He Blew Up His Own Winning Product Before AI Could - Eoin Hinchy - Tines - EP#115

Eoin Hinchy spent 15 years living the exact problem he'd eventually build a company to solve. First at Deloitte, then eBay, then as Director of Information Security at DocuSign, he watched security teams burn hours gluing broken tools together by hand. So in 2018, he and his co-founder Thomas left to build the product they wished they'd had, out of a small office in Dublin. That company is Tines. Today it's 450 people across Dublin, Boston, San Francisco and Sydney, has raised over $270 million from Goldman Sachs, SoftBank, Accel and others, is valued at over a billion dollars, and is approaching $100 million in ARR. In this episode, we talk about the moment Tines decided to blow up its own winning product to get ahead of AI, why he's never built a pitch deck in his life, and the piece of advice he'd give himself before his very first job. Key Takeaways: Why founders beat sales teams from $60B companies: Eoin explains the difference between a missionary and a mercenary, and why buyers can feel it immediately. Refounding the company at its best quarter ever: The "falling off a building" analogy Eoin uses for why Tines rebuilt its core product around AI before the market forced their hand, and how he broke the news to his team and board. Why no customer was ever forced to migrate: The promise Eoin made to protect the people who got Tines to where it is today. Raising $270M without a single pitch deck: How Tines picked investors the way you'd pick a co-founder, and why Eoin never went looking for capital. "Nobody cares" : The reframe that Eoin says makes the hardest parts of the job easier, not harder. The Wizard of Oz moment: What happened the first time Eoin worked inside a company he used to think was run by geniuses. Quote of the Show: "The failures aren't going to be these dramatic explosions. They're going to be this kind of like quiet, unrequited effort where you put in all this hard work and like, everybody's kind of like, yeah, cool and moves on." — Eoin Hinchy, Co-Founder & CEO, Tines Guest Featured in This Episode: Eoin Hinchy, Co-Founder & CEO, Tines LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eoinhinchy/ Tines: https://www.tines.com/ We also break this episode down into a full write-up on Substack, where we turn every conversation into a practical playbook with the biggest lessons, frameworks, and strategies discussed in each episode. Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:02:35 - Best Decision at Tines: Picking a Problem He Lived 00:06:26 - Why Founders Beat Sales Teams 00:11:18 - Spending 30–50% of His Week With Customers 00:12:58 - The Refounding Moment Begins 00:17:22 - The "Falling Off a Building" Analogy 00:21:13 - Telling the Team and the Board 00:24:38 - No Existing Customer Was Ever Forced to Migrate 00:33:13 - Bootstrapping and the First Raise 00:33:33 - Blossom Capital Shows Up at Their Office 00:36:33 - How He Actually Picked Investors 00:38:27 - Board as an Extension of the Team 00:41:27 - Building a Fully Remote, Global Team 00:43:18 - Biggest Challenge: "Nobody Cares" 00:55:48 - The Wizard of Oz Moment 00:58:38 - What Actually Drives Him 00:59:48 - Advice to His Younger Self