In this episode of Leadership Kitchen, I sit down with Liina Laas, co-founder and CEO of Knowzilla, to talk about building an AI startup, scaling sales teams, fundraising, and what leadership really looks like when you're building a company from scratch. Liina has spent her career helping startups grow, from early-stage ventures to scaling Deel from around 100 employees to more than 7,000 globally. Today she's building Knowzilla, an AI-powered revenue intelligence platform that helps sales teams learn faster, perform better, and turn knowledge into results. Together we explore: • Why Liina left one of Europe's fastest-growing companies to build her own startup • How Knowzilla was born from a real customer problem• Finding technical co-founders and why networking still beats waiting • Building AI products when even engineers sometimes ask, "Why does it work?" • Why talking to customers should shape every product decision • Raising venture capital and the fundraising lessons every founder should know • The biggest mistakes startups make when hiring their first salespeople • Why onboarding, culture, and compensation matter more than hiring "rockstars" • Sales myths, commission structures, and why capped bonuses hurt performance • Leadership without ego, understanding people, and building teams that solve problems together • Advice for women founders who are still waiting for the "right moment" to start And of course, Liina shares her Leadership Recipe: 🥄 Trust your people to solve problems 🥄 Stay curious and keep learning 🥄 Ask anyway, because if you don't ask, you already have a no Because leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about building an environment where great people can find them together. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Leadership Kitchen 00:40 Meet Liina Laas and the story behind Knowzilla 02:11 Leadership, predictability and caring less about others' opinions 04:44 Cooking as therapy and founder recipes 07:10 Why Liina left Deel after scaling from 100 to 7,000 employees 09:51 When startups need processes to scale 11:41 What Liina misses about Deel 12:39 Finding technical co-founders and building Knowzilla 15:16 The biggest challenges of building an AI startup 17:51 Communication between founders, product and engineering 18:36 Is startup life really as hard as people say? 22:10 Raising venture capital and learning how much money to ask for 27:10 Hiring great salespeople and common recruitment mistakes 31:05 Enterprise sales versus startup sales 33:08 Red flags when hiring salespeople 35:16 Building motivating sales compensation plans 41:07 Why capped commissions don't work 43:06 Liina's leadership philosophy 44:57 Leadership stereotypes and women in leadership 47:42 Advice for women founders ready to build something new 49:47 Final reflections and closing The conversation covers startup building, AI product development, fundraising, sales leadership, hiring, and why the best founders stay close to their customers while creating cultures where people can do their best work. Connect with Liina Laas: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liinalaas/ Connect with Renita Käsper: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renitakasper/ Follow Leadership Kitchen for more conversations on leadership, AI, hiring, founder journeys, and building teams across cultures and borders: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadership-kitchen/
