One year after its launch, Hotjar is already being used by more than 50,000 organisations, who use the tool to know their users better. David Darmanin, founder and CEO of Hotjar, explains what a start-up needs to get it right.

After working as a designer and consultant, you went on to develop and launch Hotjar. What business need did you see for this tool?

The needs I identified were mainly two: combining multiple tools into an all-in-one solution and making it affordable and easier to use.

Why did you choose Malta as a base for Hotjar?

I worked for two years in a remote role with a UK-based company. Having read about remote working, and with most of my co-founders being based in Malta, I decided that it would make sense to be based in Malta yet have a remote workforce.

The weather and the fact that we have our families here – three of the five co-founders of Hotjar are Maltese – were also key factors in choosing Malta as our base.

What do you think of the local start-up scene?

I think it’s still in its infancy. Fifteen years ago I had founded the Start-up Malta business plan competition at University. This later became a foundation that promoted entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, we struggled to get any traction and eventually it died out.

In your opinion, what support does a start-up need and is this support being provided locally?

Start-ups thrive when there are low regulatory barriers and lack of bureaucracy. Unfortunately we still have an abundance of this in Malta. Even though I have a legal background, setting up a company in Malta still presents substantial challenges. For this reason, I advise all entrepreneurs to sell it before you build it: get product or service validation first and then set up your company and legal framework.

Moreover, start-ups need amazing people to make the magic happen. Malta’s ability to introduce foreign entrepreneurs into the market over the last decade has had an amazing impact on changing the mindset of local entrepreneurs. In the case of Hotjar, for instance, two of my co-founders are Swedish.

What does a start-up need to get it right?

Unfortunately, I find that time and time again, most aspiring entrepreneurs fail to understand what the objective of a start-up is: growth.

Start-ups need amazing people to make the magic happen

A start-up is not a local business or an interesting idea. It must be able to sell a product or service to a very large market and grow extremely fast while doing this. For this reason, a start-up needs a great team of people who have a growth mindset and have an understanding or experience of how to grow a business. A solid understanding or passion for product marketing and business management are also big assets.

What added value does a start-up give to the economy?

The easy answer is job creation. However, the biggest impact is really growth of the economy. Local start-ups generate more local wealth because they tend to have a viral effect where early employees later spin off other start-ups and success stories inspire others to follow suit.

Besides the hard numbers, I also believe that a country with a healthy start-up environment will also benefit from a growth- and solution-oriented mindset that will, in turn, have a positive effect on the community in many other ways. This type of mindset challenges the status quo and demands that things can always be done better.

Even at beta stage, Hotjar was already receiving critical acclaim. What has contributed to the tool’s success?

I would say multiple factors have contributed to our growth. These factors include: our obsession with prioritising customer experience, our lean approach to shipping updates on a daily basis, and a really fantastic founding team. Moreover, having used these tools with our own companies and clients for the past decade, we have a deep understanding of the market.

How do you plan to develop your tool further?

We have very ambitious plans for the future. Our product roadmap is also public and available on our website. Key milestones include adding support for mobile apps, new key features, and connecting the dots between the data and feedback we provide to our users. We’re also planning to integrate with many other tools and platforms, making Hotjar the leader in the industry.

Profile
David Darmanin, 34, has a doctorate in law and a minor in management from the University of Malta. He worked at German incubator iWorld, Swedish software company Uniblue and British consultancy agency Conversion Rate Experts before setting up Hotjar.