AMA with Tracksuit Co-Founder Connor Archbold
What does it take to find product-market fit, scale culture and build growth flywheels? In KiwiSaaS’s first-ever Ask Me Anything, we sat down with Connor Archbold (Co-Founder & CEO, Tracksuit) to dig into the realities behind Tracksuit’s rapid growth; from early customer validation and product focus, to scaling team communication across global offices. It’s a practical session for SaaS founders and operators who want to sharpen their ICP, build momentum through channels, and keep culture strong as headcount climbs.
Key themes:
1) Founder time: meetings, focus and constant iteration
Connor gave a real-world look at the CEO calendar: early starts to overlap with the UK/US, then NZ/AU. With 12 direct reports, he described the need to keep iterating on how time is spent. A key reflection: founder priorities shift by season. For example, fundraising weeks look totally different to periods focused on product velocity or go-to-market optimisation.
“Every week you should be improving how you spend your time a little bit.”
2) “Blinkers” and saying no (even to big contracts)
One of Tracksuit’s recurring themes is focus: Connor said they’ve repeatedly said no to requests that aren’t brand tracking, even when the opportunity looked tempting. He framed this as the trade-off of protecting product–market fit: missed opportunities might sting in the moment, but chasing too many paths can dilute what’s working.
3) The early traction playbook: validate, pre-sell, obsess over outcomes
Connor walked through Tracksuit’s early customer journey: a hypothesis about the “source of truth” for brand value in a world where attribution was getting harder (the “cookie‑pocalypse”), and a belief that an affordable, always-on brand tracker would resonate. They started with a list of ~100 marketers/agency folks and had conversations. Their leverage was simple: they’d build it if people committed.
“By the 68th conversation, 11 people had signed the contract.”
From there, the “love” came from intensity: Connor and Matt weren’t just shipping features, they were solving the customer’s real outcome (like helping CMOs build credibility in the boardroom), even creating board-ready slide packs and offering hands-on support.
4) Product depth without complexity: niche the ICP, build for outcomes
Asked how Tracksuit adds advanced capability without making the product harder for everyone, Connor pointed to tightening the ideal customer profile (ICP) and building exactly what that person needs (rather than adding complexity “just because”).
5) Scaling beyond ~150 and “over-engineering” comms
Connor highlighted a key scaling inflection: as Tracksuit crossed 150 people, alignment became noticeably harder. What worked at 100 (repeating messages in meetings and docs) didn’t land the same way across a larger, distributed company and he said they didn’t do enough in advance to prepare.
“After 150… you say the same stuff, and people sort of read it and take it in their own direction.”
His warning was especially relevant for NZ companies with multiple global offices, where the comms “break point” may arrive even earlier.
6) Culture as a product: staying authentic
Connor was clear that culture doesn’t happen by accident. He said he and Matt committed to spending half their energy on what they build and half on how they build (team and culture). They talk about culture regularly in all-hands, keep People & Culture close to leadership, and seed new offices with “culture carriers” from the home base.
“Be authentic with your values… otherwise, when things get hard… no one knows what you stand for.”
7) Growth via channels: build the flywheel, don’t rely on one motion forever
In the final minutes, Connor called out something he thinks people underestimate: Tracksuit is “channel‑obsessed.” Early validation helped them understand which partners could amplify growth, especially creative agencies, who don’t buy the product but benefit from it and introduce it to their clients. He shared an example of agencies using Tracksuit data in pitches, and noted “40% of our revenue comes referred.” His bigger lesson: between major milestones, founders often need to unlock new channels because it’s too hard to scale linearly with the same go-to-market motion.
Key takeaways:
Protect your focus: saying no can be a growth strategy if it keeps you locked on the core problem you solve best.
Validate with real conversations before you overbuild, then ship and iterate with customer outcomes front and centre.
Create a compelling event to help early deals move (Tracksuit used cohort-based start dates for surveying).
Expect comms to break at scale (often around 150 people, or earlier when distributed) and plan for more structured alignment.
Treat culture like work: resource it, talk about it often, and make values real with examples as headcount grows.
Design for channels and referrals early: build the product in a way that creates partner value and a natural flywheel.
Watch the full discussion below to explore these insights in depth.