# Colin Nederkoorn

> Colin Nederkoorn is the Singapore-born, Portland-based co-founder and CEO of Customer.io. After early work in shipbroking, support, consulting and product management - plus a 4,000-mile bicycle crossing of the United States - he and John Allison launched Customer.io in 2012 with five companies paying $10 a month. The distributed customer-engagement software company reported passing $100 million in annual recurring revenue in September 2025, a milestone reached through the capital-efficient approach Nederkoorn calls fundstrapping.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Customer.io
- **Organizations:** Customer.io, Peaberry Software, ChallengePost (now Devpost), Thrive, LendingTree, The Awesome Foundation
- **From:** Singapore
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Management and Management Information Systems, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- **Known for:** Co-founded Customer.io in 2012 and remained its CEO through its reported crossing of $100 million ARR in September 2025., Helped grow Customer.io from five $10-per-month beta customers to more than 8,000 customer companies., Built Customer.io as a fully distributed company beginning in 2014.

## Career timeline

- **1980s-1990s** — Born in Singapore and spent the first 16 years of his life there before moving to England.
- **2004** — Graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in Management and Management Information Systems.
- **2004-2007** — Worked in Houston as a shipbroker negotiating freight for petrochemical cargoes.
- **2006** — Started an online contest that raised more than $13,000 for a method to run Windows XP on an Intel Mac.
- **2007-2008** — Moved through technical support and product work at small technology companies, then crossed the United States by bicycle.
- **2008-2010** — Worked in product management at Thrive, which was acquired by LendingTree.
- **2010-2012** — Led product at ChallengePost, now Devpost, where he met future Customer.io co-founder John Allison.
- **2012** — Co-founded Customer.io; its private beta began with five companies paying $10 per month.
- **2014** — Customer.io reached roughly $1 million ARR and became a fully distributed company.
- **2021** — Customer.io opened a community crowdfunding round; roughly 2,500 people invested.
- **2022** — Customer.io reported 2021 ARR of $29.9 million, raised a Series A led by Spectrum Equity and acquired Gist and Parcel.
- **2025** — Customer.io crossed $100 million ARR in September and reported more than 8,000 customer companies.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Customer.io in 2012 and remained its CEO through its reported crossing of $100 million ARR in September 2025.
- Helped grow Customer.io from five $10-per-month beta customers to more than 8,000 customer companies.
- Built Customer.io as a fully distributed company beginning in 2014.
- Developed and publicly articulated the capital-efficient company-building approach called fundstrapping.
- Led Customer.io's 2021 community crowdfunding round and 2022 Series A financing.
- Expanded Customer.io from behavioral email into multi-channel customer engagement and customer data infrastructure.
- Started the 2006 contest that helped inspire ChallengePost, later renamed Devpost.

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Published a LinkedIn article explaining how the Customer.io Agent differs from collections of isolated AI helpers.
- **2026-02** — Published 'Duct Tape vs Building Systems' on his personal site.
- **2025-12** — Appeared in a Silicon Florist interview about Customer.io, the AI era and advice for startup founders.
- **2025-09** — Announced that Customer.io had crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue and more than 8,000 customers.
- **2025-09** — Discussed scaling toward $100 million ARR, a distributed team in 120 countries and adapting SaaS for AI on the SaaS Revolution Show.

## Links

- Website: https://alphacolin.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinnederkoorn
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/alphacolin
- GitHub: https://github.com/alphacolin
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colin.nederkoorn

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/colin-nederkoorn
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27