A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:16:41 · Poojan Kumar, Pablo Srugo
[00:16:41] S0: In both cases, I would say both at Pernix and Clumio, I think it was all about first finding these folks. In some cases, your past relationships, your past background helps. In some cases, you just have to go spend the cycles, your LinkedIn, your network and everything that you can, and really get in front of a few of these folks. I pretty much hustled and did everything possible to get in front of these folks. [00:17:09] S1: What were some of the things – do you remember, especially at Pernix, now, I think I’m sure it was easier at Clumio. But at Pernix, do you remember some of the strategies that really worked to get you in front of the right people? Because like you say, that alone is a hard step for a first time founder just to even have the conversation.
00:17:09 · Pablo Srugo, Poojan Kumar
[00:17:09] S1: What were some of the things – do you remember, especially at Pernix, now, I think I’m sure it was easier at Clumio. But at Pernix, do you remember some of the strategies that really worked to get you in front of the right people? Because like you say, that alone is a hard step for a first time founder just to even have the conversation. [00:17:23] S0: Yeah. Pernix was much harder, as I said. Obviously, in the case of Pernix, we had some relationships that I had in the past that I leveraged. Then basically use them to get them introducing me to their other peers, so to speak. That’s how I created the set of folks. Over time, I really went into conferences. Literally, I’ll tell you a story where I went to no conference and then stood beside a booth of a storage company, which will basically go and not eliminate, but essentially take budget from and stuff like that. I stood beside for a few minutes and a couple of folks I saw asking really deep questions about the technology and this thing. Once the guy left that, I basically followed him, and I essentially told him, oh, I’m the startup founder, this and that. This guy is like, [unclear] following me, and then asking me this thing. One thing led to another in that journey, and that guy whom I actually caught at the booth became our first customer, first paying customer at Pernix, $15,000 deal. He bought it for two servers, first paying customer. Not only that, he actually went ahead and joined the company also as our first systems engineer.
00:18:33 · Pablo Srugo
[00:18:33] S1: Wow. I think it’s funny you mentioned that. What I’ve noticed more and more is there’s founders who just – they put so much energy into the world thing that something’s bound to give. Who knows how many conferences you went to or how many of these things you tried? Then this one really led to a customer that led to somebody that joined your company, like really clicked. But yeah, the more things you do, the more things that seemingly fall in your lap. It’s really just like you say, hustle.
00:18:57 · Poojan Kumar, Pablo Srugo
[00:18:57] S0: Even to get our alpha program going, I think we basically went to the biggest VMware conference back then. It’s actually Clumio. At Clumio, we went to a big conference and I basically had set up 15, 20 meetings based on LinkedIn. Of course I had my past background also at play. Then between those 15, 20 meetings over those three, four days over lunches, and coffees, and dinners, or whatever, that’s where we got our first five alpha customer. I’m saying, these are things you got to do. It’s like, you don’t have the budget to put up a big booth, and you don’t even have a product yet and things like that. Now, you have to go and do this stuff behind the scenes and get in access. It’s just hard work. It’s not impossible. Obviously, if you’re going after market and you’ve validated in, and there exist people out there, you just have to find them. I think more and more with LinkedIn and others, it become much easier in finding folks. You’ll find there’s a class of people who are early adopters. They love new technology. As far as you’re solving a pain for them and you’re articulating that well, who will get the opportunity? [00:19:57] S1: Walk me through that. You get those conversations. How do you structure them to actually make sure that you are solving a real pain point versus just having people tell you what you want to hear?
00:20:07 · Poojan Kumar
[00:20:07] S0: Absolutely. I think this is where the rubber meets the road. I think it’s a combination of firstly telling them, because you have to set the context. You tell them what are you really going and solving, and how you are solving it, getting them excited about the how is important because that’s where the difference is in most of the cases, and what it means for them in that particular case. Is it something that saves them money, for instance? Or does it basically save them time, or it’s something that they’re not able to do today and you’re enabling them to do today? You’re essentially going, and ultimately, what does it mean for them and how you’re doing it? I think the combination of those two things you do, you’re essentially going in saying, this is the pain I’m solving for you. No. But you need to hear back on, is this a pain in the first place? Because if it’s a pain in the first place, you’re solving it and you convinced them that you’re solving it in a very unique way, so it’s not something that they can get it elsewhere. Now, you got them very interested. If it’s not a pain, guess what, that’s not a customer you’re going to essentially get. I think if you double-click and ask the right questions, you will get the answer. Because the person there, at the end of the day, if he has taken the meeting and things like that, they’re, at the end of the day, either looking for a solution or they very happily say, this is not a fit for me. That’s what you have to go and try. Sometimes it takes a little bit of trial and error to get to that right thing, but you have to be very intellectually honest. You’re just not there to hear what you want to hear. You really want to get to the answer. In these cases, since there is an outcome involved, what’s the outcome? I’m either going get them as an alpha, beta customer or not. I think you’ll get the answer because it’s going to happen or not going to happen. The happy years thing is not going to happen at the end of the day.
00:21:49 · Pablo Srugo, Poojan Kumar
[00:21:49] S1: Do you charge? Early on when you’re this pre-product phase, you’re trying to get these alpha customers, are you asking them to be an alpha customer and pay you? Or how do you structure that usually? [00:21:59] S0: At least my experience in the last decade in the last couple startups, it’s really, I think you are essentially giving them the service for free, initially, with obviously the understanding that as the thing goes from beta to GA and they like what they see, customers are more than happy to pay for it. There’s no issues there, especially if you’re solving them a real problem at the end of the day. Yes, why not? It’s not something that – but in the initial phases, because you’re looking not for money, you’re looking for feedback. You’re looking to become the product. It’s like you can go from a 0 to a 0.8 version product. At 0.8 to 1.0 is what you’re looking for from a customer in the customer environment. That is what you’re looking for. That time that they’re giving you and the feedback is what is priceless, and you should focus on that. Now, you get to the 1.0. If you’ve solved it, they’ll pay, and guess what? Now, that journey that they have helped you getting the 0.8 to 1.0 will help you to basically go much wider to a lot of other customers. That’s what you should focus on.