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Unfiltered: The Inside Scoop On Attio Redefining CRM

Recently, I unpacked the journey of how Attio evolved from a fledgling idea into a revolutionary force in the CRM market. This week, I'm diving deeper, making it more personal. Today, we’re exploring the unfiltered narratives with the visionaries who made it all happen. From the bold early decisions to the strategic pivots that set them apart, co-founders Nicolas Sharp and Alexander Christie, along with head of growth Alex Vale, share their raw experiences and insights on building a CRM that challenged the status quo.

Nicolas Sharp & Alexander Christie - Co-founders at Attio

Nicolas is the strategic thinker who saw a chance to shake up the CRM world with Attio. He's all about cutting through the usual corporate red tape to offer something that actually fits the mold of modern businesses. His approach? Build a CRM as flexible and dynamic as the teams using it.

Alexander is the tech leader alongside him, turning Attio into a reality. Where traditional CRMs offer a one-size-fits-all solution, Alex sees a customizable toolkit. He’s hands-on, ensuring Attio is as powerful under the hood as it is easy to use on the surface.

Chatting with Nicolas and Alex, I caught their enthusiasm for not just managing but revolutionizing how businesses interact with their data. To me, it’s pretty clear they’e way beyond just running a company; they’re on a mission to make business software a whole lot smarter.

What was the initial idea with Attio?

Nick: The initial idea came when we noticed we were in the CRM market, building a very rigid, vertical CRM. We spent a ton of time talking to companies and kept hearing the same thing: companies had to work around their CRM. There were so many things they needed to do outside of it or hack together, and the processes they wanted to build just weren't possible with these super rigid tools. So, we thought, what if we built a CRM that was like the software people use today? Something super flexible, like Notion or Airtable, that actually allowed them to build their dream revenue engine inside the product. That was really the seed of the idea. It was all about how we could make something much more flexible to meet a company's needs.

Why do you think you are suited to build this product?

Nick: I think the answer is a bit complicated. It's not like we're experts in CRM; we haven't been deeply entrenched in this space for decades. But what stands out for Alex and me is our genuine appreciation for good software and our ability to build it. We didn't start out as CRM specialists, but we had the skills to start building and validating our idea right away. This allowed us to bring something to market without needing to convince anyone prematurely that we were the right people for it. We could just show them by building.

Alex: Also, coming from a technical background gave us an advantage. A lot of existing CRMs were created by salespeople who had a vision but then needed someone else to build it. When we pivoted with Attio, we approached it from a tech-first perspective. This allowed us to make something more flexible, more user-friendly—essentially, a nicer piece of software that takes a different path to give people the tools they really wanted.

What does flexibility in a CRM actually mean?

Nick: Traditionally, CRMs are designed with a very narrow view, focusing mainly on the sales pipeline where customers move through a linear process. But that's just a tiny part of the customer lifecycle. Most of what happens with a customer isn't well facilitated by the CRM. A customer doesn’t just enter your pipeline, pass through it linearly, and then either succeed or not. There's a long history. They might try your product, sign up for a few seats on a free plan, leave, come back for another trial, add more people, talk to sales, switch to a lower plan, then talk to you again because they want to upgrade, come up for renewal, or want to expand. The rigidity of traditional CRMs doesn’t accommodate 80% of that motion. They're set up for that very specific moment—they're in a sales process.

With Attio, we aimed to build something that allowed people to model everything else around it too. The sales process is still extremely important, but as purchasing moves through multiple channels and customers interact across multiple surfaces, it becomes increasingly important that you can model and automate these various activities inside your CRM.

Who did you run the initial idea by, and how did you validate it?

Nick: We didn't, actually. It's interesting because we were entering a market we knew existed—the CRM market is a really big market. There's very little market risk in determining if there's a demand for CRMs; we know there is. So our bet was that we could build a CRM that's better than what's already available. 'Better' is subjective, and a lot of it depends on execution. If you tell someone you're going to build a better CRM, they might say, 'Sure, I'll buy it if it's better.' But whether that materializes depends on our ability to execute and truly create something superior. At the point when we might have validated it, our ideas might not have summed up to a better CRM.

We anticipated months, if not years, of inspiration, research, and R&D to evolve into something superior. Initially, all we had was knowledge of a large market, low satisfaction with existing products, and some hypotheses about what could make a better product. That was enough to convince us to start building. The actual validation came later by building prototypes, getting them in front of people, and having them use our product. That's where the validation phase really started for us—once we were already deeply committed.

What are your thoughts on the idea of being 'the anti-Salesforce?’

Alex: We don’t really position ourselves directly against Salesforce , because it’s such a powerful and widely used piece of software. In the broader CRM industry, Salesforce is actually the product I’d critique the least—it has been the most powerful and flexible option out there, and for many, it’s the only tool that fits their needs. As Nick mentioned, it’s one of the most widely deployed but also most widely disliked pieces of software.

I see our mission as building a kind of spiritual successor that leverages all the modern advantages of software engineering. So, I wouldn’t say we’re the anti-Salesforce; we’re more like the next generation, both in terms of the platform and the company we’re creating.

Who is the ideal ICP for Attio today, and how has that changed?

Nick: This has been really interesting for us, as we took a somewhat different approach from the norm. Our goal has always been to eventually serve large companies, but the typical thinking is that if you want to serve big companies, you should target those sizable small companies with complex needs early on. However, in a highly competitive market with entrenched players, building a product that meets those high expectations right from the start is tough. There are simply too many features and nuances you can’t deliver on immediately.

So we chose to start with smaller companies with simpler needs and do a really great job serving them. Initially, this meant companies with just a handful of people—one, two, or three users on the platform. At that point, we weren’t necessarily competing with Salesforce or HubSpot; we were more of an alternative to tools like Notion or Google Sheets, which was achievable as a seed-funded startup.

Over time, we’ve focused on gradually moving upmarket. Now, we’re working with companies with hundreds of employees, which has been a big shift from those initial ten-person teams. As we’ve scaled, we’ve added depth and breadth to the product, which benefits both our smaller customers—who now get a more robust product—and our larger clients, who can continue to rely on us as they grow. Recently, we’ve even started handling migrations from Salesforce to Attio, but our approach has always been to start small, build deeply, and keep expanding to meet the needs of larger and larger companies.

What did the go-to-market strategy look like in stages?

Nick: Initially, we took a 'build in public' approach, sharing our work on Twitter—code snippets, designs, thoughts about what we were doing. We were active in the builder community, which is very supportive, with early adopters eager to test and provide feedback. Many of our first customers were people who saw potential in what we were doing and were willing to be forgiving testers. We weren’t charging at that stage; it was all about gathering feedback and rapidly implementing suggestions to keep early users engaged.

As we saw these users sticking around and metrics like daily active sessions and retention looking solid, we moved to the next phase: asking people to pay. Getting users to pay was a true test of value—people only pay if they’re getting something worthwhile. Once we achieved that, we felt ready to launch, which we did in March last year.

After launch, we needed to shift gears for broader, scalable inbound strategies, as our earlier methods were low-volume and manual. We had an initial spike in users, but after that, it was all about sustaining growth. We experimented with content creation, social media, paid acquisition, and sponsorships of podcasts and newsletters. Some strategies worked and became core channels; others didn’t, so we moved on. We learned that marketing budgets need to allow room for experimentation, as channels can get saturated over time. Today, we have a balanced strategy, with about 25% of signups from paid channels and 75% from organic sources.

What percentage of your marketing goes to testing vs. proven channels?

Was the 'unboxing experience' of Attio deliberate, and how did you achieve it?

Alex: Absolutely. From the start, we focused on four principles: quick time-to-value, great design, collaborative features, and flexibility. We aimed for 'time to value' under three minutes. As a small company, we knew that if we didn’t prove value fast, users wouldn’t stick around. So, we put a lot into the unboxing experience, syncing emails seamlessly and other features that allowed new users to see immediate value. We knew we had around 90 seconds of attention to get users invested, and that focus on the unboxing experience has been critical.

What was the best thing you did in the zero to one stages of Attio?

Nick: Not giving up. There were so many moments when things felt incredibly tough. Alex even told me recently he’d considered leaving for a job at Amazon but changed his mind at the last minute. The highs and lows were extreme, and the highs didn’t always have a reason beyond just having a good day. The lows, though, could be crushing—like interviewing hundreds of engineers only to face rejections. In hindsight, what kept us going was the belief in our idea. I’d say the best advice I’ve heard, which I think applied here, is to ask yourself, 'Would you start this company again?' For us, the answer was yes, which is why we kept pushing forward.

Alex: There was no external validation for a long time, just a gut feeling that we were onto something good.

What did you do to stay positive and motivated during the hard times?

Nick: Honestly, I wasn’t great at handling it back then. I’ve improved now, but in those early years, it was challenging. We had a very positive work environment, which helped us push through, but it took a lot of emotional energy. I think one big learning was realizing that, as founders, we tended to absorb all the stress instead of distributing it among the team. Over time, I learned to trust the team more, to let them handle issues, and to frame problems as challenges rather than immovable hurdles. That shift helped make solving issues feel like progress instead of just a burden.

Alex: At the time, we really just pushed through. Now, I go to therapy, have a personal trainer, and make sure to go to the gym regularly. Nick has his family and routines. Back then, though, we didn’t do much to stay positive; we just kept grinding, even if it made us pretty miserable.

What is something you wish you knew then that you know now?

Nick: One big thing is that you need to actively seek out the truth—whether it’s customer feedback, team concerns, or challenges in the market. Early on, we tended to shield ourselves from negative news. Now, we’re much better at identifying issues and treating them as challenges to solve. We’ve also become much better at hiring, which has been crucial. Building a strong team and learning to delegate have been game-changers. Knowing how to find and work with the right people is a top skill that I wish we’d had from the start.

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Alex Vale - Head of Growth at Attio

Alex was one of the early team members who joined Attio when it was still finding its feet in the competitive world of CRMs. He quickly became a key figure in shaping the company's approach to marketing and growth. While the engineers were fine-tuning the backend, Alex was crafting Attio's public persona whilst thinking of market dynamics and innovative outreach strategies. His work has helped transform Attio from a newcomer into a talked-about name in tech circles. Chatting with him showed me what it takes to join a saturated market and still manage to stand out—it wasn’t easy, it was creative.

When did you join, and what role did you play in the zero to one stage?

I joined in January 2019, so it's been nearly six years now. I joined a company that wasn't even called Attio back then—it was a company called Fundstack, which was a venture capital CRM.

I joined because I wanted to work in startups, and I had some knowledge of finance. But looking back, it was probably the most naïve decision I’ve ever made. If someone came to me now and said, 'I’m going to join a five-person team building a VC CRM,' I’d probably tell them that’s one of the worst things they could do with their time. And in hindsight, it was—but it was also a great learning experience.

My role was initially very simple. I was brought in to clean data. There was this huge list of companies that wanted to migrate to Funstack from other software platforms. My job was to take their Excel dumps, clean them up, and import them into Fundstack. Then I’d say, 'Here you go!' After two weeks, that list was gone, and we quickly realized that this wasn’t really a full-time job.

That’s when I started picking up other tasks, which led me into operations, marketing, and eventually growth. Over time, I found myself in a niche that combined growth, marketing, and brand identity. I was lucky to have the chance to explore different areas, despite my initial naiveté.

What was the best thing that you did in the early stages?

I joined Attio as a marketer, but for about two years, we were just building the product. During that time, we didn’t actually have a product people could use, which made it really hard to generate leads beyond just getting people to sign up for a waitlist.

What started as a necessity, because we had nothing else to share, turned into a core philosophy for the company. It allowed us to build an identity that resonated with people, and I think that transparency has become a key differentiator for us. People could see that we were actively working on something, unlike the stale, static products offered by competitors like Salesforce and HubSpot. That approach really helped us during those early stages and still defines how we operate today.

Apart from building in public, what other channels were working?

At first, we had this huge cohort of VCs because we came from Fundstack. We migrated them over to Attio, and even though we were building a product for startups, it was mostly VCs who started using it. VCs have this amazing quality of being part of a tight-knit network, so word of mouth became incredibly important for us early on. One VC would talk to another, and before we knew it, they were recommending Attio to their contacts. That was our first big channel—organic word of mouth.

Then, as these VCs worked with startups, they started spreading Attio to those startups as well. That helped the word-of-mouth spread beyond just VCs, which was really valuable for us.

Social media became another key channel, especially Twitter and LinkedIn. We constantly posted updates, change logs, and behind-the-scenes content, which generated buzz and kept people engaged, even if we didn’t have a full product yet.

After that, we dabbled a little in SEO, which didn’t work well, so we pivoted to paid search. We knew there was search volume for CRM-related terms, but we couldn't rank for them organically, so we started paying for placement at the top. Paid search worked really well for us because we had the right economics to make it work.

Eventually, the social media noise shifted from being just us talking about ourselves to other people talking about us, which significantly amplified our word of mouth. That’s still one of our best channels to this day. So, really, our early channels were word of mouth, building in public on social media, and later, paid search.

What is something you wish you knew then that you know now?

One of the biggest lessons we learned was about naming. For a long time, we didn’t want to call Attio a CRM. We thought that if we labeled it a 'relationship management workspace' or something similar, it would differentiate us from the traditional, clunky CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot.

But what we didn’t realize at the time was that this actually hurt us. People didn’t know what we were, and it confused them. It was only after we started calling it a CRM that we saw a significant change. Once we embraced the term, people instantly understood what we were offering, and our growth really took off.

There’s a great example from Intercom, where they initially didn’t want to call themselves a chatbot, thinking it was too limiting. But once they embraced that term, their growth exploded because people knew exactly what they were getting. The big takeaway is: call a spade a spade. Trying to invent new terminology for something that people already understand can hold you back. I wish we’d just called it a CRM from the start.

Was there any crazy story or moment where the house was on fire?

One moment that stands out is when our CTO almost deleted the entire production database. It was definitely a close call, and everyone was on edge for a while. We managed to avoid a disaster, but it was one of those heart-stopping moments that could have gone very, very wrong.

But honestly, there wasn’t a lot of craziness or high-stakes drama. It’s a bit of a boring answer, but things were always pretty sensible and well-managed. We didn’t have any moments where we were down to our last dollar or anything like that. The company’s always been run in a very thoughtful and deliberate way, which might not make for the wildest stories, but it’s probably why we’ve been so stable.

In terms of the initial launch, what would you rate it out of 10?

I’d probably rate the initial launch a 10 out of 10. That might sound cocky, but it was a really strong launch. By the time we went live, we had been preparing for a long time, and it paid off.

One of the big reasons it went so well was that we paired the product launch with our funding announcement. We launched general access to Attio and announced significant funding at the same time. It created this big wave of momentum—people could see that the product was available, but they also saw that we had the backing of major investors, which gave us instant credibility.

There was a lot of buildup before the launch. We’d been wanting to go live for nine months, but we kept holding back to make sure everything was perfect. When we finally did it, it felt like everything clicked into place.

We spent a lot of time refining our mission, vision, and brand identity to make sure that when we launched, we didn’t just have a product—we had a story and a brand that people could connect with. So, overall, it was a really strong launch that went even better than we hoped.

Is there anything you'd consider a magic moment during onboarding?

Yes, definitely. The magic moment during onboarding is when the email sync kicks in and all your contacts are automatically imported and ranked. We designed it so that as soon as you connect your email, Attio starts pulling in all your contacts and organizing them for you. It’s a moment where everything just clicks into place, and suddenly your entire network is laid out in front of you without any manual input.

We realized early on that the biggest pain point with CRMs is having to manually enter data. So, when people see that Attio can handle all of that automatically, it feels almost magical. It’s one of those moments where users go, 'Wow, this is different.' We worked hard to make sure that first impression really lands, and that it sets the tone for the rest of the experience with Attio.

Why do you still work at Attio after five or six years?

The main reason I’m still at Attio after five or six years is that it constantly feels like a new job. My role changes every year, sometimes even more often. I’ve probably had five or six different roles in that time, and each one has been a completely different challenge.

The company itself is also evolving so quickly. It’s like being at a new company every six months because things are moving so fast. For example, a year ago, the company was half the size it is now. That kind of rapid growth keeps things exciting and challenging.

On a personal level, I joined Attio right out of university, and it’s given me opportunities to grow much faster than I would have if I’d joined a bigger company. The experience and growth I’ve gained here are invaluable, and that’s a big part of why I’ve stayed.

To summarise

On a serious note, if you are in the market for a CRM, or are just simply sick and tired of the one you’ve got, give Attio a look. You will not be disappointed.

Extra reading

And that’s it! You can also follow Nicolas, Alex and Alex V on LinkedIn and learn more about Attio on their website.

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