BIO: Sachi Wickramage is the Co-founder, COO & CPO of i4T Global, a disruptive Field Service Management ecosystem.
STORY: Sachi and his partner created an app that they thought would solve a problem for suppliers. Turns out, the suppliers didn’t need the app at all.
LEARNING: Sometimes, you have to take a step back to take a step forward. Understand the moment of intent for each of your customer segments.
“Understand the moment of intent for each of the segments of your customer base.”
Sachi Wickramage
Guest profile
Sachi Wickramage is the Co-founder, COO & CPO of i4T Global, a disruptive Field Service Management ecosystem.
With a track record of co-founding multiple mobile-first startups, Sachi has taken his apps to over 1 million active users across various platforms worldwide.
Worst investment ever
When Sachi and his co-founder were building their Field Management Service app, they looked at the problem and figured the consumer in the ecosystem was the one facing the problem. But, they targeted the supplier. The goal was to provide the supplier with a better tech platform to provide better consumer visibility. One thing the partners did not identify at that time was that the suppliers were okay with the way they were operating their business because they knew they were a scarce resource.
Now the partners were in a fix. They couldn’t promote the app to the consumer because they needed a critical mass of suppliers on the app. When they tried to promote the app to the suppliers, their question was if there were already many customers who would give them more jobs.
The two partners had to step back, look at their model, and figure out who was the target audience with the problem at scale.
Lessons learned
- When building solutions, first figure out who is the target customer with the problem at scale.
Andrew’s takeaways
- Sometimes you have to take a step back to take a step forward.
Actionable advice
Wait for the moment of intent. Once the moment of intent arises, people are ready for your solution. But if you incorrectly identify the moment of intent, your solution becomes a disturbance because people don’t have a need at that time.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Sachi’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to expand beyond Australia to Europe and the US while staying true to his purpose.
Parting words
“Define who you are and who you inspire.”
Sachi Wickramage
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