Jacky Kapadia
    Hey Jakob , Integration of Miro, MURAL, Google Docs, YouTube, and more. This help streamer to use all in one.
    Dipak Sisodiya
    Hey Jakob, thanks for taking the time. I was curious about what media server you guys are using to run your video conferencing solution?
    Angeli Zhao
    Flamme AI - The Couples App
    How do you cope with lack of motivation to work on somedays?
    Indra Kusuma
    Love butter since the first sight, game changer in video collaboration and give spices for facilitator to properly engage with online audience. I'm curious how you start the ideation process and innovate in such competitive spaces to find your value proposition compare to other platform? any hint what could be surprise launch for us butter lover 😁