Chris Bakke, a serial entrepreneur known for his candid and often humorous insights into the startup world, has built and sold several companies, including Interviewed to Indeed and Laskie to X (formerly Twitter). Through his prolific presence on social media, particularly X, and his newsletter, Bakke shares a wealth of knowledge on entrepreneurship, marketing, and navigating the tech industry. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.

Infographic for "Lessons from Chris Bakke".

On Startups and Entrepreneurship

  1. Learn from the problem before selling: At Interviewed, Bakke and his cofounders learned from their own hiring workflow, then sought customer feedback before treating their approach as a product. A founder’s problem is a starting point for discovery, not proof of market demand. — My First Million — Chris Bakke Interview.
  2. Interviewed grew from hiring work: Bakke says the team built work-sample tests in Google Docs to hire nontechnical staff at 42Floors. They later turned that internal process into Interviewed. — My First Million — Chris Bakke Interview.
  3. Specific content attracts a specific audience: Bakke advises choosing a clear niche for social content so that the people who follow are interested in that topic. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  4. Founder-led sales as a learning process: Bakke describes selling the first $2 million of Interviewed’s annual recurring revenue with its founders and using early conversations to understand buyers before scaling sales. — My First Million — Chris Bakke Interview.
  5. Keep a thesis but allow the idea to change: When assessing founders, Bakke expects a confident direction but recognizes that the original idea may change as the team learns. — The Acquirers Podcast — Chris Bakke.
  6. Choose a problem space that holds your interest: Bakke says he and recurring cofounder Daniel screened ideas partly by whether they would want to work on them for years, as well as market size and time to first revenue. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  7. Build relationships over time: Bakke credits long-running industry relationships with helping him find opportunities and says he enjoys helping founders and aspiring investors without charging them. — The Acquirers Podcast — Chris Bakke.
  8. A smaller exit can still be substantial: Bakke argues that a sale in the tens of millions can be an excellent outcome for founders, employees and early investors, depending on financing and ownership. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  9. Time in an industry compounds: Bakke says years spent working in the same market helped him understand its customers and build relationships; this is a benefit of experience, not a guarantee of success. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.

On Acquisitions

  1. Map potential buyers with stage in mind: For a seed-stage company, Bakke suggests there may be roughly 20–30 plausible strategic buyers; later funding rounds can narrow that list as the exit price rises. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  2. An investor can become an acquirer: Bakke says Indeed invested in Interviewed before acquiring it. This establishes a prior relationship, not that it necessarily made the acquisition smoother. — My First Million — Chris Bakke Interview.
  3. Look for new problems inside a larger company: After an acquisition, Bakke says founders can find opportunities to contribute inside the acquiring company, which has different resources and constraints from a startup. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  4. Smaller sales can reward a team: Bakke argues that a $25 million–$100 million sale can be meaningful for founders and employees when ownership and financing leave room for them to share the proceeds. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  5. How a social post led to the Laskie sale: Bakke recounts posting ideas about hiring on X, receiving a direct message from Elon Musk and eventually selling Laskie to X. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.

On Fundraising and Investors

  1. Raising more can close exit options: Bakke asks founders to consider which sale outcomes become unattractive or impossible after another financing round increases expectations and the price needed for a return. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  2. Match funding to the likely outcome: Bakke argues that some companies suited to moderate exits may fit smaller angel-backed rounds better than large venture funds seeking outliers. — The Acquirers Podcast — Chris Bakke.
  3. Venture funds need portfolio outliers: In Bakke’s account, even a strong multiple on a modest investment may contribute too little to a large VC fund; that differs from an angel investor’s return calculus. — The Acquirers Podcast — Chris Bakke.
  4. Back founders before revenue, but not usually before an idea: Bakke says he sometimes invests before revenue and prioritizes founder quality, while rarely investing before founders have any concrete idea or direction. — The Acquirers Podcast — Chris Bakke.

On Marketing and Growth

  1. Founder-led social content generated leads: Bakke says posts from his personal account became a major source of Laskie leads and reports substantial attributed revenue; those figures are his account, not an audited result. — Cyber Patterns — Chris Bakke Interview.
  2. Use humor to win attention: Bakke treats jokes and satire as ways to stand out online; his direct account is about gaining attention and conveying a story, not a promise that humor will close sales. — Peter Yang — Chris Bakke Interview.
  3. Memes can hold attention: Bakke says memes were useful in his X content strategy and describes dwell time as a platform signal in 2024. That is his account at the time, not a timeless algorithm specification. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  4. Constrain the first-customer list: Bakke recommends identifying 10–20 likely accounts when seeking initial customers so outreach can be tailored instead of spread across a generic market. — A Better Way to Get Your First 10 Customers.
  5. Consistency helps develop a voice: Bakke advises posting regularly, paying attention to what an audience finds funny and learning to remix relevant ideas over time. — Peter Yang — Chris Bakke Interview.
  6. Reply with a relevant idea: Bakke describes joining live online conversations when he has a genuine take; in one case, a timely meme reply drew attention. This supports a concrete participation tactic, not the captured claim that replying is always the best growth method. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  7. Humor preceded the marketing result: Bakke says he began posting jokes and observations for fun; the resulting audience later brought Laskie business leads. His account does not make every post a planned sales campaign. — Cyber Patterns — Chris Bakke Interview.
  8. Know who will get the joke: Bakke advises creators to consider which audience would find a post funny before trying to mimic an online style that does not fit them. — Peter Yang — Chris Bakke Interview.
  9. Have an opinion before joining a trend: Bakke says commenting on a live event works better when the creator already has a genuine point of view than when a position is manufactured for attention. — Cyber Patterns — Chris Bakke Interview.
  10. A public voice can create opportunities: Bakke attributes Laskie leads to his social posts and recounts a series of hiring-related posts that brought him into contact with Musk before the X acquisition. — Cyber Patterns — Chris Bakke Interview.

On Work and Life

  1. Product reviews at X: Bakke says Musk participated in weekly product reviews and often gave direct feedback on the team’s work. The captured claim that he quickly reversed wrong decisions is not established by the inspected passage. — Peter Yang — Chris Bakke Interview.
  2. A present-father priority: In a 2025 interview, Bakke described being present for his children as a priority when weighing whether to pursue another extremely demanding company-building goal. — Moneywise — Chris Bakke Interview.
  3. Consider the effect of a company on others: Bakke says he cares about the effect a founder and company can have, including the opportunities created for a team. This is a narrower, directly sourced idea than the captured unattributed question about one’s life work. — Chris Bakke’s Indie Hackers AMA.
  4. A simple personal note system: Bakke describes using slides, spreadsheets and email to collect and work through ideas. This is his personal workflow, not a recommended productivity system for everyone. — Cyber Patterns — Chris Bakke Interview.
  5. Learn from online arguments: Bakke says he initially argued with critics online and came to see that those exchanges could distort how he felt about the platform; the lesson is his experience, not a rule that all criticism should be ignored. — Cyber Patterns — Chris Bakke Interview.

More Learnings

  1. Design an opinionated product: Bakke prefers software that guides users through a sequence of useful steps rather than leaving them with a blank canvas and no direction. — The Acquirers Podcast — Chris Bakke.
  2. A story helps a sale get attention: Bakke says selling involves earning attention and telling a story; his online humor was one way he practiced that principle. — Peter Yang — Chris Bakke Interview.
  3. Show a buyer a tailored demo: In his first-customer playbook, Bakke suggests short, customized video demos to make a product concrete for a prospective account. — A Better Way to Get Your First 10 Customers.
  4. Host a small industry dinner: Bakke describes gathering roughly six to ten people from a target industry over dinner to learn from them and build connections. — A Better Way to Get Your First 10 Customers.
  5. Cold calling can still work: Bakke points to a company he knew that, in 2024, reported about $10 million in annual recurring revenue with cold calling as a major acquisition channel. — A Better Way to Get Your First 10 Customers.
  6. Make specific introduction requests: Bakke encourages founders to ask investors and existing contacts for introductions to particular target customers rather than making vague requests to a network. — A Better Way to Get Your First 10 Customers.
  7. Treat algorithm advice as time-bound: In a 2024 interview, Bakke described X as rewarding content people spend time reading or watching. This is his then-current account, not a verified permanent rule of the platform. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  8. Why Bakke saw a hiring opportunity at X: Bakke argued that X could connect employers and candidates using the platform’s existing network; his thesis was a 2023–24 product opportunity, not a proven present-day hiring-market duopoly. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  9. A recurring cofounder: Bakke says he worked with Daniel on multiple companies and used that partnership to test new ideas. The inspected passage establishes continuity, not the captured claim that their skills were complementary. — The Split — Chris Bakke Interview.
  10. Founder and operator are different roles: Bakke says he likes both operating and founding but is especially drawn to starting companies, where early ambiguity and building work suit him. — The Acquirers Podcast — Chris Bakke.
  11. Expect ambiguity early: Bakke describes the earliest stage of a startup as chaotic; founders must make decisions before systems and roles have settled. — The Acquirers Podcast — Chris Bakke.
  12. Help founders without making every interaction transactional: Bakke says he enjoys helping founders, aspiring angel investors and prospective early employees without charging them, partly because he values the relationships that follow. — The Acquirers Podcast — Chris Bakke.
  13. An unscripted voice can draw an audience: Bakke says he began posting candid jokes and observations because he enjoyed them; the audience later created business opportunities. Avoid treating “authenticity” alone as a measured causal mechanism. — Cyber Patterns — Chris Bakke Interview.

Learn more:

  1. Chris Bakke: Going from $0 to $2M ARR with Founder-Led Sales in 18 Months
  2. The Split: Chris Bakke on Selling to Elon, Small Exits, Working at X and Meme Marketing
  3. Chris Bakke: A Better Way to Get Your First 10 Customers
  4. My First Million, Episode 107: Chris Bakke, Serial Entrepreneur and Idea Machine
  5. (Ep.90) The Acquirers Podcast: Chris Bakke – Startup Guru: Multiple Exit Entrepreneur On Raising And Investing Venture And Angel Capital
  6. Cyber Patterns: Jason Levin Interviews Chris Bakke
  7. Peter Yang: The Art of Shitposting and Working with Elon Musk at X
  8. Moneywise: Chris Bakke on Net Worth, Being a Present Dad and Building Companies
  9. Chris Bakke: Indie Hackers AMA on Building and Selling Interviewed