Brendan Weitz, Co-founder of Journey, joins host Upendra Varma to deep dive into how his company is revolutionizing the B2B sales and marketing realm with an innovative storytelling format. Brendan walks us through how Journey emerged from a prototype to a game-changing tool, aiming to make B2B transactions as seamless as B2C purchases on platforms like Amazon.

Key insights from this episode:

• The inception of Journey and its mission to create a captivating buying experience for sales and marketing teams.
• How Journey transcends the conventional 16x9 presentation format to offer a more interactive, mobile-first experience in an asynchronous remote world.
• Brendan's take on targeting sales and marketing sectors, yet being open to a wide range of storytelling use cases.
• A snapshot of Journey's current customer base (around 200 customers) and its freemium model attracting tens of thousands of users monthly.
• The product's self-sufficient viral loop driving 50% of their signups, and their aspirational aim to match viral growth akin to tools like Loom or Calendly.
• A nostalgic journey into Brendan's past roles at major companies like Facebook, AdRoll, and Quora, and how these experiences shaped Journey's growth.
• The vision of Journey and its future go-to-market strategy.
• Team dynamics, funding details, and Brendan's ambitious outlook for the platform.

You can also watch this episode on youtube here.

we, we get about 50 percent of our signups come from a viral loop.

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So people share a journey that

people that they, uh, that are

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receiving the journey sign up for it.

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And then we work our sales

pipeline is based on what

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people are doing in the product.

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Upendra Varma: Hello everyone.

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Welcome to the B2B SaaS podcast.

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I'm your host Upendra Verma and

today we have Brendan Bytes with us.

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Brendan here is the co founder

of a company called Journey.

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Hey, Brendan, welcome to the show.

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Brendan Weitz: Hi, thanks

for, uh, thanks for having me.

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Upendra Varma: Hey Brendan.

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So let's, let's try to understand

what Journey as a company does, right?

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And why customers pay you money.

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah, absolutely.

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Uh, I mean, journey is a new storytelling

format for sales and marketing teams.

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We basically felt like three years

ago or two and a half years ago.

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B2B transactions should be as easy

as buying something on amazon.

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com in the B2C world.

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So we're trying to bridge that gap now.

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large B to B transactions.

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So we create this storytelling format

for salespeople, encompassing video

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documents, text, um, all in one place

to create an amazing buying experience.

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Upendra Varma: And, uh, so just talk

a bit more about the product, right?

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So is it just, uh, like currently,

are you trying to replace PowerPoints?

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Is that what you're trying to do?

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Or is it much more than a

simple presentation format?

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah.

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I mean, I think it's, uh, you know, we,

we integrate with PowerPoint, but we,

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we feel like the, The 16 by 9 rectangle

that we've all been used to for the

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last 40 years, uh, doesn't really give,

um, much justice to the storyteller,

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the person behind the content.

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So we feel like Journey

is a bit more interactive.

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It's mobile first and, uh, It helps

people to gain context, especially

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in a asynchronous remote world where

not everything is happening live.

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I think PowerPoints are

better for live presentations.

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We play more in the backstage, like

after the call, before the call, you

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know, internal meetings that you're not

a part of, uh, is what we facilitate.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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So I'm just trying to understand, it

looks like this is a different way of,

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you know, presenting your ideas or, you

know, getting your things out there.

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Right.

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So how have you sort of chosen this

positioning of, you know, you deciding to

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just sell it to sales and marketing teams?

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Like, what's the backstory there?

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah.

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Great question.

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I feel like a lot of,

uh, a lot of companies.

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The founders kind of start

with what they know best.

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I mean, we come from my, my co

founders, uh, we, we kind of span the

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gamut of sales, marketing, and BD.

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So that's just honestly where our network

started or our network lives and where

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we had access to customers the most, the

quickest, and we understood the best.

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So, um, you bring up a good point.

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We see a lot of other use cases

outside of sales and marketing, but

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from a go to market perspective,

To not completely go insane.

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We try to focus on, um,

sales and marketing.

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And, um, but as you can probably

tell, you know, anyone can sign up

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for journey and use it for anything.

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Uh, and we feel like everyone is a

storyteller in their own, in their

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own regard, regardless of what

you're selling your company yourself.

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Um, so lots of use cases,

but that's our focus.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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So Brandon, let's, let's try to

understand your customer base as of today.

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Right.

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So how many customers do you have?

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How many paying customers do you

have on your platform as of today?

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Right.

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah, absolutely.

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It's around 200 paying companies.

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And those are.

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I would call them, um, early

like series a series B startups.

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And then you have, uh, about 25

percent more growth companies like

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Reddit and Sightly more series

D series E pre IPO companies.

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Um, and, uh, it's mainly our buyer is

the, you know, the VP of sales or the CRO.

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But we really tailored to the end user.

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The end user is really the

individual salesperson or the

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individual account manager.

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Um, so that's, um, that's

our paying user base.

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And then we have a freemium model.

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So there's tens of thousands of

users every month that, um, that,

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uh, use our, our free product.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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Right.

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So, and, and how big of a

deals are we talking about?

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I know there's going to

be a big spread, right?

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So typically, for example, if you

pick your series, there'll be a

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customer, right, that you have.

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Right.

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So how big of a deal are we talking about?

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Is it a thousand dollar deal?

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Is it a thousand dollar deal?

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I I'm asking you because I just want to

understand your go to market motion later.

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Right.

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Brendan Weitz: Totally.

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Yeah.

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So, uh, our team deals

range from six to 10 K.

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So for those series a B companies,

that's kind of the, the,

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um, the median, I would say.

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Upendra Varma: That makes a lot of sense.

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Uh, all right.

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So are you comfortable sharing

your revenue overall as a company?

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Brendan Weitz: Uh, I would say our

next milestone is a million in ARR.

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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That's, that's a wonderful data point.

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And how, how are you looking at like,

when do you plan on achieving that?

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Like, how does the numbers look like?

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah.

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I mean, hopefully in the next,

you know, six to nine months.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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That makes a lot of sense.

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And all right.

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So let's, let's talk about

your go to market motion here.

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Right?

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So I'm assuming you've

got 10, 000 deals, right?

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So just, just help us understand, right.

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Typically where you finding all of

these deals or leads from a top up

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funnel perspective, and then we can

talk about the conversion as well.

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah, absolutely.

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I mean, we, uh, candidly, the

founders of Journey, we don't

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come from, uh, enterprise sales

background or direct sales background.

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We, uh, we've always worked at

and built self serve software

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companies, um, in different spaces,

but, uh, our entire motion is, um,

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I don't want to use too much of a

buzzword, but product led growth.

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Um, we, we get about 50 percent of

our signups come from a viral loop.

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So people share a journey that

people that they, uh, that are

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receiving the journey sign up for it.

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And then we work our sales

pipeline is based on what

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people are doing in the product.

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So.

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We are looking at, uh, signals from

what people, um, when they're coming in,

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creating a journey, inviting team members.

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And then we have a lot of enrichment

on, uh, what companies they work

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for, if they're a good fit for

us to then reach out and engage.

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Um, we don't, we don't have any sales

or marketing headcount at the company,

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so it's just the founders doing it.

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And then, um, uh, I mean, we have

done things like product launches

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and things to drive, um, top of

funnel, which have done very well.

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Um, we've tested out some very

lightweight, um, email sponsorships.

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Um, and then, uh, yeah, I would say the

majority though comes from the product.

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Um, I wouldn't say we're, we're

viral like Loom or Calendly,

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but, uh, that's our goal.

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Upendra Varma: but do you have something

like what Loom or Calendly have

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powered by Loom, powered by Calendly?

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Do you have something

like powered by Journey?

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And is that what's responsible for

most of these top of funnel groups?

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Brendan Weitz: Exactly.

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Uh, it's, it's really tough to track,

like not the majority of people don't

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click on that button, but, uh, when we

do like follow up surveys and things, you

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can tell that they've seen a journey and

that's why they're, they're signing up.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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And then what typically, and what

happens after somebody signs up,

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starts using your product, right?

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So how do you convert

them to a paying user?

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And I know you've got

hundreds of customers, right?

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So what's, how have you

managed to close them so far?

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah, absolutely.

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I mean, typically it's, uh, once we,

we, we use the, the framework that slack

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used back in the day, like once you get

three people in an, in an organization,

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uh, that's, we consider that a team.

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And if they fit our ICP like a.

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Company that our sales team that

is like most of our customers are

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selling non transactional deals,

like, um, meaning that there's

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a lot of stakeholders involved.

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There's a lot of content

going back and forth.

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So if we deem that it's a good fit for us,

once we see three people in an account.

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We serve them hopefully helpful content

that gets them to creating their

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first journey, sharing their first

journey, inviting more team members.

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And then we engage with more training,

uh, and onboarding content live.

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Upendra Varma: So just give

me one data point, right?

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So for example, for a 10, 000 deal

that you might have closed recently.

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Right?

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So, so how, how much time did it

actually take you to close that deal?

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Was it, are we talking weeks, months?

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And how much effort did you put

in actually to close that deal?

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Brendan Weitz: Uh, I, I

wish it was faster, but it's

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probably two months right now.

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Like is the, is the deal cycle.

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I think everyone is, uh, the,

the, the way the market is and

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the way the world is today.

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Everything takes longer, smaller

deals have more people involved.

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And I think the beauty for us is

that people can get started for free.

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They can, it's like no risk to them.

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Um, if we want to speed up deals, what we

do is we actually can go in and help them.

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Create the journeys and customize for

them and run like a very focused pilot.

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Um, but we live and die by the product.

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If, if our customers can't come in and

do things self service, then we need to

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iterate more and make the product easier.

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Upendra Varma: And it's primarily

you founders trying to close

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these deals today, right?

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Or do you have any

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Brendan Weitz: Yep.

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Well,

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Upendra Varma: team?

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Brendan Weitz: we have one

customer success slash.

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Sales slash rev ops person, but it's,

it's basically me and one other person.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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So, so yeah, just, uh, I just want to,

want you to sort of go back, right.

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When it all started, right.

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So, and I want to understand

that zero to one journey, right.

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I know you talked a bit about,

you know, how you had this viral

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growth and all of it, right.

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But that's, that must have been,

you know, your recent story, right.

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So how did it all begin in the beginning?

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Right.

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So how did you get that, those first

set of customers, what was that journey?

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Like, how does that zero to one

journey look like in your case?

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah, absolutely.

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So we, um, we, we were accepted into

Y Combinator and winter of 20, uh, 21.

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So that's January, 2021.

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And, um, our, we had no product, no

customers at that point, but we had

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this idea and a prototype that we showed

to, like I said earlier, Our network

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was primarily in sales and marketing.

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So we just went out to our network,

um, warm to the best 50 or a hundred

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salespeople, marketing people that

we knew, and I begged them to try the

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product or use the product and iterate.

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Upendra Varma: and what's

your background here?

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So how did you build

that network over years?

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah, so I've been working

in startups for the last 15 years.

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I'm from New York.

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So I started in around 2008,

worked at startups here.

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I worked at Facebook fairly early

on before the IPO in sales there.

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And then I, I led business development,

corporate development at a company

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called AdRoll and then Quora.

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So I had worked at, you know, early stage

companies like Series A, Series B, and

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then later stage companies like Series

D, um, all in sales, BD, uh, functions.

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So that's kind of where my, my network

lies and my, my co founders, um, also

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have, have worked at startups for.

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first for their whole career.

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So we grew our network through

our previous companies mainly.

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Um, so I think, I think all

the ex Facebook ad role Quora

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people for, um, helping us grow.

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Upendra Varma: Yeah.

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Right.

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So, so a couple of questions here, right

in, within this context here, right?

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So I'm assuming when you start, when

you go to a VP of sales and, you know,

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sort of pitch your product, right?

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So is that something that is, is it

really that pressing a problem for

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them that you're really solving?

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Right.

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I mean, I could, if I'm VP sales,

right, I've got a bunch of tools, right?

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So I mean, I could invest

in some other place, right?

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So why would I sort of

prioritize your product?

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So what, what's that pitch that

you're sort of using to sell this

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and, you know, create that urgency

and importance for your product?

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah, absolutely.

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I think the, you know, the The,

um, the last 10 years really were

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focused on sales enablement, like

training sales reps, coaching them.

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There hasn't ever been

a focus on the buyer.

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Like how does the buyer want to

buy, um, meeting the buyer where

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they are and, you know, just.

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The way sales has, has

evolved is really changing.

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It's more virtual, it's less in person,

it's more asynchronous and people

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like the buyers are getting younger.

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Like they're like me, there may be

millennials now in buying roles where

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they don't like to always hop on a call.

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Um, so I think it's changing.

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It's changing slowly though, but our

pitched essentially is, um, that you can.

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You can test out Journey fairly

quickly to see if it's impacting

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things that you care about.

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Like VPs of sales, they pretty

much care about three metrics.

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It's their win rate, their deal

velocity, um, and then their,

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their net dollar retention.

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So we really help with the first two.

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Um, and we could help with the third,

but, but we've tried to focus on just one

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of those and testing out, you know, uh,

if it could help improve those metrics.

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And then you're also a bit doing a bit

of consolidation with journey because

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we have a bunch of tools in one place.

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Upendra Varma: Right.

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So what's, what's the vision here, right?

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So how are you going to grow, grow to

that 1 million ARR and like, how are you

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going to grow to that 5 million mark?

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Right.

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So what's going to happen in terms

of marketing sales, all of it.

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Right.

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So what's the vision here?

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah, absolutely.

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I think the, the, um, you know,

the idea is like we're, we

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started in sales and marketing.

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I think we'll continue to focus

there for, you know, until we

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hit that milestone, uh, of ARR.

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Um, but.

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I mean, we're just realizing that

everyone is pretty much selling something.

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Uh, you know, whether you're, um,

whether you're looking for a job

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and you're trying to stand out, like

we have people that are creating

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journeys as a new format for a resume.

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We have like Tik TOK creators that are

creating a portfolio, uh, on journey and

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selling, you know, sponsorships that way.

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So we think it's much broader,

uh, to just like a new way of

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doing business in a B2B world.

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Um, and so I think once we get to certain

milestones, we'll start to really pour

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the fuel on, you know, doing like actual

paid growth and doing outbound sales,

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uh, because I think the reality is that.

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Um, in 10 years, every sales team is

going to use something like journey.

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You know, I hope it's, I hope the majority

of it is through something like, like

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actually journey, but, um, I think we're

just going to see the digitization of

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B2B sales, um, become more like what I've

said when I initially got on this pod.

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Of like, think of how easy it

is to buy something on Amazon.

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Um, I think you'll see now I can

buy a Tesla for a hundred thousand

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dollars with a few taps on my phone.

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Like, I think you're going to see

that B2B sales move in that direction.

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And the role of a salesperson

really is going to, going to shift.

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So that's where I think tools like

this are going to be, uh, Um, are

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going to be a, uh, a need to have

the bigger question is more so, is

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it going to be startups that scale

or is it going to be the behemoths

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that just build or buy these things?

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That's really the bigger question.

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Upendra Varma: So, and so far

you haven't been focusing on any

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outbound sales or any of that, right?

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It's just, you know, a bunch of

leads coming in through your viral

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loop, and then you're trying to

selectively pick a bunch of them

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and, you know, go after them.

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Is that how it's

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah.

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I mean, yeah, candidly, we could

probably grow a lot faster if we did

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outbound sales, but I think you, I

mean, it's, it's time will tell if

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we're, we're doing the right thing.

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Um, I think that for us.

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We, like I said, live

and die by the product.

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And if you're going to truly be

a product led growth company, and

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that's your go to market motion, you

can't force it with top down sales.

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Like you, you really should just pick one.

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Uh,

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Upendra Varma: you doing with

all of those, you know, uh,

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non aligned leads, right?

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So somebody from, let's say

a HR team trying to use your

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product for something, right?

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So are you literally leaving them around

and you're just saying, okay, we don't

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really care about you as of today.

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Is that what you're doing?

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Brendan Weitz: yeah.

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It's a great question.

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I mean, I wouldn't say like we have.

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You know, once again, I hope it's helpful.

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We have hopefully helpful content for

every type of persona, whether you're a

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salesperson, you're a marketer, you're a

customer success, you're in recruiting,

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you're in, um, you're, you're a venture

capitalist and you're fundraising, or

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you're a founder and you're fundraising.

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We have helpful content about how you can

use journey for these different use cases.

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Um, but just the, the, it's not worth

it to us from a revenue standpoint

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to like focus on those users.

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So we just try to convert them self serve

entirely, like you can pay monthly or

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Upendra Varma: Yeah.

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It makes, makes a lot of sense actually.

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Yeah.

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So, all right.

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So Brendan, let's just

talk about the team here.

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Right.

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So how, how big is your team

and what are they doing?

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah, we're a team

of nine, three co founders, three

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engineers, two design, one customer

success, fully remote in crazily enough,

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like five, four or five different time

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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And have you raised any external

funding so far to build your company?

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Brendan Weitz: Yes.

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We raised 4 million or a little

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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All right, Brendan.

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Uh, thanks for taking

the time to talk to me.

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Hope you scale journey to

much, much greater heights.

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Brendan Weitz: Yeah.

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Thank you so much.

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Thanks for having me.