A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
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.