From Chaos to Clarity: How Whale Empowers Teams to Scale Successfully

Meet Gary and Whale

“I felt like I could never get ahead. It was like constantly putting out fires,” says Gary Vanbutsele, CEO and Co-Founder of Whale. “And it was my fault. I was focused on solving immediate problems instead of empowering my team to solve them on their own. As the business grew, the chaos only got worse.”

Gary, alongside co-founder Bram Billiet, started Whale to address this exact issue. Their platform simplifies process documentation and team training for small to medium-sized businesses, ensuring knowledge flows seamlessly even as teams expand.

“The idea for Whale came out of necessity,” Gary explains. “We knew we needed a pragmatic way to manage processes and enable growth—not just for our business but for others facing similar challenges.”

The “Aha” Moment

While leading an IT services firm, Gary encountered what many founders do during growth: the "leaky bucket syndrome." Key information and processes weren’t documented, leading to inefficiencies and repeated mistakes.

“We couldn’t scale without addressing this,” Gary says. “That’s when we realized the solution wasn’t just about better processes but creating a system for knowledge sharing that teams could actually use.”

This realization sparked the development of Whale, a platform designed to make creating playbooks and training teams easy, scalable, and impactful.

Building the Business

The early days of Whale were anything but smooth.

“It was chaos,” Gary laughs. “But it was focused chaos. We were constantly talking to potential customers to understand their challenges and iterating on our product to meet their needs. There were never enough hours in the day—but we made it work.”

Whale launched with a simple MVP (minimum viable product), fueled by deep customer research. Shortly after, the team raised €1 million in 2021 and €2.5 million in 2023 to accelerate growth.

Finding Their First Customers

The Whale team adopted a hands-on approach to acquiring their first users.

“Instead of overcomplicating things, we focused on delivering value,” Gary shares. “We interviewed prospective customers, listened to their needs, and built the product around that feedback.”

This approach paid off, leading to their first 100 customers and validating Whale’s potential in the market.

Scaling with Smart Strategies

Today, Whale serves over 1,000 businesses. Their growth strategies focus on two key areas:

1. Acquiring New Customers

   • Paid media and content marketing help Whale attract and educate prospective users.

2. Retaining Current Customers

   • By consistently delivering value and enabling their customers’ success, Whale fosters long-term loyalty.

“A major turning point for us was hiring the right people,” Gary notes. “Key hires brought in the expertise we needed to scale faster and smarter.”

Lessons Learned Along the Way

Building Whale wasn’t without its challenges.

“In the beginning, we tried to do everything ourselves,” Gary admits. “That’s just not sustainable. Hiring top talent and empowering them to focus on their strengths has been critical to our success.”

The team also learned the importance of systemizing their own business. “We live by the same advice we give our customers—focus on what works and constantly improve,” he adds.

Looking Ahead

Whale’s mission is clear: to help businesses scale by empowering their teams.

“We have ambitious growth goals for the next five years,” Gary shares. “But we prefer to focus one year at a time, with the ultimate goal of achieving 10x growth. With AI and new technology, the possibilities are endless.”

Gary’s Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Gary’s top tips for new founders:

1. Focus on Value: Start with an MVP and deliver value to your customers. Everything else follows.

2. Hire Top Talent: Surround yourself with people who bring the expertise your business needs to grow.

3. Systemize for Scale: Double down on what works and build repeatable processes.

“Entrepreneurship is a constant balancing act,” Gary says. “But with the right systems, people, and mindset, you can build something truly scalable.”

Resources That Shaped Whale’s Success

Gary attributes part of his success to the lessons and inspiration found in these books and podcasts:

• Books:

  • The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander

  • Traction by Gino Wickman

• Podcasts:

  • How I Built This

  • Masters of Scale

“These resources gave us frameworks for growth, insights into scaling businesses, and the motivation to keep going when things got tough,” Gary shares.

Whale’s Tech Stack

Whale relies on a combination of tools and software to run efficiently and support its customers:

• Whale: Their own platform for process documentation and team training.

• HubSpot: For customer relationship management and marketing.

• ChartMogul: To track subscription analytics and revenue growth.

• Jira: For project and issue tracking.

• Zapier: To automate workflows between apps.

• Slack: For team communication and collaboration.

“Each tool plays a critical role in keeping our operations smooth and scalable,” Gary says.

Learn More About Whale

When businesses scale without clear processes, chaos is inevitable. Whale solves this by enabling teams to create playbooks, streamline training, and align more effectively.

Visit usewhale.io to learn more about how Whale helps businesses systemize and grow.