### The Midnight Distraction

It’s 1:33 AM. I should be fixing a bug, but here I am writing this post again.

I got sidetracked reading an old ServiceNow press release from 2013.
**"**[**ServiceNow acquires Mirror42 to power Performance Analytics.**](https://www.dailyhostnews.com/servicenow-acquires-mirror42-announces-new-servicenow-performance-analytics-product?utm%5Fsource=jace.pro&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=the-9-year-overnight-success-mirror42-s-path-to-enterprise-mastery)**"**
I remember Mirror42, kind of. But I never really knew the story behind it.

Turns out, it wasn’t just some BI tool that got scooped up and forgotten.
[Karel van der Poel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/karelvanderpoel/?utm%5Fsource=jace.pro&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=the-9-year-overnight-success-mirror42-s-path-to-enterprise-mastery) built it from scratch, sold it, and _stuck around_. And then made it even bigger. Also, he has a [YouTube video about this he made 12 years ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAQHnVXVxB0&utm%5Fsource=jace.pro&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=the-9-year-overnight-success-mirror42-s-path-to-enterprise-mastery) (5 minutes).

That hit me.

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### Phase 1: Just Survive (2004–2008)

Back then, Mirror42 was an on-prem BI tool. No funding. No fluff. Just solving a problem for real customers.
By 2008, they were profitable.

Karel wasn’t trying to go viral. He was trying to stay alive.
And that worked.

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### Phase 2: Betting on the Cloud (2008–2010)

In 2010, the cloud was still weird to a lot of people. Karel rewrote the whole stack to support it anyway.
He didn’t chase the trend. He saw what was coming.

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### Phase 3: Building with Community (2008–2013)

While scaling the company, Karel launched something wild.
**KPI Library.**
A shared space where 400,000 people added 6,000+ metric templates.

He basically open-sourced strategy. That move built trust, reach, and a moat.

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### After the Acquisition

ServiceNow bought Mirror42 for $13M.

Most people would walk away.

Karel didn’t.
He scaled Performance Analytics to $75M+, then helped launch NowX and over 30 new products inside ServiceNow. This is generally part of premium SKUs, or a standalone product at a double-digit percent annual contract value increase.

He didn’t stop at the finish line. He treated it like the start of the next thing.

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### Stuff I’m Taking From This

**1\. Build for deployment, not hype**
Karel made something useful for real teams. He focused on being installable, usable, and flexible.

**2\. Community matters**
KPI Library wasn’t flashy, but it created something that lived on.
Letting users shape the product made it stronger.

**3\. Long games win**
Nine years at Mirror42\. Eleven years (and counting) at ServiceNow.
That’s what sticking with it looks like.

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Not everything needs to go big right away.
Sometimes you just need to make something that works, solve a problem, and keep showing up.

That's what Karel did.
That’s what I want to do too. If you want to know about that, schedule a meeting with me on [https://getaiinabox.com](https://getaiinabox.com?utm%5Fsource=jace.pro&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=the-9-year-overnight-success-mirror42-s-path-to-enterprise-mastery)

Want to see more, here’s some interesting links.

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