It’s not every day you get to zoom out and talk about the why behind what you’re building. That’s exactly what Countly’s CEO, Onur Alp Soner, did recently on The SaaS Podcast—a conversation that turned into part reflection, part therapy, and part roadmap.

The episode dives into the early days of Countly—when it was just a Hacker News post, a stubborn belief in data ownership, and a string of long nights spent building in open source. From there, it’s been quite a ride: evolving into a privacy-first product analytics platform trusted by Fortune 500s and ambitious startups around the world.

What makes this episode worth a listen (in our humble opinion) isn’t just the milestones—it’s the messy middle. The pivots. The false starts. The moment we launched SaaS, realized it wasn’t quite us, and pulled back to rebuild something that better reflected our values. (Spoiler: that turned into what you now know as Countly Flex.)

Here’s a glimpse of what’s inside:

How a few unexpected emails from enterprise clients changed everything
What it’s like bootstrapping a remote company across 12 countries
Why we believe analytics can be both powerful and private
The quiet clarity that comes from turning down VC funding

If you’ve ever wondered what drives our product decisions—or you’re just into honest, behind-the-scenes founder stories—give it a listen and if anything resonates, drop us a line. We’re always listening too.

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