Sami Rejeb, Co-Founder & CEO of ValueOrbit, talks about his journey of starting ValueOrbit. He talks about how he got his first set of customers & how he uses his credibility to close deals.

• How ValueOrbit helps revenue teams achieve predictable growth with advanced forecasting, deal qualification & real-time win guidance
• How he used his experience of working with 100s of CROs to build the first set of features for ValueOrbit
• How he used a non-scalable approach to get the first 3 customers using his network & through various slack groups
• How he plans to build the top of the funnel by building the brand of LinkedIn
• What’s the exact process that he uses to convert a cold lead to a paying customer
• Why do customers prefer a newer product like Value Orbit over more established ones in the category
• How having direct access to credible CEO like himself helps build a more trusted relationship & close deals when competing with more established players
• Team, funding status & future vision for the company

You can also view the video on youtube here.

what is that one, one compelling, you know, reason for those

new, new sort of folks to sort of use your product over something else,

especially since you're just starting out?

I think the, the, um, customers, normally they don't

have access, at least at this size.

They don't have access to the c e o of Clarity or Sure of gone.

Okay.

So the fact that they have me as a point of contact is, I think

transforms the relationship.

Hello everyone.

Welcome to the SaaS podcast.

Today we have Samami Reserve with us.

Samami here runs a company called Value Albert.

Hey Samami, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Thank you

for inviting me.

Alright.

Alright, Sammy, so let's talk about your company and product first, right?

What does Value Orbit do and why do customers pay you money?

Okay.

So Value Orbit is a revenue operations, uh, platform and it helps, uh,

sellers and revenue teams in general to achieve predictable growth.

Alright.

Uh, so who are you trying to, uh, sell these particular product to?

Talk a bit about your ideal customers.

. Sami Rejeb: So my ideal customers

or Rev ops lead or ceo, CFOs, um, anybody who's, uh, impacted by the

revenue and the growth of the company.

Uh, so, uh, if I can talk about this, uh, in fact, this Rev.

Movement, uh, very quickly, if it's okay with you.

Sure, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, so sales, um, Used to be until now, inaccurate and unpredictable.

Um, 57% of companies are not meeting quota according to Gartner.

Uh, and what we used to do, and, and by the way, I used to be the head of

Rev op, so head of sales strategy and business operations for Salesforce, and

also head of consultative sales of Oracle before, um, founding a value orbit.

So what we used to do is to create.

Three to five times pipeline, uh, as the target and try to guess, uh, on which deal

should, uh, close and make the number.

So this was a luxury and we've had 11 years of growth.

Fantastic era.

We had some bumps, uh, uh, on the road, but it was great.

And then the crisis escape and the global pandemic, um, has fundamentally

changed the way we live and work.

Uh, then the current crisis had taken us with, uh, inflation and eroding demands.

So it's a new word of un uncertainty.

And then, um, I notice one thing is that, um, The budget, the sales

budget was wasted and inefficient.

So BCG said 30% to 50% of the sales budget was wasted on efficient processes.

So it made me wonder that we need a new way to, uh, sell.

Uh, so this is why I created, uh, value orbit for the revenue

leaders.

All right, so that sounds pretty interesting in terms of your, in terms of

the problem that you're trying to solve.

So help me understand how exactly are you doing this?

So how, how it varies from a typical c r m, like Salesforce, for example.

So what sort of intelligence are you extracting it?

And so talk, so talk to me about that ex, those exact product features

which are sort of enabling you to do what you've just described.

Okay, so, uh, so leaders are looking for a better way to sell.

So what what is selling in fact, is the quality pipeline

and the quality over execution.

So over how we move or make progress the pipeline and the forecast accuracy.

And this is exactly the three things that we do at value orbit.

So we call it, uh, precision Revenue.

And what it does is, is in fact, it connects to your CRM system.

So we connect to all the known ones like Salesforce and HubSpot, and then.

It automates the qualification.

So if you're using medic, medic band, et cetera, you can, or you can customize

your own, then you can put your process it, it captures the process that is

in the c R M and then it allows you to set up a set of rules that, uh, Uh, in

which cases you push which content to trigger which discussion or conversation

with the, uh, uh, with the customer.

And it also recommends on the pipeline hygiene what to

update and where to update.

And in fact, um, it's a realtime guidance and realtime forecasting system.

So you define your rules, you define.

playbook, which is, as I said, it's the qualification methodology plus the

content that you have, and you let, uh, value orbit guide you through what

to do next in terms of conversations, in terms of, uh, uh, enablement, uh,

and, and also to hit the, the perfect forecast or to hit your number.

Got it.

And, uh, in terms of, you know, I, I just wanna close around the

whole product aspect of it, right?

So in terms of innovation, right?

So for example, from what I'm hearing, all forecast forecasting all

of these things, well, every c r m sort of tries to do it a bit, right?

So I, I wanna understand what's that technology that's enabling you to do

this, which nobody has been really.

At least not been focusing so far.

No, it's, it's, it's a great question.

Um, in fact, it's the machine learning and, uh, in specifically

and the AI algorithms.

So basically, uh, in rev ops, uh, clarity in terms of rev ops, in terms of

forecasting created the category, and now it's followed by a number of competitors

and all of them, they're focusing on.

The, uh, activities.

So how many emails, how many, uh, uh, meetings you organize, et cetera.

And then they try to kind of qualify the pipeline outta your, your activities.

Now we're doing something that is.

Unique, which is we capture the activities that you do.

We have a textbook, uh, editor, which in fact takes your meeting notes

and update the c r m accordingly.

That's, that's an innovation.

And then once you do this, it captures the sequence.

Of the winning, uh, deals.

These are the patterns.

And then it guides on what to do on, on which, uh, opportunity to work and what to

do next to win, and also which opportunity and which account you should avoid.

So the revs, the traditional rev ups is focused on, I'll give

you a forecast with the precis.

But we're not doing this.

What we're saying is that we help you to work in an easy way to

update your C R m and also to do your qualification the right way.

And we take the sequence and we try to tell you what to do next.

So basically, when you use value orbit, you only use next steps.

It tells you exactly what to do, and it tells you why you should.

Got it.

Alright, so, so let's, let's move on.

Uh, let's try to understand, you know, about, bit about the customers that

you've got as of today and what sort of revenue are you doing and, you know, help

me understand a bit about all of this.

So how many customers do you have on your platform?

As of today,

in fact, I have currently three customers.

Mm-hmm.

and the product has been released only a month.

Just a month ago and yes, just a month ago.

And I have another list of, uh, five, uh, uh, waiting list of five, uh, customers.

Uh, and I have, I think it's what's great about is to talk about the

unique approach for me to, um, kind of.

How I see graph, because I, I think I see it in a very different way than the

rest of the, I'd love to understand your,

your thought process on that.

Yeah.

So how, how, how, how do you intend to sort of get those

next set of customers first?

So,

okay.

Okay.

So, so personally, um, I'm not, uh, so, so even, uh, so the fact that I'm

using AI to help the customers, my customers at least qualify and work on

the right accounts and opportunities, and I apply the same for myself.

So I use my tool before any other person.

And then I believe in one thing is that, uh, in the initial set

of growth, you need to validate.

Your growth hypothesis and validate your go to.

Okay, so I kind of focused on the specific I c P, very specific I C

P, uh, and then specific persona

then, and what, what, and then how does that persona look like?

And just talk about those first three customers as well,

so as part of your story.

Okay.

Okay.

So, so, uh, in the beginning I focused on, um, SaaS C.

Uh, that are in series A to C.

Okay.

So now I started, I started with the series A.

Okay.

That's the first customer.

Okay.

And my goal with this is that to kind of agree on the set of.

Most important pain points and how to resolve them.

And for example, what are the best processes?

What are the best qualification approach, and train the AI to make sure that it

solves this set of early customers.

That's the A.

Then I move to the B.

Now, I haven't tackled the C yet, but I moved to the B and

I'm trying to do the same.

And what I'm trying to do is that I will not move to any.

Other segments unless I prove the return on investment and I tackle

the problem in, in, in the real way.

And the problem is not only technological, is that what's the

right organization, uh, what's the right adoption, et cetera, et cetera.

Uh, interesting.

And when you say you wanna prove this roi, so how do you quantify that?

Is it about, uh, is it the CAG that's, that, that you, so, uh, customer

acquisition cost that you need to spend to acquire these customers?

Or is it whether your product is able to sort of satisfy their needs?

What exactly are you looking for at this particular point of state?

Uh, when, when you're sort of trying to build this, you know, g t m

playbook, maybe you can call it that.

Okay.

So, so first, the first, um, validation point for me is, um,

The revenue, um, improvement.

So over, so what I didn't say is that even that the product was, uh, ready,

um, let, let's say two, three months ago in, in, uh, in an improvement way.

But I've been.

Piloting now for seven months.

And, uh, what's important is that what's the impact?

So what's the impact in terms of win rate and what's the impact in terms of revenue?

So that's, that's what I'm looking for as the first validation.

Now, I think you had a good question in terms of cac, uh, uh, for me,

I'm doing it on another side.

So what I'm trying to do is that trying to say, um, refine the

criteria to find the, um, the I C P and to say what is the best channel.

So for the moment I've been successful to get customers from my network, but

also, uh, also exploring, uh, there are a lot of slack, uh, um, uh, chat groups.

Yeah, that are extremely good where you have thousands of, uh, CROs

and RevUps and, uh, these, I think, uh, chats were very helpful for me.

That's like, groups were very helpful for me.

So in terms of discussion, validation, et cetera, just,

just, uh, just to get some more understanding here.

Right.

So when did you write that first line of code for value orbit?

When was that?

Uh, a year ago.

And you really, and when did you get that first customer?

Or first dollar of revenue.

So we've been, uh, now for seven months.

So three months.

We prepared the first mvp.

And we've been, uh, uh, kind of testing it with the first customer.

Yes.

Got it.

So, so, and you're still iterating on the product, I'm assuming, based on your

Yes, yes, yes.

I'm iterating all the time, but, uh, I'm, I'm iterating all the time.

And also, uh, , when I was doing this, Things were also

changing in terms of context.

Yeah, so when I started, uh, when I started the project, it was a

forecasting because I was kind of in charge of forecasting for

Salesforce and the Nordics, and I was struggling, um, uh, with.

The, uh, Salesforce capabilities.

So there was a need to involve AI and improve the capabilities.

And, um, and then over time I discovered that now the, I think

the wara effect is coming from the.

Textbook, uh, editor and how you kind of update the CRM in real time.

And also coming from how you, uh, automate any workflow on top of the

opportunities or, uh, attach them to a sales like, um, uh, sales rep or

a team member, uh, for onboarding.

And how this really, uh, scales and it connects your strategy to your execution.

Got it.

So, so, uh, before we deep dive into your growth strategy a bit, right?

So I just wanna ask you one question, right?

So you've sort of started your company and established category at least

because Zoom revenue, operations and intelligence is a proven, I won't

say proven, but it's a new category.

There are a bunch of leaders who are trying to prove it.

So just talk to me about how, so when, when you were building M V V, right?

So how exactly did you do it?

So did you.

I took this traditional route of, you know, I'll go and

talk to a bunch of customers.

I'll, I'll try to understand what their problems are, and then maybe I'll

start building a product for myself.

Or would you just pick top five market leaders, look at what features they have,

let, let's build an MB mvp right outta it.

So what was your approach?

That's a good question.

So, um, I think I'm, I'm, I'm lucky because, um, before starting

Value Orbit I've worked with, um, hundreds, I think hundred plus.

Of, uh, CROs, um, and CEOs in improving their efficiency

and increasing their revenue.

So I've done it with Oracle and Salesforce and then, Doing this, I've worked a lot

on the pain points and what, uh, needs to improve, and so I've had the validation

ready before starting value orbit.

You,

you've already had that context based on your

prior experience you'd say.

Yeah.

So when you did your mvp, you knew exactly.

Knew what features.

Do you have to build?

Right.

That makes a lot of sense that that should have saved a lot of time as well.

So I know a lot of people don't take this approach, right?

So people think you have to build it the old fashioned route, they've gotta

do validation, all of those stuff.

But you really don't need to if it's a proven category.

Right.

So it's, it's about your GTM strategy that you need to get.

Right.

Alright, so, so let's talk about these three customers.

You mentioned you're still figuring it out and all right, but where exactly

did you find these three customers in terms of, you know, uh, first touchpoint?

Was it through your network?

Was it through the Slack channels you mention?

So, um, two of them was through my network, and the third,

um, it was through, uh, a Slack group.

Uh, and, and now, uh, the, the waiting list, I'm, I'm building it, so I'm

kind of using the same as everybody.

Mm-hmm.

. So, uh, growth hack.

And non-scalable activities.

Okay, . I, I get it.

So Sam, I want wanted to ask you a couple of questions here, right?

So, so what's your ideal a CV size.

So what sort of deals do you typically strike with?

I mean, you are obviously not selling a hundred dollars deal

to these big customers, right?

You must have

some.

No.

So, uh, so let's say.

, uh, let's say for the moment it's around, uh, 10 to

$15,000.

Alright.

That, that's awesome.

Right?

So now I, yeah, now I wanna understand, right?

So all of these growth hacking techniques that you mentioned, right?

So it's obviously hard to sort of, you know, it might work if you're working

on, let's say, Trying to close a thousand dollars deal or something like that.

Right.

So you need a different playbook here.

So what's, what's, what's that that you're sort of trying to sort of what,

what's the route that you're taking?

What growth channels are you exactly sort of investing your time and energy into?

Can you give some examples?

Yes.

So for me is, uh, mainly LinkedIn.

And, um, um, I, I, I think what's what's important is that, um, first is to build,

so I'm, I'm now, I haven't published yet, but I'm building a lot of content

that, um, I will publish and because so, so you have different sets of customers.

I think the customers in the.

Especially the SaaS companies are aware of Rev op.

So Rev apps started really to resonate with a lot of zeros and.

Um, within this, at least Slack, uh, groups, uh, I see a lot of maturity in

terms of what they expect, et cetera.

And the pioneers in the domain did the work of, uh, uh, um, at least creating

the awareness of the need for these tools.

So, um, so that, that, that's in the us the rest of the world is different.

So the rest of the world is that.

Is it more greenfield, but in which you, I need to invest more to promote

educating the market as well to educate the market.

Got it.

So I want, I wanna focus on the first thing, obviously, right?

And I just want to sort of complete your, you know, your story as of

now as the, the growth channels that have been working for you.

So just help me understand your funnel, right?

For example, if you've communi, if you talk to someone interesting on

let's, uh, slack channel, right?

He understands everything about rev ops.

He might be working at a company we just looking for.

We're looking for a solution.

Right.

So what happens after that?

How do you convert them to a paying customers right

from that first touchpoint?

So I know you have a couple of examples, so just talk about how it

happened and how it might be optimized.

So, so wanna, wanna understand the entire funnel basically.

Okay.

So, um, For the moment, since that I've been having the sales strategy

and business operations at Salesforce and I have all this experience,

um, I think it's easier for me than other, uh, um, entrepreneurs.

Absolutely, because.

, I build the trust with the zeros and, uh, they, and for this trust,

I try to kind of at least trigger or initiate a transformation in

the way they sell in their wraps.

So then we have this discussion into the current situation, into

the two B situation and into how the platform, uh, enables this.

And, and it's a win-win for one reason.

Is that on their side?

I think they try to, uh, at least.

Get my perspective as a different perspective or get this experience from

hundreds of leaders and they want to get insights on how to move forward.

On my side, I'm trying to, uh, build advocates and also validate what I'm

doing so, For the moment, it's a win-win.

So it's not the typical sales pitch where I go and I do my slides

and I try to close, et cetera.

It's more you build a trust, you build the relationship, you try to help you

transform the, uh, you try to help them transform their, uh, revenue operations.

And at the same time you came.

. Upendra Varma: And at what point

got a product in this lines.

Are you interested in checking this out?

When does it become an, an informational con conversation to, you know,

a sales pitch at what point of,

for me is, uh, is uh, all is related to the pain?

So I try to dig in the pain points and see if these pain points are

really, uh, first, um, kind of, um, You have the compelling event.

So if they are, uh, quantifiable and if they are hurting, uh,

the stakeholders and if they are the priority of the executives.

So that's the most important point for me.

So I try always to validate to say that.

Uh, always answer the questions, uh, first, which is, I think the, the,

the first step of the medic is why they, they need to use my solution.

Why me, and why they

use.

So what's, what's that answer for that question?

Why me?

Right.

I mean, you can explain the space, hey, how this is going to help your

company, but a whole bunch of other companies are also gonna do that as well.

And when, when that question is asked, why me?

Right.

So, especially given that you're just starting out, right.

So what's, what's that one thing that's been working for you?

, right?

So is it that innovative feature?

Is it that trust that you've built with these folks?

Or what is that one, one compelling, you know, reason for those new, new

sort of folks to sort of use your product over something else, especially

since you're just starting out?

Okay,

so, um, First, I think the, the, um, customers, normally they don't

have access, at least at this size.

They don't have access to the c e o of Clarity or Sure of gone.

Okay.

So the fact that they have me as a point of contact is, I think

transforms the relationship.

That's, that's, that's one.

The second is that, um, I have, I think, a unique approach.

So, so if you see the market, you'll find if you, if you talk about, uh,

qualification methodologies like medic band, et cetera, you'll find

qualification management solution or automation solution on one side.

And you'll find kind of forecasting, uh, deal management on the other

side, but you will not find an AI powered solution that combine.

All of them together with the logic I have.

So this is kind of, so the, I think the, the approach and the richness of

the algorithm, or the AI algorithm that takes the, uh, the, uh, as I said, the

qualification and also this easy to use, uh, um, a textbook, uh, editor.

I think it, it, it's a differentiator.

So I try to differentiate as much as I.

So, so basically is is like, it is like you say, I take a dually and I

take, uh, gong and I take cla uh, and I take close plan and put them together

in, in a smart way and you get my

solution.

Yeah.

And they, they've got access to the CEO right away, so.

Exactly.

Alright, so let's, let's wrap this up, Sammy.

I think it's, it's been pretty interesting.

So, who's, who's on the founding team and, uh, how many folks

do you have on your team?

As of.

So I have, uh, now I have eight, uh, people on my team

and, uh, the founding team is that, uh, so I have, uh, Two ai, uh,

professors, uh, university professors.

And are,

are there, are they in the role of advisors or are they sort

of working with you actively No, they,

they're working with me actually, so they work with me, uh,

works with me three days a week and, uh, the second four days a week.

And, uh, and it's, it's a passion.

It's, it's more than, uh, it's more than a job.

It's, it's a passion.

So the intention is that the intention is that to transform the

way we sell, so we have, uh, kind of very high, uh, at least objectives

and goals that we want to achieve.

Got it.

And have you raised any external funding so far?

So I'm in, uh, negotiation now.

Uh, the only thing is, uh, I really would like to validate.

The roi, the growth, et cetera.

So I have funding, I have self-funding for a year, another year.

Uh, but I'm negotiating because, uh, now I think the big question is that

what will you get from an, from a, an investor and what will you give in terms

of, uh, freedom and vision, et cetera?

Uh, and, and the question is that time is precious.

. Um, is there a need to accelerate right away to occupy the market

and grow, uh, quickly or not?

So that's, that's, I think these are the debate, but I'm trying to

get the right vc, uh, or the right investor in general with the right

mindset and it should happen in the next, uh, two to three months.

Awesome.

That's great, Sammy.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

Hope you scale value or to much greater heights.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for inviting me.