A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:41:30 · Pablo Srugo, Nazim Ahmed
[00:41:30] S0: How much time from that first conversation where you opened this idea of selling until Wire lands in your account? [00:41:30] S1: I think the whole process took about two and a half months because once a conversation happened, very quickly, within a couple of weeks, we got to an initial term sheet. Then it went through two months of due diligence. Of course, like I mentioned, it was three years of relationship-building, then really getting comfortable with us as a brand and so on. So it always starts much, much earlier. [00:41:30] S0: Did you manage to keep yourself grounded during those, let's say, three months, or were you counting dollars? It's hard not to. You got this big, life-changing amount of dollars coming to your bank account. I remember when I -- I've told the story many times -- almost got acquired. I was much younger than you were at the time, so probably much dumber. But combine stuff in my head but wow, blah, blah, blah. What was that like?
00:41:30 · Nazim Ahmed, Pablo Srugo
[00:41:30] S1: I think during at that moment, I think it happened to me at the right age at that point. I'm 45 years old. I've got two kids at that point where were 9 and 11. I was still sobered up by that point that it was a very different focus. It was get this over the line, do good by my investors, do good by my employees. Okay, what's next? What am I building next? So it was a little bit of a different thing than if i had done it in my 20s, which I probably wouldn't have had the maturity to get it there. Then as soon as the money came in, it was really paying off mortgages and then talking to wealth advisors and doing all the nerdy stuff but had a little bit of fun. I won't get into it, but I had a little fun for the first few months with family. I got some major, fun purchases. My brain was like okay, what can I build now that I don't have a noose around my neck of mortgages and always on the edge? I could take some more risk and swing bigger. That's what the freedom was. That's the best feeling on earth. Now I'm a year and a half into the new startup and crazy first year. That will be the next show, but we're starting to see product market fit now, so it's exciting times again. Just went right back into the fire. Okay, what can I build now? [00:41:30] S0: Okay, let's stop it there. I'll ask the last two questions that we always end on. Looking back now at DNA11 or CanvasPop, when was the first time you felt like you had true product market fit?
00:41:30 · Pablo Srugo, Nazim Ahmed
[00:41:30] S0: Okay, let's stop it there. I'll ask the last two questions that we always end on. Looking back now at DNA11 or CanvasPop, when was the first time you felt like you had true product market fit? [00:41:30] S1: For DNA11, it was the first news article where USA Today wrote an article on it, drove a significant amount of traffic on the website, and the conversion completely matched the conversion that we're seeing when we had low volumes and we started seeing sales after that daily. Network effects started growing in terms of our existing customers sharing with their friends. It was at that point that I knew okay, this is something that is still niche but we can at least scale. For CanvasPop, it was we're building DNA11, and we had all these printers going. Then two things happened; one, my friend was working for Sleeman's at the time, and he came to me and he said, "Hey, I have $30,000 budget for artwork all throughout all of these bars all across Canada. Can you make these Sleeman's art portraits for me?" Here I am selling DNA portraits and then in one go, I get a $30,000 check. The second thing that happened to me is everyone started coming and asking, can I get my photos printed as artwork? Then at that point, we're like okay, now there's a demand. Launch the website so we can do it at scale. Then from day one, we had DNA11 customers we seeded with, and then we started seeing sales immediately, so you know.
00:41:30 · Nazim Ahmed, Pablo Srugo
[00:41:30] S1: For DNA11, it was the first news article where USA Today wrote an article on it, drove a significant amount of traffic on the website, and the conversion completely matched the conversion that we're seeing when we had low volumes and we started seeing sales after that daily. Network effects started growing in terms of our existing customers sharing with their friends. It was at that point that I knew okay, this is something that is still niche but we can at least scale. For CanvasPop, it was we're building DNA11, and we had all these printers going. Then two things happened; one, my friend was working for Sleeman's at the time, and he came to me and he said, "Hey, I have $30,000 budget for artwork all throughout all of these bars all across Canada. Can you make these Sleeman's art portraits for me?" Here I am selling DNA portraits and then in one go, I get a $30,000 check. The second thing that happened to me is everyone started coming and asking, can I get my photos printed as artwork? Then at that point, we're like okay, now there's a demand. Launch the website so we can do it at scale. Then from day one, we had DNA11 customers we seeded with, and then we started seeing sales immediately, so you know. [00:41:30] S0: Then the last question, now you started a new company called Remix. What's one of the biggest -- taking everything you've learned over the last 15-plus years, what's one of the biggest lessons or pieces of advice that you've ingrained in yourself as you start this new venture?
00:41:30 · Pablo Srugo, Nazim Ahmed
[00:41:30] S0: Then the last question, now you started a new company called Remix. What's one of the biggest -- taking everything you've learned over the last 15-plus years, what's one of the biggest lessons or pieces of advice that you've ingrained in yourself as you start this new venture? [00:41:30] S1: Number one, be ready for a 20-year commitment. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Number two, collaboration over competition. You don't do it alone. You look for ways to collaborate with other entities that can help you keep getting to the next level if you can bring the valley also. Number three, focus, focus, focus, focus as much as you possibly can on one problem and solve that problem the best you can, but it could be in different ways; really laser-focus on that problem. Then finally, last but not least, don't take any sort of finaicial transactions, sale online, getting your first customers for granted. That is magic when that happens. Get even more focused and really double down as to what drove that transaction so you can do more of it. That's it. [00:41:30] S0: Perfect. Nas, thanks so much for taking us through all that. That was awesome. I think founders are going to love it. [00:41:30] S1: Thanks, Pablo. Can't wait to come back in a couple of years for the next one.
00:41:30 · Nazim Ahmed, Pablo Srugo
[00:41:30] S1: Thanks, Pablo. Can't wait to come back in a couple of years for the next one. [00:41:30] S0: If you listened to this episode and this show and you like it, I have a huge favor to ask of you. Well, it's actually a really small favor but has huge impact. Whichever app you're listening to this app on, take it out. Go to Product Market Fit Show and leave a review, please. It's going to help -- it's not just going to help me, to be clear. It's going to help other founders discover this show becuase the algorithms, whether it's Spotify, whether it's Apple, whether it's any other podcast player, one of the big things they look at is frequency of reviews. It's quantity of reviews and the reality is, if all of you listening right now left reviews, we would have thousands of reviews. So please, take literally a minute, even if you're just writing, "Great podcast," or "I love this podcast," whatever it is, just write a few words. Obviously, the longer, the better. The more detailed, the better, but write anything. Leave five stars and you will be helping me but most importantly, many other founders just like you discover this show. Thank you.