Life360's 17-Year Journey to $3B | Chris Hulls, Founder and CEO
Life360's 17-Year Journey to $3B | Chris Hulls, Founder and CEO  
Podcast: The Peel with Turner Novak
Published On: Thu Jan 02 2025
Description: Chris Hulls is the co-founder and CEO of Life360, the social network for families. At the time of recording, its the 15th largest app in the US, with over $330 million in annual revenue, and valued at over $3 billion in the public markets.We go inside the two decade journey building Life360, competing against Sam Altman and Woz, almost getting cancelled on TikTok, and going public twice - first in Australia, then again in the US.Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(02:04) Why CEO’s are getting more authentic(04:59) Building a social network for family(08:14) Starting Life360 after Hurricane Katrina(12:23) $30k from mom and a professor(13:52) $300k grant from Google(16:13) Launching on the first Android phones(18:20) Competing against Sam Altman, Steve Wozniak(19:06) “If we trusted the data, we would’ve shut down”(24:22) Why doubters lead to less competition(25:49) Fundraising in an unsexy market(32:21) Almost getting cancelled on TikTok(41:42) Building a contextual advertising business(48:36) Acquiring Tile, launching hardware products(52:41) Defeating patent trolls(57:22) IPO’ing in Australia and the US(01:01:00) Why its hard to go public below a certain size(01:07:50) 70% drop in downloads during COVID(01:10:03) Get to know your competitors(01:15:05) Lean Startup philosophy went too far Referenced:Try Life360: https://www.life360.com/ Wheels of Zeus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheels_of_Zeus Chris’ TikTok journey: https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/how-life360s-founder-dealt-with-teens-mocking-him-on-tiktok/457879 Chris’ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@life360ceo Follow Chris:Twitter: https://x.com/ChrisHulls LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishulls/ Follow Turner:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/