On the August 19, 2024, episode of Scaling Success podcast, Creatio CEO Katherine Kostereva spoke with host Sean Cantwell about her company’s journey to its $1.2 billion valuation. Creatio is a leading no-code platform that automates customer relationship management (CRM) workflows. Kostereva is a recognized thought leader in the tech industry and has received several awards, including EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Massachusetts. She’s also the co-author of The No-Code Playbook.
Here are highlights from the conversation:
- Creatio’s platform allows clients to implement workflow automation and go live faster than with other vendors, and it offers a unified solution for automating front and middle office functions.
- Originally, the company was focused on business process management (BPM); it rebranded from BPM Online to Creatio, but that BPM engine remains the “crown jewel” product around which Creatio was built.
- Creatio integrates AI into two functions within its own operations: automating simple tasks (particularly those related to sales, call center operations, and marketing) and building applications and automating workflows without human intervention. The focus is on leveraging AI to enhance the platform-building process.
- AI is an accelerant for Creatio’s no-code platform. While no-code platforms already bridge the gap between demand for workflow applications and developer capacity, AI takes this further by providing new ways to create applications and workflows, making development even more accessible and scalable.
- The company recently raised $200M in a second equity round, bringing its valuation to $1.2B. The decision to raise capital was driven by two factors: the vast potential of AI, especially the possibility of embedding advanced AI features like autopilot into the Creatio platform; and the need to support global growth.
- The company was bootstrapped for many years, and she considered carefully the risks and responsibilities in raising outside capital, particularly the need to commit to investors’ ambitious targets.
- Katherine waited to raise capital until Creatio had achieved strong product-market fit and a better understanding of how to scale efficiently. She prioritized getting the product and business operations right. Waiting until Creatio had this proven track record of success allowed the team to approach investors with confidence in the company’s ability to meet growth expectations.
- She also believes the company’s strong philosophy of delivery and commitment—focusing on fulfilling every promise they make—also helped build trust with investors and contributed to the successful capital raise.
- The company’s core values include passion, genuine care, striving for excellence, and growing every day. They return to these values often—in meetings, one-on-ones, and during hiring.
- Leaders are Creatio are guided by five principles:
- Results: Delivering results is paramount
- Zero Ego: Operating with humility and being focused on the future, no matter what happened in the past.
- Trust, vulnerability, and accountability: Building trust while keeping teams accountable
- Stepping up the pace: Leaders set the tone and pace for the organization, creating energy and intensity that drive people forward.
- Raising the bar: Constantly improving standards.
- Hiring at Creatio follows a structured process based on values alignment, hard skills, and soft skills. She trusts her gut, but also believes that hiring is 70% science, 30% art. It’s a competency-based approach that allows the company to maintain its culture across a geographically dispersed team.
- Katherine’s leadership style is situational—she adjusts her approach based on the context, but prioritizes strategic thinking and delegation while being ready to wade into the details for critical projects or when things go wrong. Hiring the right people is key to her success as a leader.
- Over 10+ years of leading Creatio, she’s gone from what she describes as a small business entrepreneur, to a mid-sized organizational leader, to the CEO of a large enterprise. She prefers the excitement of her job right now, as she works to scale the company to billions in revenue, over her concerns during the company’s early days, when they were trying to find product-market fit. She found this stage personally challenging due to her preferred structured approach.
- A balance of trust and accountability—building strong relationships with her team while also demanding results—defines the Creatio leadership dynamics.
- For her, the biggest challenge as a CEO is the need for constant growth and adaptation; she believes that as a CEO, you must evolve every year to meet the changing demands of the business and the market, and be willing to change processes and operations to stay relevant. You must make change a habit.
- She’s passionate about the transformative impact of AI on software development—she believes we will be the last generation to build apps without AI, and that future developers will rely more on natural language, instead of programming languages, to code.
- Over the next five, 10, and 15 years, Katherine’s goal for Creatio is to expand into more geographies (the company has clients and partners in 100 countries and employees in 25) as it continues to serve large organizations with complex processes, particularly banking and credit unions. She sees Creatio’s workflow automation and no-code AI tech as having significant value in these industries.