Spenser Skates: How Perseverance Paid Off for Amplitude
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
Spencer Skates, CEO and co-founder of Amplitude, shares his journey from a failed voice recognition app called Sonolite to building a billion-dollar analytics company. The episode explores his counterintuitive approach to startup survival: studying Y Combinator batch outcomes and discovering that most successful companies nearly quit before breakthrough moments. (00:18) Spencer and his team committed to surviving at least two years, believing that persistence would eventually shift probability in their favor. The conversation covers Amplitude's struggle to find product-market fit, the importance of identifying truly desperate customers, and Spencer's evolution from engineer to salesperson to large company executive.
- Core theme: The power of persistence and truth-seeking over narratives in building successful companies
Speakers
Spencer Skates
Spencer Skates is the co-founder and CEO of Amplitude, a publicly traded analytics company valued in the billions. He graduated from MIT in 2010 and participated in Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch with his voice recognition app Sonolite before pivoting to Amplitude. Along with co-founder Curtis, Spencer won MIT's largest programming competition called Battle Code, demonstrating his technical expertise in algorithms and distributed systems.
Mike Maples Jr.
Mike Maples Jr. is a partner at Floodgate, a prominent venture capital firm, and host of the Pattern Breakers podcast. He focuses on identifying founders who radically change the future and is the author of the book "Pattern Breakers," exploring counterintuitive mindsets that drive breakthrough success.
Key Takeaways
The Two-Year Survival Rule
Spencer discovered through research that most successful Y Combinator companies reached a point where rationally they should have quit, but those who persisted past this critical moment dramatically increased their chances of success. (05:25) He studied past YC batches and found that companies reaching the two-year mark had significantly higher success rates. This insight shaped Amplitude's core strategy: commit to surviving at least two years regardless of early setbacks. The key learning is that survival itself becomes a competitive advantage as most competitors quit during the difficult early phase.
Focus on Truly Desperate Customers
Rather than trying to convince lukewarm prospects, Spencer learned to identify customers who were genuinely desperate for Amplitude's solution. (14:56) Early success came from ex-Zynga product managers who already understood data-driven product development and immediately saw Amplitude's value. When Brett Terrell asked "how much does this cost?" instead of needing to be convinced to use it for free, Spencer realized he had found the right customer segment. The breakthrough was charging $1,000 per month to someone who responded "wow, that's so cheap."
Learn Sales Through Doing, Not Books
Spencer emphasizes that sales skills, unlike programming, cannot be learned effectively through books alone. (22:10) After struggling for over a year without paying customers, he hired a sales coach and switched to full-time selling, which led to growing from $0 to $1 million ARR in nine months. He argues that great leaders like Sam Altman are fundamentally salespeople, selling vision to customers, employees, and investors. The key is getting hands-on coaching from experts rather than relying on theoretical frameworks.
Transform Yourself Multiple Times as CEO
Building a successful company requires fundamental personal transformation at different stages. (32:16) Spencer describes going through multiple identity changes: from engineer to salesperson to manager to large company executive. The hardest transition was giving up the founder mentality of leading from the front on every problem and instead enabling others to lead through clear mission and purpose. This evolution is emotionally difficult because you must abandon traits that made you successful in earlier stages.
Choose Your Character and Commit Fully
Spencer reflects that at 21, you can choose to be any character in any story - the corporate executive, the adventurer, the family man - but you can't be everything at once. (39:51) Inspired by Norman Borlaug, who fed billions through agricultural innovation, Spencer chose the ambitious entrepreneur path. The key insight is selecting a meaningful "why" that can sustain you through years of difficulty and making sure it honors the gift of your time, not just how it appears to others.
Statistics & Facts
- Spencer studied Y Combinator batches and found that two years after Demo Day, roughly one-third had clear success, one-third had shut down, and one-third were still operating but unclear on success. (05:46) This research formed the foundation for his survival strategy.
- Amplitude grew from $0 to $1 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in just nine months after Spencer switched to full-time sales and hired a coach. (20:28) This happened at the start of 2014 after nearly two years of struggling.
- Amplitude currently has $335 million in revenue and approximately 800 employees, demonstrating the company's massive scale since those early survival days. (35:08)
