Butter

How Three Founders Revolutionized Virtual Workshops with Butter and Secured $3.2M Funding

January 31st, 2025

Founded By

Jakob Knutzen

Days To Build

Founders

Profitable

Yes

Days To Build

Year Started

2020

Customer

B2B

Founded By
Jakob Knutzen: Days To Build
21: Founders
3

Profitable
Yes: Days To Build
21: Year Started
2020

Customer
B2B

Who is Jakob Knutzen?

Jakob Knutzen, the co-founder of Butter, hails from Scandinavia and has a background in strategy consulting with Bain & Company. He previously co-founded a digital marketing agency in Indonesia before moving into the technology space with Butter, leveraging his expertise in remote work and workshops.

What problem does Butter solve?

Butter is solving the problem of cumbersome and overwhelming online workshops by providing a platform that simplifies the process, allowing facilitators to focus on engaging participants rather than managing multiple tools. This helps users by streamlining their virtual workshop experience, reducing stress, and increasing participant engagement.

Butter.us

How did Jakob come up with the idea for Butter?

As Jakob Knutzen and his team explored opportunities in 2020, they were driven by their previous hardships with a failed startup and a desire to genuinely understand what remote workers needed. Their past experience taught them the importance of identifying the right problem first. They started by holding workshops, not just to impart knowledge but to listen intently to remote workers' struggles, gaining firsthand insights into the challenges of virtual collaboration.

The pandemic-induced shift to remote work highlighted significant pain points in conducting online workshops, particularly the technical overload when using existing tools like Zoom. This led them to imagine a platform that would streamline things, and this vision became the seed for Butter. They engaged with over 300 potential users, talking extensively to facilitators faced with these exact challenges, and used their feedback to refine their idea.

A key lesson from Jakob’s journey was actively validating ideas early by collaborating and conversing with potential users, which proved invaluable in shaping Butter. Despite facing the challenge of distinguishing their vision from competitors like Zoom, the team stayed focused on creating a niche product tailored specifically for complex workshops and remote training, enabling their users to concentrate on interaction and content rather than technology. Through persistence and openness to learning, they transformed these insights into a coherent and valuable solution.

How did Jakob Knutzen build the initial version of Butter?

In building Butter, the team embarked on creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within just a few weeks, utilizing a lean approach to rapidly test and iterate their virtual workshop platform. They leaned heavily into their co-founders' expertise, with one focusing on development, another on product design, and another on growth strategy. Key to their development was conducting hundreds of user interviews using tools like Octopus CRM for outreach and leveraging insights from these discussions to refine the product. Initial prototypes faced challenges such as technical overload for facilitators and difficulty in engaging participants, which were iterated upon through continuous feedback loops. This development phase, particularly the transition from concept to MVP, was intensive and rapid, taking only about three weeks to launch an initial version.

What were the initial startup costs for Butter?

Funding: Butter secured a pre-seed round, followed by a seed round in February 2021, including participation from Project A and recognized angel investors. They raised a total of $3.2 million.

What was the growth strategy for Butter and how did they scale?

Product-Led Growth

Butter has consistently focused on a product-led growth strategy. This means their platform is designed to be self-explanatory and engaging to encourage user adoption. Approximately 35% of new users have participated in a Butter session before signing up themselves. This high re-engagement rate indicates that users find the experience valuable enough to introduce it to their colleagues or networks.

Why it worked: Product-led growth builds a strong foundation by allowing the product to market itself. The positive user experience encourages word-of-mouth referrals, contributing significantly to user base growth without direct marketing costs.

Organic Search and SEO

Butter has been effective in driving traffic through organic search and SEO. They focus on optimizing for both branded and non-branded keywords to increase awareness and organic reach. The content strategy includes blog posts that help improve search visibility and establish thought leadership in the virtual workshop space.

Why it worked: SEO offers a sustainable channel for acquiring users organically. By targeting keywords relevant to their audience, Butter can consistently attract potential customers actively searching for solutions related to virtual workshops and meetings, leading to steady and cost-effective traffic over time.

Referral Programs

Butter employs referral programs to leverage existing users to bring in new ones. Their referral schemes, facilitated through tools like cello.com, have substantially contributed to their growth by providing incentives for users to share Butter with their networks.

Why it worked: Referrals are powerful because they utilize trust and word-of-mouth, often leading to high-quality leads and conversions. The benefit structure for referrers motivates users to act as brand ambassadors, helping expand the user base efficiently.

Community and Content

Butter has developed a strong user community and content strategy. This includes nurturing their community as spaces for shared learning and practice among users, enriching user engagement and retention. Content creation, including regular social media updates and insightful blog posts, supports this ecosystem by continuously engaging the audience.

Why it worked: A vibrant community can drive engagement and retention, as users benefit from shared experiences and knowledge exchange. Well-crafted content attracts, educates, and retains potential customers, while also supporting SEO efforts, thereby reinforcing brand loyalty and engagement.

What's the pricing strategy for Butter?

Butter offers a free plan for small teams and educators, alongside paid plans starting at $12 per host monthly for more advanced meeting and workshop features.

Butter Pricing

What were the biggest lessons learned from building Butter?

Engage Early with Customers: Butter's founders conducted hundreds of user interviews before fully launching the product. This crucial step helped them deeply understand customer needs, leading to a more refined and successful product. Aspiring founders should focus on early and continuous customer engagement to steer their product development effectively.
Embrace Product-Led Growth: Butter's strategy of relying heavily on organic growth and user referrals proved successful, with a significant portion of users having been introduced to the tool before signing up. This shows the power of a product that markets itself through satisfied users. Ensure your product provides an exceptional experience that encourages organic sharing and recommendation.
Remote Work is Viable with the Right Culture: Building a fully remote international team, Butter focused on high levels of psychological safety and clear communication. This enabled them to attract top talent globally and foster a committed and cohesive team culture. For remote teams, prioritize establishing clear communication standards and an inclusive environment.
Iterate and Stay Flexible: Butter's ability to constantly iterate on design and functionality while being receptive to user feedback shows the importance of flexibility. Regular updates and improvements based on feedback kept them aligned with user needs. Entrepreneurs should maintain a mindset open to change and ready to pivot when necessary.
Facing the Big Competitors: Even with giants like Zoom in the market, Butter thrived by focusing on a niche—workshop facilitation—providing specialized features that larger platforms didn't offer. This highlights the advantage of focusing on a specific niche and excelling in it, rather than being a generalist.

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