Life360's 17-Year Journey to $3B | Chris Hulls, Founder and CEO

The Peel with Turner Novak

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
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