# Burak Ciflikli on Why JotForm Survived 20 Years Without Investors

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/go-to-masters-show-6426488/burak-ciflikli-on-why-jotform-survived-20-years-without-investors
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/go-to-masters-show-6426488/burak-ciflikli-on-why-jotform-survived-20-years-without-investors.md
Podcast: [Go To Masters Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/go-to-masters-show-6426488)
Published: 2026-02-17T11:23:20+00:00
Episode link: https://go-to-masters-show.transistor.fm/episodes/burak-ciflikli-on-why-jotform-survived-20-years-without-investors
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/32370c22/31d60012.mp3
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Duration seconds: 803

## Resource

Burak Ciflikli is the Chief Operating Officer at JotForm, a bootstrapped online form builder celebrating its 20th anniversary with 35 million organizations in its user base. On this episode of the Go To Masters Show, he shares insights from his journey as a software engineer turned COO, and how staying investor-free gave JotForm the freedom to focus entirely on what customers actually need. Why bootstrapping creates freedom to build for customers rather than maximize investor returns How a hack week idea about "forms that can talk" pivoted into a full customer service AI product Why the COO's job in an ideal world is to not be needed at all—creating space for the founder to act like a founder Connect with Burak: LinkedIn Follow us: LinkedIn | X

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## Transcript

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