Tech Founder: From 0 to 15 Million Users. Here's What We Learned
Beyond Coding31 Heinä 2025

Tech Founder: From 0 to 15 Million Users. Here's What We Learned

Maximiliano Neustadt, CTO and co-founder of Polarsteps, shares the incredible journey of building a travel app from 5 people to over 15 million users.

From surviving as a travel company during the worst possible timing to scaling without hustle culture, Maxi reveals the key decisions, hiring practices, and leadership lessons that drove their success.

Learn how they built strong company values, made tough product choices, and why they spend a full day with every hiring candidate as part of the interview.


Connect with Maximiliano Neustadt:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximiliano-neustadt-90137b2

Full episode on YouTube ▶️

https://youtu.be/3ZLmpggjcUY

Beyond Coding Podcast with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠🎙Patrick Akil⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Powered by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Xebia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!


OUTLINE00:00:00 - Introducing Maximiliano Neustadt, CTO of Polarsteps00:00:46 - The founding story of Polarsteps00:03:21 - The early days and first key hires00:05:48 - The unique Polarsteps hiring process00:15:15 - Transitioning from CTO to CEO during COVID-1900:19:37 - Rejecting startup hustle culture00:22:51 - Balancing employee freedom and company direction00:29:05 - Polarsteps' five core company values00:33:04 - Balancing user data and intuition in decision making00:38:24 - The approach to adopting new tech like AI00:44:13 - How Polarsteps fosters innovation

Jaksot(241)

A Career as Manager with Wim den Besten

A Career as Manager with Wim den Besten

“If people see you as a leader in a good way, then you’re doing a good job as a manager” Having been a manager at Oracle for 20+ years, Wim shares his unique experience on leadership, how to inspire a...

25 Tammi 202345min

Rememberable Presentations and Personal Branding with Sabine Wojcieszak

Rememberable Presentations and Personal Branding with Sabine Wojcieszak

Sabine shares how to give presentations people will remember. How to leverage storytelling, stay authentic and create your content in a goal-oriented way. On top of that we discuss the importance of p...

18 Tammi 202342min

Job vs. Career, Content Creation & Motivation with James Q Quick

Job vs. Career, Content Creation & Motivation with James Q Quick

James shares how developer advocacy experience and content creation has helped him throughout his career, especially early on. Next to that, we discuss the difference between a job and a career, motiv...

11 Tammi 202357min

SexTech Startup with Emilie Wiersma

SexTech Startup with Emilie Wiersma

Tailoring to a user group which hasn't traditionally been tailored much to, Emilie aims to create the biggest sex-positive marketplace in the world with Konfettie! Like any other founder, she's had t...

4 Tammi 202352min

Dedicated Teams, Autonomy and Effectiveness with Serge Beaumont

Dedicated Teams, Autonomy and Effectiveness with Serge Beaumont

“What people want the most is to be useful, be effective and have an impact on the world. The specific responsibilities that come with it, tend not to be as important as that.“ Serge Beaumont shares h...

28 Joulu 202256min

Open Core, Pricing and AI product development with Dat Tran

Open Core, Pricing and AI product development with Dat Tran

Dat Tran shares how he co-founded Priceloop, what problem it solves and how he's choosing to open source the core product. I've seen more and more organisations choose this open core strategy. It remo...

21 Joulu 202255min

A Career as Tech Lead or Engineering Manager with Patrick Kua

A Career as Tech Lead or Engineering Manager with Patrick Kua

Engineers can get promoted to leadership positions without knowing what is expected of them. It's less of the same and more of a sidestep. Pat Kua and I discuss the tech lead and engineering manager r...

14 Joulu 202248min

Diversity, Inclusion and Work Culture in Asia with Priska Burkard

Diversity, Inclusion and Work Culture in Asia with Priska Burkard

A diverse work culture is what companies are striving for to gain an edge in innovation and to stand out as workplace environment. However, this is easier said than done. Priska and I explore the dive...

7 Joulu 202245min