Before we start. One question. What’s the best way to start a $15B company?

It’s to solve a problem for yourself.

And this is exactly what Andrey Khusid and Oleg Shardin did when they started Miro.

So without further ado. This is the Story of Miro✨

It’s 2005. Andrey and Oleg have just launched Vitamin Group, a design agency that is offering its clients web, product development, and app design services.

And Vitamin Group is doing great. In just a few years, winning several awards for their outstanding work.

But there was one problem… The team needed a way to be able to communicate ideas to clients who weren’t in the same room.

In an in-person setting, it was easy to share ideas with clients on a whiteboard, but doing this with traditional online tools was very restrictive. The fluidity of IRL brainstorming sessions was getting lost in digital translations.

So the idea for Miro was born.

The idea was to build a platform where distance would no longer be a barrier, ideas could flow seamlessly, and visual collaboration would be as natural as sketching on a piece of paper.

So Andrey and Oleg built the first version which they called RealtimeBoard (even now Miro is registered under this name if you check). It started as a basic whiteboard tool to effectively communicate ideas, both internally and externally with clients.

It was not nearly as dazzling as Miro both in its branding and product. But it didn’t need to be. It was an internal tool just for their own agency. However, it planted the seed for what Miro would become.

It solved the first-hand problem they were dealing with, allowing them to:

1. Test their own solution

2. Realize how big of an opportunity building a collaborative browser-based whiteboard was.

It didn’t take them too long to realize how important of a tool RealtimeBoard was. So in 2012 they quickly decided to build a company around the product to close the gap in the market.

Their mission?

To empower teams to create the next big thing.

First, they built a B2C product which got some traction. Compared to now, growth over the first few years was sluggish, though.

But then in 2015, they released a B2B product. This time it found Product-Market-Fit and the company took off.

3 years later, they reached $5M ARR and raised their Series A of $25M.

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But then they realized that RealtimeBoard was still totally under the radar. So, they hired a GTM team across sales and marketing.

This helped them see how the product was performing in the market. With this data, in 2019, the company rebranded and took inspiration from the renowned Spanish artist, Joan Miró.

This is how Miro was born.

When 2020 came along and the pandemic hit, it amplified the need for a remote visual workspace. This is when Miro struck gold with a fine-tuned product that had a well-positioned brand.

Since then, Miro has rapidly become more relevant with remote work and by now it's easily the most popular digital whiteboarding tool in the world.

And a great story of how solving a problem for yourself can lead to extraordinary outcomes…

Summary

Miro's visual collaboration product has gained popularity amongst the design community and has grown significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, competitors such as FigJam, Zoom Whiteboards, and Canva Whiteboards have emerged to capture the digital whiteboard market.

Now that some workers are returning to the office, Miro continues to serve a hybrid workforce by offering hundreds of product integrations and thousands of templates made by Miro and Miro Experts through the “Miroverse”.

To capture more users, and remain relevant in a hybrid work environment, Miro is working on expanding its product offerings to accommodate the pre- and post-meeting experiences.

Do you think Miro’s future is bright, or will they go bust soon?

Thank you for taking the time to read today's story.

If you liked this one, please let me know by replying to this email. I read everything!

If you didn’t like something or have suggestions of what to include/exclude next time, please let me know as well. See you next week!

— Mehmet Karakus