Butter: A Startup Case Study – Revolutionizing Interactive Workshops

When COVID-19 disrupted life as we knew it, the world swiftly adapted—workshops, meetings, classes, and conferences all moved online. But with this shift came a wave of digital tools, each solving a different part of the puzzle, often creating more confusion than connection.

Amid this virtual overload, one question stands out: how do we cut through the chaos and create truly seamless online collaboration? The answer?

Butter

Butter is an online collaboration and video conferencing platform that creates highly engaging and productive virtual workshops, training sessions, and other interactive events.

Status: Active.

Founding Year: 2020

Headquarters: Copenhagen, Denmark

Industry: Information

Business Model

Business Type: B2B, One-sided, Product

• Clients: Facilitators, moderators, trainers, and organizations who host interactive online events such as workshops, training sessions, bootcamps, and webinars.

It’s Like Zoom but for Interactive Workshops

Butter provides a platform for video conferencing and online collaboration, much like Zoom. However, it differentiates itself by focusing specifically on the needs of facilitators and participants in interactive workshops, training sessions, and other collaborative online events.

• Zoom caters to a broader audience with a focus on general-purpose video conferencing, while Butter specializes in providing a tailored experience for interactive workshops and training. 
• Butter emphasizes engagement features and structured collaboration tools that go beyond the basic functionalities of Zoom, aiming to create a more engaging and productive environment for facilitators and participants.

Challenges in Traditional Video Conferencing

• Low Engagement: Facilitators of online workshops and training sessions often struggled to maintain engagement and effectively manage interactive activities using traditional video conferencing tools.
• Inadequate Features: Existing platforms lacked features specifically designed for the unique needs of online workshops, leading to a disjointed and less effective experience for both facilitators and participants.
• Multiple Platforms: Managing multiple tools and functionalities across different platforms creates a cumbersome workflow for facilitators, impacting the flow and interactivity of sessions. 

How Butter Addresses These Challenges

• Centralized Platform: Butter provides a unified platform that integrates video conferencing with a comprehensive suite of tools specifically designed for interactive workshops and training sessions.
• Engagement Features: The platform offers a range of features to enhance participant engagement, including emoji reactions, a hands-up queue, breakout rooms, interactive polls, and gamified elements.
• Structured Collaboration: Butter facilitates structured collaboration through features like an intuitive agenda planner, shared workspaces, and integrations with popular tools like Miro and Google Docs.
• Streamlined Workflow: By integrating essential functionalities within a single platform, Butter streamlines the facilitator’s workflow, reducing the need to switch between multiple applications.

Founding Story

• When and How Founded: Butter was founded in June 2020 as a direct response to the challenges of conducting effective remote workshops during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Founders’ Problem Experience: Co-founders Jakob Knutzen, Adam Wan, and Chris Holm-Hansen experienced firsthand the limitations of existing video conferencing tools for interactive workshops. They found these platforms cumbersome, disjointed, and lacking features specifically designed for engaging facilitators and participants.
• Founders’ Backgrounds:
  • Jakob Knutzen (CEO): Knutzen’s professional background is diverse, encompassing experience in strategy consulting at Bain & Company, where he honed his analytical and problem-solving skills. He also ventured into entrepreneurship by founding a digital marketing agency in Indonesia and later launched StreamCrux, a startup focused on gaming content, before transitioning to the virtual collaboration space. Additionally, his experience at BASE Life Science provided him with insights into the needs of enterprise clients.
  • Adam Wan (CTO): Is the technical backbone of the Butter team, with a focus on engineering and scalable software solutions. He collaborated closely with Jakob and Christopher on earlier ventures and played a key role in rapidly prototyping the Butter platform. His expertise spans full-stack development and building real-time collaboration tools, which were crucial in delivering Butter’s highly interactive interface for virtual workshops.
  • Chris Holm-Hansen (CPO): Is an experienced product strategist with a passion for building intuitive digital tools. Before Butter, he worked alongside Jakob on projects like StreamCrux and RemoteCamp, where he gained firsthand insight into the pain points of remote workshops. His strengths lie in product design, technical implementation, and creating seamless user experiences tailored to facilitators and remote teams.

The founding team is often described as a complementary trio, with Knutzen being the “hustler” focused on business growth, Holm-Hansen as the “hipster” driving the product’s design and user experience, and Wan as the “hacker” responsible for the technical development of the platform

• Why They Started: The founders recognized a gap in the market for a purpose-built platform that combined the accessibility of video conferencing with features tailored for interactive workshops and training sessions.
• Early Team and Solution: The founding team, with their complementary skills, quickly developed a working prototype and prioritized user feedback through interviews with facilitators.
• Challenges:
  • Competitive virtual collaboration market.
  • Need to continuously innovate and adapt to user needs.
• First Results and Growth: Early adoption came from facilitators seeking a more engaging and effective alternative to general-purpose video conferencing tools. Butter secured pre-seed and seed funding, enabling them to further develop the platform and expand their team.
• Innovation and Technology: Butter’s success stems from its user-centric design, focusing on the specific needs of facilitators. They integrated features like an agenda planner, interactive tools, and AI-powered functionalities to enhance engagement and streamline workflows. Strategic integrations with platforms like Miro, MURAL, Google Docs, and YouTube further expanded the platform’s capabilities.

Key Growth Milestones

• April 2020: Incorporation of Butter.
• April 2021: Secured seed funding.
• November 2024: Introduction of  Butter Scenes, a collaborative canvas tool. [4]
• March 2025: Acquisition by Miro.

Market & Competition

Target Market

Butter’s target market consists of individuals and organizations who conduct interactive online sessions. This includes:

• Facilitators: Professionals who lead workshops, training sessions, and other collaborative events.
• Moderators: Individuals responsible for guiding discussions and ensuring smooth interactions during online sessions.
• Trainers: Professionals who deliver educational content and facilitate learning experiences in virtual environments.
• Organizations: Companies of various sizes, agencies, and educational institutions that prioritize online collaboration and interactive sessions.

Market Size and Growth:

The global market for visual collaboration platforms is experiencing substantial growth, projected to reach $3.68 billion by 2033 from $0.84 billion in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 17.79% between 2025 to 2033. The broader enterprise collaboration market, which encompasses a wider range of tools and solutions for internal communication and teamwork, is even larger, with expectations to reach $154.96 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 12.30% from 2024 to 2032.

These figures collectively suggest that Butter operates within a vibrant and expanding market, driven by the increasing adoption of remote and hybrid work models across various industries and the fundamental need for effective digital collaboration solutions.

Potential New Markets:

• Hybrid Event Facilitation: As in-person events return, there’s potential for Butter to expand into facilitating hybrid events, combining online and offline elements.
• Education Technology: Butter’s features could be valuable for educators seeking to create engaging and interactive online learning experiences.

Growth Trends:

• Continued Growth of Remote and Hybrid Work: The increasing prevalence of remote and hybrid work models is driving demand for tools that facilitate effective online collaboration.
• Increased Focus on Interactive and Engaging Online Experiences: There’s a growing emphasis on creating online events that go beyond passive consumption and foster active participation and collaboration.

Competitor Landscape

Butter operates in a competitive market for online collaboration and virtual meeting tools. Key competitors include:

• Zoom: A widely popular video conferencing platform known for its ease of use and reliability.
• Microsoft Teams: A comprehensive collaboration platform integrated with Microsoft’s suite of productivity tools.
• Google Meet: A video conferencing service integrated with Google Workspace.
• Miro: A leading visual collaboration platform that acquired Butter earlier this year, 2025.
• MURAL: A digital workspace for visual collaboration, similar to Miro.

Marketing & Sales

Main Positioning Values: Enhanced online sessions.

Website & Socials

Butter’s website registers around 105K monthly visits. Approximately half of its traffic originates from direct visits, with organic search comprising nearly two-fifths. Social media referrals make up a smaller segment, and paid search is minimal. The US accounts for the largest share of visitors at around 31%, while other notable audiences include the UK, Germany, Portugal, and France. Among social platforms, YouTube drives the highest proportion of traffic, followed by Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and the WhatsApp Web app.

Media Coverage

• Miro Acquisition: Multiple sources, including Butter’s blog and press releases, highlight the company’s acquisition by Miro, a leading visual collaboration platform, in March 2025.
• Founder Interviews: Jakob Knutzen, Butter’s CEO, has been featured in interviews on platforms like Mind the Product and the SaaS Unbound podcast, discussing the company’s vision and the virtual collaboration landscape.
• Product Hunt Launch: Butter’s launch on Product Hunt suggests engagement with the startup community and a strategy to gain early visibility.
• Private Market Intelligence Platforms such as Tracxn, BounceWatch, PitchBook, and the Hub have an overview of Butter.
• Funding Round: The company’s funding rounds have been reported by notable platforms, including Silicon Canals, TechCrunch, and Nordic 9.

Marketing Strategies

• Product-led growth: Butter emphasizes its user-friendly platform and valuable features to drive adoption, aiming for a “viral” effect where satisfied users naturally invite others to join.
• Freemium model: They offer a free plan with limitations to attract a wide user base, encouraging upgrades to paid subscriptions (Starter and Unlimited) for enhanced features and increased capacity.
• Content marketing: Butter utilizes a blog, how-to videos, a community forum, and expert-made templates to provide valuable resources, establish thought leadership, and build a community around online facilitation.
• Direct engagement: Early in their development, they prioritized interviews with potential users to gather feedback and foster early adoption.
• Targeted audience: Butter focuses on facilitators, moderators, and hosts leading interactive online sessions, such as workshops, training, boot camps, and webinars. They cater to various industries and organizational sizes, as evidenced by clients ranging from tech companies (Netflix, Webflow, Canva) to established enterprises (Kraft Heinz) and agencies.
• Demographic details: Butter’s reliance on online platforms and digital literacy suggests a target audience comfortable with technology, thus the age demographic skews towards working professionals, with the website demographics showing the highest shares among 25–44 year-olds (48.18%).

Product & Innovation

Specialized Focus

Butter’s primary innovation lies in its dedicated focus on the needs of facilitators and participants in interactive online workshops and training sessions, differentiating it from general-purpose video conferencing tools.

Integrated Engagement Features

The platform incorporates a wide array of engagement features specifically designed to maintain participant attention and encourage active participation in a virtual setting. features such as emoji reactions, sound effects, GIFs, and a hands-up queue. The platform also supports breakout rooms with management capabilities, presentation tools for screen and PDF sharing, polling features, interactive flashcards, and even music integration to enhance the session atmosphere

Seamless Third-Party Integrations

Butter seamlessly integrates with leading collaboration tools, providing a more comprehensive and efficient workflow within a single platform. Some of these tools include Miro and MURAL  for advanced visual collaboration, Google Docs real-time document editing, and YouTube for seamless video sharing within sessions

AI-Powered Enhancements

Butter leverages artificial intelligence to streamline tasks such as agenda creation and session recapping, further enhancing user experience and facilitator efficiency.

Financials & Metrics

Funding and Investments

Butter has secured funding totaling approximately $3.2million, which includes about  $440,000 in pre-seed funding raised in 2020 and a $2.7 million seed round raised in 2021.

Employee Count

Estimates suggest Butter has between 11-50 employees. This figure suggests the company operates as a relatively small but growing startup.

Revenue Sources

Butter operates on a freemium Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model. This model offers a basic version of the platform for free with limitations on session duration and participant numbers. Paid subscription plans, namely Starter and Unlimited, provide expanded features, higher participant capacities, and remove time restrictions. The tiered pricing structure allows Butter to cater to a wide range of users, from individual facilitators to larger teams and organizations.

Structure & Culture

Current Management

Following the acquisition by Miro in March 2025, the organizational structure of Butter is undergoing integration into Miro’s existing framework. But before the acquisition, the leadership included:

• CEO & Co-Founder, Jakob Knutzen.
• CTO & Co-Founder, Adam Wan.
• CPO & Co-Founder, Chris Holm-Hansen.

Beyond the co-founders, Butter operates with a lean, fully remote team organized into three core functions: product design, technology, and growth/user research—the latter combined due to its critical importance in early-stage startups. The wider team spans regions like Denmark, Germany, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Spain, and the US, reflecting a diverse and distributed culture.

Values

Butter’s development and success suggest a strong emphasis on:

• User-centricity: Prioritizing the needs and experiences of facilitators and participants.
• Innovation: Continuously developing and integrating new features to enhance online collaboration.
• Collaboration: Fostering a collaborative environment both within the platform and through integrations with other tools.
• Growth: Actively pursuing expansion and seeking opportunities to reach a wider audience.

Impact & Success

Customer Feedback

• Testimonials on Butter’s website consistently highlight the platform’s ease of use, ability to increase participant engagement, and positive impact on online session outcomes.
• Users specifically praise the intuitive agenda planner, seamless integrations with other tools, and engagement features.

Success Stories

• LEAP, a company that runs design sprints, found that Butter made their online engagements more fun and effective for clients by providing structure, entertainment, and ease of use.
• Reviews of the platform from individuals, daily deals websites, and review sites highlight its usefulness, praising its intuitive and sleek interface, which prioritizes seamless collaboration, interactivity, and engagement.

Growth & Future

Challenges and Risks

• Competition: Navigating the highly competitive virtual collaboration market with numerous established players and emerging startups.
• Integration: Ensuring a smooth and successful integration of Butter’s technology and team into Miro’s existing platform while preserving Butter’s core values and user experience.
• Data Security and Privacy: Addressing ongoing concerns within the collaboration platform market regarding the protection of user data.

Future Plans

• Integration with Miro: Focusing on integrating Butter’s specialized facilitation features into Miro’s platform to enhance the online workshop experience for a larger user base.
• Addressing Ambitious Goals: Combining the strengths of Butter and Miro to tackle new challenges and pursue innovative solutions in online facilitation.

Key Takeaways for Entrepreneurs

• Niche Down for Impact: In a crowded market, specialization is key. Butter’s success in the competitive video conferencing landscape stems from its laser focus on interactive workshops, proving that even giants can be challenged by addressing specific needs exceptionally well.
• User-Centricity Breeds Growth: Butter’s product-led growth strategy, fueled by a freemium model and extensive content marketing, demonstrates the power of prioritizing user experience and building a community around a product’s value.
• Solve a Real Pain Point: Butter identified and addressed a genuine problem faced by facilitators struggling with traditional video conferencing tools. Startups should focus on solving real, tangible problems to gain traction.
• Integrate, Don’t Reinvent: Butter leverages existing solutions through integrations, focusing its development efforts on its core value proposition. Don’t waste resources recreating what’s already available; integrate strategically to enhance your offering.
• Early Validation is Crucial: Butter’s early emphasis on user interviews highlights the importance of validating assumptions and gathering feedback from your target audience throughout the development process.
• Embrace the Power of Visuals: Butter’s focus on visual elements, such as a shared agenda and a visible queue for speakers, underscores the importance of intuitive design and visual cues in enhancing online collaboration and engagement.