#393 – How Andrei Pitis killed a working product and grew 10x in months

A story about betting on what's coming—not what's working.

This episode is for SaaS founders questioning whether their current traction is real momentum—or just comfortable motion.

Traction can be the most dangerous thing in a startup.

Andrei Pitis, CEO of Genezio, built a serverless developer platform with real users and real momentum. Then he killed it. Andrei Pitis built Vector Watch, a smartwatch with 30-day battery life, and sold it to Fitbit. With Genezio, he did something harder—killed a working product because he spotted a shift most founders missed.

And this inspired me to invite Andrei to my podcast. We explore why reading the future matters more than optimizing the present—and how that belief shaped a company pivot that produced 5-10x growth in months. Andrei shares candid insights about saying no to big customer money, choosing conversations over search terms, and why the best products are sculptures, not feature lists.

We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – Acknowledge you cannot please everyone – Master the art of curiosity

Andrei's journey proves that remarkable companies don't optimize what exists—they spot what's coming and build for it before the market catches up.

Here's one of Andrei's quotes that captures his philosophy on building products:

"A good product is not about the features that you put in. It's more about the things that you take out. Like a block of stone—you make a sculpture. You take out a lot of the stone, and you are left with something that appeals to certain kinds of people."

By listening to this episode, you'll learn:

• Why walking away from traction can be the boldest growth decision a founder makes
• What separates reading trends from following them in fast-moving markets
• Why saying no to big customer money protects long-term product value
• How building for global from day one shapes competitive advantage

For more information about the guest from this week:

Guest: Andrei Pitis, CEO & Founder at Genezio

Website: genezio.com