A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:36:57 · Pablo Srugo, Ben Rudolph
[00:36:57] S2: So walk me through it, right? Because the whole point of this is somebody needs to be able to copy it, right? So you want to go and you want to win a certain organization. What do you do? What are the sort of things that you're doing to do that a hundred and twenty percent to earn it? What would you do? Imagine me, I'm a founder. I'm like, dude, I think they would be a great customer because X, Y, Z reason. I want to go sell to them. What are the sort of things you would do? [00:37:20] S0: I mean, we've been in a lot of situations where for an organization that we worked for, we did a bunch of research on what their priorities are, listen to their speeches. We would get as close as possible to kind of open source data that they might have. That looks like their data potential we would integrate that, put together a whole demo that solves and speaks to an exact problem. That we know that they have talked about and showing up for a first meeting where you can demo, and speak to somebody about, pretty much their own data and own problems is really powerful. And we use that technique often when we're trying to go work in a place that we don't know as well. [00:38:00] S2: I think the other example that we get to dive into is how you source the first captain that you mentioned. What sort of work did you do at the beginning?
00:38:00 · Pablo Srugo, Ben Rudolph
[00:38:00] S2: I think the other example that we get to dive into is how you source the first captain that you mentioned. What sort of work did you do at the beginning? [00:38:06] S0: Yeah, and that similar approach was, you know, this is just research work. And we spent, you know, we were in San Francisco. We isolated kind of the cities in the East Bay that we thought were interesting that would probably have a higher level of crime. So we kind of had a whole map of where we thought that the ideal city was, then we decomped who was working at these different police departments. Where were they on the stack, what had they done previously, and so we had profiles of all these different police captains, commanders, lieutenants. And started tailoring very custom, and purposeful messages for each of these folks. And your hit rate's still low, especially when you don't have a product or any, you're just kind of two guys. [00:38:52] S2: But I assume even when you get that first meeting, you already are coming at it with a lot more information. Whether that's building rapport, whether that's going in and, not wasting any time and getting right to the crux of it. Because you know, and then that shows preparation from their side as well.
00:38:52 · Pablo Srugo, Ben Rudolph
[00:38:52] S2: But I assume even when you get that first meeting, you already are coming at it with a lot more information. Whether that's building rapport, whether that's going in and, not wasting any time and getting right to the crux of it. Because you know, and then that shows preparation from their side as well. [00:39:07] S0: Yeah, the commander who ultimately said yes, we knew the exact case that he worked on. It was Operation Red Reach, and we knew the details of it. And could talk to him about it, and we're asking questions about that specific case. And I think, you know, if you invert that. That is, you don't often get that feeling when you're talking to somebody for the first time and they're trying to quote unquote pitch you on something.
00:39:30 · Pablo Srugo
[00:39:30] S2: I think I remember talking to another founder who said one of the challenges when you're doing enterprise sales is you have no credibility. When you are selling into a large enterprise, you're competing with other probably established vendors. Who have a lot of credibility, just because they've been there before. They've sold other products, so they walk in with credibility. You might think the sale is a hundred percent about ROI. That's obviously part of it. But if you have no credibility to deliver that ROI, you're not getting the sale. And things like this are a way for you to show credibility. It's like, okay, you don't have a brand, you don't have a product, but holy shit, you walked in with a lot of research, a lot of preparation. The first impression is, this person's probably credible, probably reliable, and you're still gonna have to, by the way, play the numbers game. Like you said, because most people are gonna say no, no matter what. But it increases the odds just enough that at least one person's gonna be like, you know what, I'm gonna take a bet, I'm gonna risk. Because it's a risk for this person, you know, from their own credibility. Frankly, their own social capital. I'm gonna take a risk on you because you've shown just a little bit of credibility for me to take that next step. Now it's easy. Now you're a paragon. Now you've got funding. You've got all these sort of things. But back then you have to find ways as a founder to show these enterprise guys, especially on the enterprise side, that you have some credibility.
00:40:45 · Ben Rudolph, Pablo Srugo
[00:40:45] S0: Absolutely, yeah. Credibility, trust, these are big, really important things to land that first deal and I think people don't. Especially if you're coming from tech and you've been an engineer or something like that. When you purchase a big technology purchase for an organization, if you do that well and you do that right. That can move you up the ladder. That is a very important piece of your job and so it is taking a big risk if they go purchase some piece of software that is not useful or helpful. And the reverse is true too. They can climb the ladder based on the smart purchasing and technology they've made. [00:41:21] S2: Perfect, well, Ben, let me stop it there and I'll ask the question we tend to end on. Which is what would be a top piece of advice that you'd give a founder that's also in this kind of early stage, you know, looking for Product Market Fit? [00:41:33] S0: Yeah, I always tell founders kind of the same thing as go sit with your customer. Prove value, that is the thing sand if you're in an apartment or things like that. Get out of that apartment, go to the customer, try and find a situation where you can build alongside the customer. [00:41:48] S2: Perfect, Ben. Thanks so much for jumping on the show, man. It's been great. [00:41:48] S0: All right, Pablo. Thank you.
00:41:48 · Ben Rudolph, Pablo Srugo
[00:41:48] S0: All right, Pablo. Thank you. [00:41:48] S2: So picture this, it's months from now, years from now, and one of your founder friends. A really close founder friend of yours, guess what? Their startup went bankrupt, and it turns out if you had just shared the Product Market Fit show with them. They would have learned everything they needed to, to find Product Market Fit and to create a huge success. But instead, their startup has completely failed. You have blood on your hands. Don't let that happen. You don't want to live like that. It is terrible. So do what you need to do. Tell them about the show. Send it to them. Put it on WhatsApp. Put it on Slack. Put it where you need to put it. Just make sure they know about it and they check it out.