Don’t hire a sales rep….yet
One of the biggest mistakes I see early-stage B2B startups make? Hiring a sales rep—or worse, outsourcing sales to an agency—before they’re ready. It’s an easy trap to fall into. Many founders see themselves as techies, not salespeople. They assume that once they have a great product, a sales rep should be able to take […]
The early stages of the startups – the ground reality
This week I posted on Linkedin announcing my new startup – Ziply. I have started slowly peeling the covers. Unlike some other founders, I don’t think I am cut out for some big splashy announcements or even openly share on Linkedin. Plus we are just starting. Here is the post. As you know, I write […]
Are you the right company or product for the customer
Decision Point #3 – How B2B Startups Can Position Themselves as the Right Partner for Enterprise Customers In the previous article, we discussed the 3 decision points that a B2B buyer goes through. Once a prospect decides this problem is a priority, the next decision is to buy or build. And if they decide to […]
Navigate your customers Build vs buy decision
Decision point # 2 – Should we build or buy ? In a previous article, we discussed the 3 decision points that a B2B buyer goes through. Once a prospect decides this problem is a priority, the next decision is to buy or build. Decision Point #2 – Build vs. Buy For many B2B […]
Mapping key decision points of your customers
Decision Point #1 – Is this a priority? Let’s talk about the B2B buyer’s journey. Most sales and marketing efforts focus on prospects who are already in the market—researching, reviewing, and evaluating solutions. But what happens before that? Before a buyer even considers your product, they go through key decision points that determine whether they […]
Frictionless user experience
Mapping friction points across the user journey I’ve been working on my own startup, Ziply, targeted towards B2B SaaS companies. We recently finished the first version of the product and are onboarding our early pilot customers. This is not a self-serve product—it requires some training and setup. I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, “If […]
Identifying your true competition
How to identify which competitor to watch and analyze Last week, I had the opportunity to give a presentation at Berkeley Skydeck on how to conduct competitive analysis. One of the questions that came up was: “Who are my competitors?” It’s a great question—and one that every founder and product manager needs to answer, especially when […]
Should you share your product roadmap?
Pros and cons of sharing product roadmaps publicly and with customers While browsing ClickUp’s website recently, I noticed something intriguing: they share a detailed product roadmap openly for anyone to see. Here it is. This led me to ask: Should you share your roadmap publicly? Let’s first make a distinction. A roadmap is a statement […]
3 questions to ask before building a product
How to de-risk and value before you start on new product idea Which brings us to the next category in the Income statement, the Expenses. There are 4 main classes of expenses – You have this awesome idea about a product and decide to start a company. or perhaps you are in a big company […]
Founders Guide to Overcoming Status Quo Bias
What is status quo bias and how do PMs and founders overcome it As founders and product managers, we sometimes do exhaustive competitive analysis. We do that to compare our product and find out how we can position to be different. The goal is to convince prospects that our solution is much better than all […]
