A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:14:18 · Ali Khokhar, Pablo Srugo
[00:14:18] S0: Yeah. Those are the the insane days of just me by myself as a solo founder who, you know and I'm I come from a non technical background, so I was in growth and marketing and product. And so because I wasn't in engineering, was like okay great, like what's the only real skill set that I should have is like being able to sell, right? Like navigate the market, understand demand, and being able to sell. And at the time if you think back, there's no clock code, there's no lovable, there's no coding agents, there's no ability to prompt your way into a prototype. This is like old school stuff. Right? And so my entire thesis early on was true validation of demand of an idea is dollars exchanging hands. This was like a very, very specific intentional thing I did. I can go talk to 50 of my friends and be like, what do think about this idea? And everyone's like, they don't wanna offend you. They're like, that's a great thing. [00:15:01] S1: A 100%. [00:15:02] S0: And so I was like, no no no no no. None of that is real validation. Validation is dollars exchanging hands. So I was very anchored on when somebody pays me for something, I know that this is a real problem that they have that they're willing to pay for. Right? Seems very obvious and simple, but I know a lot of like early stage founders, even friends of mine, get stuck in the trap of like, this makes sense to me, so let's just go build it. Or like, I talked to seven people and they said this is a good idea, so it must be a good idea.
00:15:02 · Ali Khokhar, Pablo Srugo
[00:15:02] S0: And so I was like, no no no no no. None of that is real validation. Validation is dollars exchanging hands. So I was very anchored on when somebody pays me for something, I know that this is a real problem that they have that they're willing to pay for. Right? Seems very obvious and simple, but I know a lot of like early stage founders, even friends of mine, get stuck in the trap of like, this makes sense to me, so let's just go build it. Or like, I talked to seven people and they said this is a good idea, so it must be a good idea. [00:15:27] S1: It's because psychologically, you just and I know exactly what talking You want to go. You don't wanna like, you wanna let's go. Let's sell. Let's build. Like, let's get started. And slowing down the problem is if you do that and you get it wrong, you will spend years pushing a boulder up a hill because you never really got to the moment that you're about to talk about. But but, yes, it's extremely common.
00:15:27 · Pablo Srugo, Ali Khokhar
[00:15:27] S1: It's because psychologically, you just and I know exactly what talking You want to go. You don't wanna like, you wanna let's go. Let's sell. Let's build. Like, let's get started. And slowing down the problem is if you do that and you get it wrong, you will spend years pushing a boulder up a hill because you never really got to the moment that you're about to talk about. But but, yes, it's extremely common. [00:15:48] S0: Exactly. So I'll just tell you the full journey basically. I left and, like, I had this concept of, okay, agents, quote unquote, that are gonna deliver some of service, but like where do we start? Right? Because like again, I come from a background of like uppercase horizontal, what category should I begin? Is it copywriting? Is it is that too late? Is it like Jasper's already done that? What is next on the bulk air? I started by just going to a lot of my smart friends and being like, what are you using ChatSuite for? Very classic. Right? To get a sense of like, what are interesting use cases that are that seem very odd at first. Right? Because I'm like, it's so early on, don't I wanna just want and everyone was like, yeah, copywriting. Copywriting. I'm like, okay, cool. What else? And I had a couple of people tell me that they were using it for coaching. Like, personal coaching, leadership coaching, personal development, health coaching. They were using it for motivation, etcetera, etcetera. I was like, oh, interesting. Weird, but interesting. Okay. Let me pull on that thread a little bit.
00:15:48 · Ali Khokhar, Pablo Srugo
[00:15:48] S0: Exactly. So I'll just tell you the full journey basically. I left and, like, I had this concept of, okay, agents, quote unquote, that are gonna deliver some of service, but like where do we start? Right? Because like again, I come from a background of like uppercase horizontal, what category should I begin? Is it copywriting? Is it is that too late? Is it like Jasper's already done that? What is next on the bulk air? I started by just going to a lot of my smart friends and being like, what are you using ChatSuite for? Very classic. Right? To get a sense of like, what are interesting use cases that are that seem very odd at first. Right? Because I'm like, it's so early on, don't I wanna just want and everyone was like, yeah, copywriting. Copywriting. I'm like, okay, cool. What else? And I had a couple of people tell me that they were using it for coaching. Like, personal coaching, leadership coaching, personal development, health coaching. They were using it for motivation, etcetera, etcetera. I was like, oh, interesting. Weird, but interesting. Okay. Let me pull on that thread a little bit. [00:16:39] S1: That became a huge category, by the way. Interesting.
00:16:39 · Pablo Srugo, Ali Khokhar
[00:16:39] S1: That became a huge category, by the way. Interesting. [00:16:41] S0: And I was like, oh, okay. And so then I was like, so who is delivering that service today? Right? Well, humans are delivering that pain point. Then I started saying, okay. Let me go talk to consultants and coaches generally, like executive coaches, leadership coaches, personal coaches, health coaches, and so on and so forth. So let's go. Now I've figured out, okay. There's this weird use case that people have for ChatGPT. That at the time was, like, very niche. Who are the humans delivering this service today? Let's go talk to them and understand their pain points, and is there something for them to be built? And so then I just started going and cold DM ing coaches on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, at this time, had this thing called services where you can, like, hire people. It's almost like Upwork esque type of thing. I just, filter for executive coach and leadership coach, etcetera, etcetera. I like DM 50 people being like, hey, I'm building this AI thing. You can, like, build an AI coach for yourself, train it, etcetera, etcetera. Nobody replied to me. Okay? Like, one out of 50 replied to me. And then what I did was my next batch of 50, I added a PS. At the end of my end cold note, I would say PS, I am also looking for a coach myself potentially. I'm a new founder. And then the next batch of fifty, thirty replied to me. [00:17:41] S1: Nice. I have you on
00:17:43 · Ali Khokhar
[00:17:43] S0: the call now. And in the call I would just start pitching like, hey, you know I've built this product, it doesn't exist, but I would frame it off, say I've built this thing, it works in this way, is this interesting, does this solve the pain point, yada yada yada. And they're all like, oh yeah this is cool, some of them are like, this is creepy. This will be I really need this AI thing. Like, get it away from me. You know, this is again still early on. And some of them are like, oh my god. Yes. This makes total sense, etcetera, etcetera. They're like, oh, cool. One of those folks from one of those conversations, they're like, well, you're gonna be in Florida in two weeks for the world's annual largest coaching conference. Right? I'm like, yeah. Of course, I'll be there. He's like, oh, great. I'll see you there. I'm like, perfect. What was it called again? And I'm like in a new tab, like, figuring out the name, buying flights, booking hotels. So I'm like, alright. Let's go. So I book a one way I book my flights, buy the ticket, show up at the conference. And at the conference, it's all coaches, and they're all much older than me, and they're all looking at me at every table like, are you like, are you? You're pretty young. Are you even a coach? What are you doing here? And I just started being like, oh, look, you know, I built this company. It's for coaches. It allows you to create like an AI coach of yourself, and you can train it. There's a lot of like control built into it, yada yada yada. And instantly I started seeing eyes light up. I was like, oh, that's interesting. I would want that. I would want that. And like, much is it? And I'm like, I don't know. Like, $100? Like, done. Okay. Easy. Like, oh, sweet. Next conversation, $200. Next conversation, $300, and so on and so forth.