A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:45:57 · AJ Loiacono, Pablo Srugo
[00:45:57] S0: So in the early days, I will be fair, is we wouldn't bring up the question or ask about it. Like, why did you know? So we're trying to set someone up that is going to mention that they believe in the mission. The second thing that we almost always listen for is someone who relates to a bad experience in healthcare. That could be personal, that could be a family member. And I felt if those two things occurred, we had a high probability of this person's but you wanted it to come out naturally. [00:46:27] S1: You're talking normal conversation. At some point, they say something like that. [00:46:30] S0: Can't ask. Just avoid it. They have to bring it up. And if they bring it up and the other end to this logic string is, and they shared something personal. Like I have witnessed how bad healthcare is. Let me tell you why. Odds are this is personal. They want to fix it. They don't want anyone to experience what they or their family or their loved one or dependent went through. Then we have a winner, most likely. Not always, but very, very high probability. And almost every single person, you know, that I go back to that are still with us, you know, from our first year, these are the people that absolutely demonstrated these characteristics. [00:47:15] S1: What about the other half of that equation? In other words, somebody who cares, who had a personal experience, they believe in the mission, but isn't an A player. Like, how do you tell those two apart? Somebody who's going to find problems and just fix them for you.
00:47:15 · Pablo Srugo, AJ Loiacono
[00:47:15] S1: What about the other half of that equation? In other words, somebody who cares, who had a personal experience, they believe in the mission, but isn't an A player. Like, how do you tell those two apart? Somebody who's going to find problems and just fix them for you. [00:47:25] S0: So I want to say some of the a player characteristic year is going to be trial by fire. I want to be fair. You put someone in a firefight, and then someone just goes into the bunker and curls up into a fetal position. And so people are like, I'm with you. Like, how can I help you? Like, you know, there's the enemy. How do we win? And so I will be fair. I do not have a test for who is an A player in the interview process, but I will say there's a strong correlation going back to people that believe in, you know, I often say, like, if you're a brilliant person, you can you can do anything. Honestly, you've got the world is yours for the taking. So if you have someone who's super talented, but they're talking about this personal experience and an appreciation for your mission and business model, we're gonna go places. You know, and I just go back to that there's that high correlation between adoption and being a zealot on the mission and just being an A player because every day they're going in the back of their mind, how do I prevent people from experiencing this, this, this horrible healthcare experience?
00:48:40 · Pablo Srugo, AJ Loiacono
[00:48:40] S1: I mean, one of the things is when somebody believes in the mission or at least in the impact of what they're doing, they don't stop thinking about it. Right. I always I always thought about how do you, especially now that remote is is you know such a big thing, and even like the sort of work that people do is not mechanical. And yet it's it's e it's too, I don't really believe that hours don't matter, but I don't believe hours matter. And my reconciliation of it all was it's just mind share. It's not so much like how when do you sit in front of the computer, when do you get up? It's when you go home, when you're watching TV, when you're doing other things, at some point, obviously you're not thinking. But how often are you just like you're like, oh, that thing? And then you come back the next day and you've you actually improve from the day before, the weekend before, right? Because you're on it. And I mean, that just makes all the difference. [00:49:25] S0: No, I I couldn't agree more. I I think people that believe in emission and it's personally impacted them some part about it is to your point, it's ever present. They're thinking about how can I fix it? How can I do better? And I see it. I I see it, you know, not just in you know what I'll call the breakfix category, but proactive on new product development, new feature sets. You know, again, going back to how do I make a patient's life better?
00:49:25 · AJ Loiacono, Pablo Srugo
[00:49:25] S0: No, I I couldn't agree more. I I think people that believe in emission and it's personally impacted them some part about it is to your point, it's ever present. They're thinking about how can I fix it? How can I do better? And I see it. I I see it, you know, not just in you know what I'll call the breakfix category, but proactive on new product development, new feature sets. You know, again, going back to how do I make a patient's life better? [00:49:55] S1: What about uh in terms of finding these candidates? Did you any do like how did you, those first 30, 40 hires, did you do anything interesting on the outbound side in terms of finding them in the first place? [00:50:05] S0: Yeah. So all right. First 40 employees I go to one degree of separation. You know, is it someone I worked with or someone very close to me that I respect worked with this person? So I'll give you a great example. Uh I was looking for someone on the implementation side. So this is someone who knows how to set up a benefit plan, which is extraordinarily difficult. And I asked all around, because you know, I've been in healthcare for a while. I know people in different companies. I'm like, who's the best person in implementation you've ever worked with? And I kept getting the same name. This woman by the name of Karen Durker, who still works with me here. And I'm like, what the heck is a Karen Durker? And I'm like, what are the odds? Three different people both said the same name. [00:50:56] S1: Crazy.
00:50:56 · Pablo Srugo, AJ Loiacono
[00:50:56] S1: Crazy. [00:50:56] S0: And what's interesting is she was not very senior in her company. And I'm like, so this person gets their hands dirty, knows every aspect of implementation. And I have three people I respect very highly giving me. And what's a really interesting story if as she tells it, she wasn't gonna go with us. She was just like, they're like small. Like, I don't like I don't know if they're gonna be in business next year. And she tells a story that she was going to bed and she turned to her husband, and her husband's like, I think you should do it. Like, I think this is going to be a great, you know. Now she's the executive vice president in charge of all implementation at her company and probably commands a team of like, you know, 100 people here. But but my point is she came so highly recommended. I I had to go with that. And for my first 40, I really try and lean into did I work with them or somebody I respect, you know, and and that's an important qualifier because you know, I have a lot of friends and they may be like, oh, like Sal's great. And I'll be like, is Sal great or is Sal great to drink with it? You know what I mean? Like we want to have a few margs, like Sal's our guy. But if we want to implement a plan, Karen's our person. You know, but I I think that's where I felt we created a stable foundation getting back to the execution and operation, which was going to be critical because if you're starting and we didn't have those testimonials, I don't think we would be talking right now.
00:52:34 · Pablo Srugo
[00:52:34] S1: Last question. What would be a top piece of advice for you for like an early stage founder that's still looking for product market fit?