2025 Year in Review: Cardboard setting the foundation for a strong growth stage company

Doubling down on product-market fit

When we started 2025, we knew we had something real. Our customers loved us. They were telling their friends. Our product was solving a genuine problem.

What we wanted to sharpen was exactly who we were solving it for, and whether we could scale that systematically.

By the end of the year, we had answers to both questions. Over 3x growth in customers year-over-year and doubling the pipeline of new customers. A team of 10 builders (and growing) who all understand exactly what we're building.

This is the story of 2025, the year we got laser-focused and proved we could execute at scale.

Clarity question

Early in the year, we set up experiments we wanted to run to understand where we were getting traction. We focused on different ideal customer profiles, explored different markets and segments within those markets, built features based on an active customer feedback loop. Building features for everyone.

Then we asked ourselves a simple question: Who loves us most?

We looked at the data. We looked at our best customers. We listened to how they talked about Cardboard. And a clear pattern emerged: tech-forward companies where SaaS is eating their budget.

Companies like Firi. Riff. Dune. Cheffelo. These were the teams that got genuine value from Cardboard because they had a real problem — 50+ subscriptions bleeding money, limited visibility into what was actually being used, struggling to find a way to enforce governance.

The moment we said that out loud, everything snapped into focus. Our product roadmap became obvious. Our pricing strategy became clear; and while this is not set in stone and open to changes as we scale, it has served us well so far. Our go-to-market strategy went from multiple experiments to laser-focused channels. Our team hires had clear context - what skill sets we should hire.

We stopped trying to be good for everyone. We became the best for someone specific.

The counterintuitive part: that focus didn't limit our growth. It’s accelerating it.

Building the team

With clarity came the ability to attract the right people.

We weren't hiring generalists anymore. We were hiring specialists who understood scale. Rolf arrived with three independent endorsements calling him "the best developer I've ever worked with." He completed a two-week onboarding in three days and immediately started shipping. Ole Daniel came from BCG, built startups, scaled Dignio as COO. Kristian joined from Otovo as a software engineer — someone who'd already been through hypergrowth.

These weren't random hires. They were people who understood what we were building because they'd built similar things before.

The existing team went into hyper-focus mode with the OKR approach brought in by Ole Daniel. Torbjørn brought his experience from Dune and held the fort while Fredrik went on parental leave. Simen, fresh from his Surf experience, joined the team and Fredrik came back with a bang after his leave.

By the end of the year, we'd grown to 10 builders. But we didn't just add headcount — we added alignment. Everyone is focusing on the ICP - across product, sales, and marketing. Everyone knows what we were optimizing for.

That alignment scales faster than any individual's effort ever could.

Go-to-market breakthrough

With a clear ICP and a growing team, we built systematically.

We tested acquisition channels. Cold outbound, paid ads, referrals, press++. Each taught us something. By mid-year, we had found which channels are working and could be scaled, and which could not.

But more importantly, we understood why it worked. Our positioning was resonating. Our ICP was clear. Our messaging was getting tighter. We weren't acquiring random companies — we were acquiring companies that looked exactly like our best customers.

We built a sales team to scale that systematically. Not scattered sales reps, but a structured engine: outbound targeting focused ICP leads monthly, sales training, and a sales team closing deals. By year-end, we had 3+ sales reps all firing on the same vector.

The result? Increasing pipeline, demos booked, deals closed, customers happy. Sustained momentum through the second half of the year.

That's not just luck. That's the result of clarity + team + systematic execution.

Product-market fit signal

Throughout the year, one metric kept reinforcing our thesis: near zero low churn (excluding bankruptcies).

In a SaaS world obsessed with acquisition, this was our most important validation. Customers weren't just signing up — they were staying. They were growing with us. They were recommending us.

We shipped major improvements. An AI-powered receipt parser that cut costs by 50-90% while improving accuracy. A multi-LLM approach (Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini) that made us resilient to any single provider. Automatic insights extraction showing pricing models, renewal dates, seat counts.

But two of the biggest product launches are yet to come: Receipt Crawler and Usage Tracking. All built on a privacy-first approach which is a hallmark of our deep engineering roots.

These aren’t just features. They are addressing challenges finance and IT teams in tech-forward companies face - "what are we paying for AND what are we actually using." That combination unlocks entirely new product possibilities.

We shipped it to private beta in December. The response told us we were onto something real. Watch this space for more!

So how was 2025 for Cardboard?

This year wasn't about surviving or pivoting. It was about discovering our true customer and scaling that understanding.

Our year-on-year annual metrics were compelling:

• 3x customer growth
• 4x revenue growth
• 4x growth in transaction volume
• Near-zero churn
• Clear, repeatable acquisition channels
• A team of experienced builders

The lessons they taught us:

1. Clarity compounds everything. The moment we committed to going deep on SaaS spend management for our ICP product development got more focused (what we will build but also what we won’t), sales got clearer, hiring got easier. We debate and we execute.
2. Listen to what your customers show you, not what they tell you. Our best customers revealed themselves through usage patterns and feature requests, but also by showing us how they were currently managing this SaaS mess. We listened to that data - both qualitative and quantitative.
3. Great people amplify everything. We didn't just hire experienced people — we hired people who liked and understood what we were building. That understanding helps shorten feedback loops and accelerate execution.
4. Zero churn means something. While everyone talks about CAC and MRR, the fact that our customers stay and grow with us is the deepest validation of product-market fit.
5. Systematic beats sporadic. We built repeatable processes, measured obsessively, and scaled what worked.

To our customers

You made this year possible.

You used Cardboard in ways that taught us what actually mattered. You told us when features were missing. You recommended us to friends. You stayed with us through updates and learning moments.

You didn't just use a product — you helped us define what that product should be.

Thank you.

What's ahead

We're not done. 2025 was about discovering what works and proving we could scale it. 2026 is about continued mindset of experimentation, analysis, and scale, both within and outside Norway.

Our goal is ambitious but clear: become the standard for SaaS spend management across Europe's tech startup ecosystem. The foundation is built. The team is aligned. The metrics prove it works.

We're just getting started.

From all of us at Cardboard - let’s go 2026! Here we come.