# Private, profitable, and people-first, we’re celebrating our 20th birthday. I’m Natalie Nagele, Co-Founder and CEO of Wildbit. AMA!

**URL:** https://gorelay.co/t/private-profitable-and-people-first-we-re-celebrating-our-20th-birthday-i-m-natalie-nagele-co-founder-and-ceo-of-wildbit-ama/501
**Category:** AMAs
**Tags:** culture, team-structures, product-agnostic, positioning, past-guests
**Created:** [November 5, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://gorelay.co/t/private-profitable-and-people-first-we-re-celebrating-our-20th-birthday-i-m-natalie-nagele-co-founder-and-ceo-of-wildbit-ama/501 "2020-11-05T13:51:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 21

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### Author: ![natalie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/gorelay.co/natalie/32/362_2.png) [@natalie](https://gorelay.co/u/natalie)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://gorelay.co/t/private-profitable-and-people-first-we-re-celebrating-our-20th-birthday-i-m-natalie-nagele-co-founder-and-ceo-of-wildbit-ama/501/21 "2020-11-12T20:02:24Z")

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> [@bridget](#):
>
> Hi Natalie - 👋
> 
> it’s always inspiring to hear your words about how to build a business differently - it’s an injection of energy and support we all need right now! I am always impressed with how long you and Chris have been working on Wildbit, and I know from my own experience that there’s always a learning curve in what you are doing. 🤓
> 
> But here’s my (3 part) question:
> 
> 1. What have you learnt over the 20 years that has meant what started off really hard, is now pretty much a breeze? 💪
> 2. What always was, and remains always hard to do, and you can never seem to learn how to make it better? 🤨
> 3. What started off easy and has got increasingly harder over the last 20 years? 😧
> 
> Thanks!

Hi Bridget 😉

1. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is to focus on what’s important. In the beginning we would frequently run towards something without really understanding why. From product features, to hiring for certain positions, or ways to market the app. Today, I can’t imagine starting anything without first really honing in on why we’re doing it. What this means is that making decisions, especially big ones, is much easier now. We start with why, and as we discuss and think, the right answer presents itself much faster than before.

2. Building teams will always be hard, because you’re dealing with humans, and humans are beautiful, messy, and worth the effort. At every stage along the way, the needs of the team have evolved. And being people-first means that we don’t just fire everyone and hire new people that fit the current needs. We take the time to figure out how we all fit into this thing together. People are the most important part of Wildbit, and will always be the biggest challenge.

3. What was easy in the early days was making decisions. We were a small team, and we could just decide something and run with it immediately. Frequently, these decisions weren’t well-thought-out. We were just responding to our gut instincts. Sometimes it flopped. Oftentimes these decisions would turn out great.

Today, our decisions carry more weight. We have a bigger team, we have lots of customers, and more to risk. So we try to make sure the decisions Chris and I need to make are less frequent, but have impact.

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