Adam Stone, CEO of StartAdam, sheds light on how his unique communication consolidation tool skyrocketed in user acquisition using the power of SEO. By connecting platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and Telegram, StartAdam simplifies B2B communication in an ingenious way.
Here’s what you'll discover:
Join us as Adam takes us on a journey from a unique product conception to rapid growth, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer needs and capitalizing on SEO’s might in the SaaS world.
You can watch this episode on youtube here,
https://youtu.be/gs8P1amE3xI
I think if you SEO can happen pretty quickly, people think it takes six
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:months, but if you have a page and people
are searching for it, and there's low
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:competition, you're going to be found.
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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 Varma.
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:And today we have Adam Stone with us.
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:Adam is the founder and CEO
of a company called StartAdam.
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:Hey Adam, welcome to the show.
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:Adam Stone: Thank you so much.
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:Appreciate it.
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:Upendra Varma: So Adam, that's an
interesting company name here, right?
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:So what does your product do
and why customers pay you money?
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:Adam Stone: Well, it sounds for automated
data, automated management for the record,
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:which happened to be the perfect name.
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:So I'll happily change my name.
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:It's no problem.
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:Uh, what we do is we communicate,
sorry, we consolidate communication
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:tools together fundamentally, right?
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:So we connect Slack, Microsoft Teams,
WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, text message,
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:and then we can do interesting things,
um, with, with the chat in that context.
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:We can start to be.
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:Bring products into the conversation,
like SAS tools that you use, CRM tools.
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:Um, so each party can contextually
use the tools that they need.
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:In the context of the conversation that
you're having with the other person.
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:So after this call, you know, you could,
uh, we could chat together from your
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:WhatsApp to my Slack account, for example,
using what we call, uh, an a link.
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:So I have a dot link slash Adam stone.
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:If anyone wants to connect
with me afterwards.
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:Um, but yeah, we're mainly
focused on sales, customer
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:success type type experiences.
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:Upendra Varma: Got it.
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:That makes a lot of sense.
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:And can you talk a bit about this, right?
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:So, I mean, it looks like a horizontal
platform that potentially anybody
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:in the world can use it, right?
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:So what's, what's the
thought process here, right?
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:Why just stick to like, who
are you focusing on today?
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:Is it just
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:Adam Stone: Yeah, so we actually get
a lot of, uh, we get a lot of inbound
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:traffic, actually, because we have
search terms like connect, uh, WhatsApp
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:to Telegram, for example, and so we
get a lot of inbound, uh, and a lot
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:of those are B2C, right, and we ignore
them, but there are some B2B ones
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:in there, so we're a freemium model.
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:In our outbound, we choose to focus
on the sales and customer success
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:experience because we found that
adds the most, that we are able to
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:add the most value to those teams.
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:Um, because it helps you maintain a
better relationship with your customers
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:or your prospects or your leads,
and then stay in touch with them
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:for the life cycle of your journey.
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:And then it helps the entire team because
the transcript of the conversation,
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:let's say with a salesperson.
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:And to a lead between WhatsApp
and their Slack account, um, that
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:synchronizes to the company's CRM.
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:So all of a sudden, even though
a salesperson's using WhatsApp to
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:communicate, the communications still
end up in the company's own CRM.
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:Upendra Varma: Got it.
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:Right.
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:And I want to understand
your customer base today.
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:Right.
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:So like how many paying customers do
you have on your platform as of today?
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:Adam Stone: Yeah.
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:So I'm probably not going to talk about
how many and how much and stuff, but,
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:Upendra Varma: give, give me, give
me a sense of, you know, how people
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:are using your product, right?
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:Who are these people?
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:Right.
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:So how many you have maybe on an
overall user account, whatever
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:that is, right, that you're
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:Adam Stone: yeah, of course.
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:So we, we launched our product
about three or four months ago now.
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:Um, and in that time we've had more than
3, 000 customers, sorry, 3, 000 users,
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:uh, sign up, uh, on a freemium model.
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:So that could give you an idea.
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:So we get up to 20 a day now.
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:Upendra Varma: All right.
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:So like my next question, like where are
you getting all of these people from?
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:Like, how did you sort of, you know,
get:
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:Right.
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:So what's been working for you?
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:Where are they discovering you?
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:Adam Stone: have a background in SEO, so
I think that's been very helpful for us.
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:We also have a product in a space
that other people just don't
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:really have compelling products.
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:So it's, you know, we
found a niche, I would say.
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:Um.
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:The other thing is we have some
innate virality in the product.
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:Like if I'm talking to you, then
I brought you onto the product.
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:And then maybe one out of five,
one out of 10 of people like you
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:will end up using the product.
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:Yourselves or themselves, uh, and so on.
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:So we do have innate, I would call it
like a two to one viral coefficient.
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:At least you can also create
cross platform groups, right?
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:So if someone wanted to create a group
with 500 people and make it a broadcast,
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:like if you want to stay in touch
with your podcast network, you could
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:have, um, a link for your podcast,
um, that people can join that creates
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:a cross platform group so people can
join from WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack,
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:text message, whatever they like.
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:And you can broadcast messages out.
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:Right.
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:But the good thing for us is if you
do that, and that's a paid feature.
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:So we get paid for that.
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:Um, you actually bring on 100 or
maybe:
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:Um, so,
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:Upendra Varma: So can you
just try to quantify this?
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:Right.
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:So, I mean, uh, because it's interesting
in the sense that, okay, you've
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:got this SEO background, right?
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:But how have you been able to sort of,
you know, get all such customers in
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:just such a short, short amount of time?
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:Have you been working on lead
generation for a while now,
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:because it takes time, right, to
get ranked for all of these terms.
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:So what's
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:Adam Stone: I think if you SEO can happen
pretty quickly, people think it takes six
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:months, but if you have a page and people
are searching for it, and there's low
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:competition, you're going to be found.
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:For that search term,
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:Upendra Varma: and can
you quantify this, right?
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:So when have you been putting in,
you know, efforts to sort of like
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:this SEO content and what sort of
content are we talking about here?
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:Adam Stone: not necessarily content, as
you might think about it, it's more just
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:having a page available on the site.
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:So you need to have the foundations
for SEO, otherwise it doesn't work.
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:Like Google can't just
know what you do, right?
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:Just like a user can't come to
your site and know what you do.
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:So I think about Google and, uh,
users in the same vein, actually.
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:What's good for the users is good for us.
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:Upendra Varma: Right.
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:So like quantify this, just so you've
got like around:
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:Can you just approximately let me like
how many of them discovered through one of
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:this organic, you know, SEO search, right?
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:Can you just put a number there?
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:Adam Stone: 90 percent of them.
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:Upendra Varma: Okay.
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:So now my question goes right.
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:So all I'm understanding is right
to a couple months back, you, you
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:came up with this bunch of landing
pages that users are searching for.
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:And now like you've, you've like,
you've seen:
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:like three months, like that,
that just looks too, too amazing.
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:Right.
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:So like, what, like what, what's,
what's the secret sauce here?
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:Right.
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:So what's been working here?
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:Was this just, you know, what's
your keyword strategy or can
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:you just talk about that?
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:Adam Stone: Yeah.
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:I mean, so we're fortunate because
we've got a lot of different
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:combinations of keywords, right?
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:Connect Slack to my HubSpot account.
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:You know, that would be one of them.
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:Connect WhatsApp to Telegram
would be another one, right?
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:And then there's the more business
oriented ones, like you could imagine.
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:Connect Slack to Microsoft
Teams would be a valuable one.
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:That one actually I don't think is our
highest volume and that probably is
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:a little more competition, but really
the competition is nonsense because
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:nobody's doing what we're doing.
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:So, um, it's a difficult
problem that we've had to solve.
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:It took us about a year of development
where it should have taken three months.
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:Um, yeah, so I think it's a
combination of good SEO strategy
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:and having a product in a niche that
is sort of not really looked at.
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:I think that's the idea of SaaS, right?
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:You want to have a software in
a space where you have a niche.
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:And I think SEO is a really
good way of validating that.
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:Upendra Varma: So essentially
connect X to Y that's, that's the
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:keyword that you've been focusing
with X and Y being your variables.
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:And then you've got whole bunch of, you
know, iterations and then you've just
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:built landing pages for all of those.
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:Right.
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:And that's driving almost
all of your traffic today.
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:Adam Stone: Yeah, you could say that.
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:Upendra Varma: That's, that's wonderful.
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:Right.
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:So, and like, what's
the plan going forward?
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:And just tell me, right.
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:Have you managed to convert any of these,
you know, free users to page users?
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:Is there a good conversion rate there?
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:Adam Stone: Yeah, while we've been
on the call, someone signed up.
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:Upendra Varma: So can you quantify,
are you comfortable with that?
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:Adam Stone: Uh, can I,
sorry, say that again?
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:Upendra Varma: for every
hundred users signing up, right?
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:So how many of them are actually
ending up on your paid plan today?
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:Adam Stone: Yeah, I'm probably not
going to talk too much about that.
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:I'd say it's on the earlier stages, right?
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:So it's not, um, happening
on a basis that I could even
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:quantify that question, right?
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:Um, because most of the users,
we're only rolled out billing
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:about a week or two weeks ago.
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:Um, we were doing outbound, right?
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:And we allowed people to sign up
and we were testing things like
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:we actually effed up, um, quite a
bit, which I'm happy to talk about.
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:Um, killed our growth for a month by
trying to charge all of our free users.
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:Um, but yeah, it's only been like
a week or two since we've actually
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:had billing baked into the product.
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:Upendra Varma: what else have you
been trying apart from, you know, SEO?
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:So, and obviously apart from the virality
part that that's embedded in your product,
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:like, is there anything that you've
been, you talked about outbound, right?
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:So
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:Adam Stone: Yeah, I think.
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:It's, it's funny cause like you look at
the scalable channels and then you look
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:at the unscalable channels and sometimes
they perform the same as each other.
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:Right.
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:So in our example, I would say,
uh, SEO channel, uh, which performs
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:really well from a freemium base,
but then, uh, LinkedIn, for example,
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:press articles, these things that
I would call somewhat unscalable.
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:Those have led to like an equal
or if not higher amount of
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:revenue that's been brought in.
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:than the actual, you know, SEO that's
bringing in thousands of users.
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:So I think it's important to be
doing both things at the same time.
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:Like you can work on scalable
things, but then you need to do
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:things that don't scale as well.
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:Um, engaging with your audience,
building an audience, all that stuff.
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:Upendra Varma: Got it.
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:So Adam, just, you know, go
back like six, 12 months before.
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:Right.
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:So how did it all start?
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:Right.
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:So where did you get the idea for
this product and you know, how have
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:you started, you know, building the
brand and the whole thing here, right?
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:So just walk us through that journey.
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:Adam Stone: Yeah, it was
kind of a fun journey.
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:Um, so we started building about eight.
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:Uh, eight years ago, uh, under,
under Speedlancer, which was my old
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:freelancing marketplace platform.
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:That was the first verticalized
freelancing marketplace.
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:Nobody else was doing freelancing
marketplaces at the time other
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:than Upwork and Fiverr, right?
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:And then there was us.
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:So we got a bit of a name,
a name for ourselves.
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:We had a couple of thousand customers,
um, paying, um, uh, but you know, during
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:COVID, like everything sort of shifted.
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:And 700 marketplaces popped up.
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:Everything became really competitive.
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:Um, so we were kind of at a
high, and I knew it was going
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:to be a high for Speedlancer.
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:So I let it actually taper
down to basically zero.
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:Um, but during that time, we
were focusing on the SaaS.
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:And so what we did was we took the
software that we had spent years
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:building for Speedlancer, which would
connect freelancers with companies.
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:via their communication tools.
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:Um, it was actually specially built
for Slack to Slack before Slack had
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:their own Slack Connect product.
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:Uh, and in fact, we were the first Slack
that actually did anything in:
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:Um, which is, I guess, our claim to fame.
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:But that, it became StartAtom,
which actually started as a
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:project management tool, and then
we focused on, on sales piece.
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:Upendra Varma: Got it.
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:And that's how it started.
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:Right.
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:And like, so what was, what
was the goal on day one?
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:Right.
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:Was it always about, you know, just using
SEO and, you know, virality or what else
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:are you planning going forward here?
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:Adam Stone: No, it was terrifying.
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:I, um, spoke to a couple of investors.
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:I told them we weren't really raising.
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:We didn't even have a product yet.
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:Um, I sort of wanted their thoughts.
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:We ended up closing around accidentally
pre product and everything.
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:Uh, I think we had, you know,
we have a really good team.
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:My CTO is a, uh, an ex
AI professor of 35 years.
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:So, um, got an amazing team, but
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:Upendra Varma: how big of a
team are we talking about today?
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:Adam Stone: uh, right
now it's about six of us.
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:Upendra Varma: Okay.
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:Adam Stone: Yeah.
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:So we're pretty lean, but.
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:Lean and mean, but, um, we, we came, we,
we, at that time before we had a product,
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:I mean, we didn't have a product, right?
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:So we definitely didn't have
a go to market strategy.
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:Um, I remember telling someone at
like a party, like what I'm, what
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:I'm working on, what I'm doing.
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:And they're like, they're asking me
what's your go to market strategy.
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:And I'm like, it'll unfold.
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:You never know.
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:You don't know what
channels are going to work.
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:Right.
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:So you just have to try things.
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:And all of a sudden SEO was taking off
with Speedlancer SEO did not take off.
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:And I thought it would take off.
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:Right.
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:Like for Fiverr, it took off for us.
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:It didn't, uh, for my e commerce
business, uh, SEO was the main, um,
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:was the main way of us getting traffic.
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:So there's no rhyme or reason about it.
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:I didn't think that we get any traction
on LinkedIn just by posting, but look, I
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:think people resonate with the concept.
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:People resonate instantly with the
frustration of too many communication
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:tools, and so it's about finding the B2B
use case for that and then going for that.
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:Upendra Varma: So Adam, I can't
see a pricing page on your, you
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:know, on your homepage there.
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:Right.
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:So like, was it
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:Adam Stone: is one.
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:Upendra Varma: Okay.
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:I couldn't, I tried from my place
and be, I'll just try it again.
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:Right.
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:So I, I thought like there's this talk
to sales being that, you know, main CTA.
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:Right.
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:I thought it would be, you know,
enterprising deals that you were
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:trying to push from day one.
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:Is that what you're looking at?
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:Adam Stone: Uh, we're kind of
doing a two fold strategy, right?
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:We're accepting whatever inbound leads
we get, inbound customers we get, and
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:then we have the outbound strategy as
well, which is more enterprise focused.
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:Upendra Varma: Okay.
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:So yeah, what's, what's, what's
going to happen in the future, right?
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:So now what, what are you investing
your time and efforts going forward?
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:Right.
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:So are you going to scale
your outbound team or what,
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:what's, what's going to happen?
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:Just.
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:What
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:Adam Stone: Yeah, we're hopefully
about to hire our first, like, head
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:of sales to go after enterprise.
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:Um, meanwhile, we have a bunch of
enterprise leads that we're going after.
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:So I'm hoping those will close and
we'll be in a really good position by
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:the time that's done, um, just closed
out next funding round, which is great.
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:Upendra Varma: And then have
you managed to sort of close
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:any enterprise deals so far?
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:I mean, is it
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:Adam Stone: Yeah, we have.
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:Upendra Varma: Okay.
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:And just talk about
the sales cycle, right?
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:So how big of a deals
are we talking about?
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:Is it a 100, 10, 000 deal?
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:Like what's that sweet
spot look like today?
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:Adam Stone: Yeah.
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:Right now.
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:They're like five figure.
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:Um, and I think we've got a
few more of those that will
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:probably be five figure deals.
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:Um, six figure deals.
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:We've had a few leads that
haven't, um, haven't closed them or
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:Upendra Varma: And then, and like,
so just pick, like, I just want to
335
:understand the motion here, right?
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:So for majority of these enterprise
deals that you're trying to close.
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:Are they inbound?
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:Are they, you know, these outbound leads
that you've sort of managed to reach
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:Adam Stone: bit of both, you could
call them like channel partnerships or
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:inbound, a mix of both of those things.
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:Uh, and then we've had some come, you
know, fully inbound through SEO and such.
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:Um,
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:Upendra Varma: and like, what
does the sales cycle look like?
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:Because I'm asking you
specifically, right?
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:Because this, this does look like
a novel product, you know, that's,
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:that's not, you know, it's not a
replacement of anything, right?
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:It's more like something, a
newer way of doing things, right?
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:So, I mean, it's not easy to
sell something like that, right?
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:That they're going to be a lot of,
you know, questions, all of it, right?
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:So like, how does the
sales cycle look like?
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:Are, are your customers comfortable, you
know, accepting, you know, your product?
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:What's happening when you go
into those sales conversations?
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:You just give us a sense of that.
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:Adam Stone: no, I mean, they're
pretty positive and fast moving.
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:I mean, we had someone sign up within
a day and someone pay us annually
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:upfront, you know, for Multiple users
and then upgrade two months later
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:and pass annually for those upgrades
and pay four times as much as they
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:had been, um, today we've got a I.
359
:T.
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:approval process starting for a
lead that we spoke to a week ago.
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:So they're pretty quick.
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:I think I don't know if I agree with
your assumption that because it's
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:a new product, it takes a while.
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:Like, I think,
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:Upendra Varma: So, okay.
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:My question was a bit different, right?
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:So in terms of competitive
landscape, right?
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:So are you positioning yourself against
any, you know, existing competitors?
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:Do you have any of those?
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:Adam Stone: um, I'm definitely
not positioning ourselves,
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:ourselves against, um, competitors.
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:Right.
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:If they come up in a conversation,
it's like people focus so much
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:on competition, but as far as I'm
concerned, nothing's competition
375
:until my customer says it to me.
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:Right.
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:If they go, Oh, why would I
use you instead of so and so?
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:And I can't answer the question,
then that's, then that's
379
:the true competitor, right?
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:If someone exists in a, in a very
fringe market or requires a lot of
381
:integration, or they haven't spoken
to the customer that we spoken
382
:to, then there's no competition.
383
:And I'm certainly not about to tell
the customer about any competition.
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:Um, although I'm not aware of
any competition that would, uh,
385
:that I would need to disclose.
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:But, um, yeah, does that
answer the question?
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:Upendra Varma: Yeah, in a way it does.
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:Right.
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:And can Zapier do all of these that
you mentioned or, you know, are you
390
:doing something way more than that?
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:Adam Stone: Yeah, no, we,
we integrate with Zapier.
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:Um, it really has very
little to do with us.
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:Zapier doesn't do cross
platform communication.
394
:Um, we do.
395
:Right.
396
:So you could maybe send a single
message from one platform, maybe to
397
:another platform, but still you need
to onboard the other user, right?
398
:So if I want to talk to you and I'm
going to make you give me your API key.
399
:Uh, I think you're just
going to prefer email.
400
:So there's a lot of work that goes
into, uh, making the experience
401
:really as magical as it can be.
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:Upendra Varma: Got it.
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:All right, Adam, thanks for
taking the time to talk to me.
404
:Hope you scale your company
to much, much greater heights.
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:Adam Stone: No, I appreciate it.
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:Thank you.