Chaos To Clarity

This episode continues the conversation with Jason Corso - Professor of Robotics and EECS at University of Michigan and Co-Founder/Chief Science Officer at Voxel51 - a Series A AI software company that enables machine learning and computer vision scientists to rapidly curate and experiment with their datasets in order to build higher performing machine learning systems.AI platforms have been a game changer for productivity and mapping, but it's not yet at the level of flexibility that would eliminate most of the grunt work. Eric and Jason speak on how they'd like to see AI platforms collaborate and get to a point where they not only map out your tasks, but also do a lot of the preliminary work - just like an assistant would. Generalized and personalized AI assistants are the next big step that would vastly increase the value that executives get from utilizing AI in their daily workflow. Eric speaks on how he's currently using ChatGPT to some level of success, but also mentions something we've all felt - the need for a system that compartmentalizes workflows, remembers information and draws custom next steps from previously established context.Everyone's excited for what's next for generative AI. Even though closed models are currently performing better than open-source, this situation will most likely change with time as more tools become available. Jason breaks down annotation strategies and speaks on how the idea of just taking data and training your own models might not be the most efficient way to drive innovation as an AI startup. There's a lot of work in understanding how to create good datasets, which is something that most companies are missing.Tune into the full episode to learn more about the potential of AI!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Utilizing Microsoft AutoGen04:04 What's next for AI assistant platforms?  09:03 The problem with ChatGPT 12:47 What's the next step in AI tool development?17:31 The problem with questionable datasetsConnect with Jason - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-corso/ Check out Voxel51 - https://voxel51.com/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

Today's episode welcomes Jason Corso - Professor of Robotics and EECS at University of Michigan and Co-Founder/Chief Science Officer at Voxel51 - a Series A AI software company that enables machine learning and computer vision scientists to rapidly curate and experiment with their datasets in order to build higher performing machine learning systems.Jason is a builder by nature. During his academic career he started to ask himself - “can I have a bigger impact on the world?”, which led him to meet his co-founder and start Voxel 51. Both of them had a passion for machine learning and an ability to write code - which is how his transition from academia to consulting began. In the early days they received a grant which worked out well and funded them through the process of building their first service. Building a service, however, was never part of the plan. Once they realized that the limitations of the grant won't enable building a product, they sought out venture capital. This venture capital boost allowed them to build out their open-source platform which has more than 2 million downloads as of this episode. Jason speaks on the early success stories of Voxel51. One of their earliest clients took just 1% of their data and in a few hours they were able to look at the data visually, which enabled them to figure out where mistakes were made. Data quality is more important than the sophistication of the system, and Voxel51 enables their clients to find where inefficiencies live.Even with a great system - human input is still needed when it comes to quality control. Jason speaks on how humans filling in the gaps when the system is less certain is highly effective - even though it doesn't scale. Eric speaks on how experienced data scientists develop an almost 6th sense when looking at data and understanding that something is wrong and a change is in order. Check out the full episode to learn more on how to approach utilizing data! HIGHLIGHTS:03:41 Building a service-based business05:21 When do you utilize Voxel51 in the development process?09:52 Quality or quantity - what's more important for your data?15:05 The importance of human pattern recognition 18:03 New applications of AI toolsConnect with Jason - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-corso/ Check out Voxel51 - https://voxel51.com/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

This episode continues the conversation with Raj Verma, CEO of SingleStore - a Series F startup that provides a cloud-native database built with speed and scale to power real-time applications.Eric and Raj discuss the implications of openly available AI. On one hand, a ton of good will be brought into the world. On the other hand, every new technology comes with its caveats and even the simplest things like booking a flight online can lead to malicious actors scamming people out of their hard earned money.Eric recalls his work with an executive at OpenAI, where he had a sneak peak into what we now know as ChatGPT, and their team was by no means blind to the possibility of their tech being used for the wrong reasons. The team at OpenAI had factored this in, and are cognizant of the fact that they are responsible for safety regulations for their software.Raj speaks on AI regulation, and believes that the biggest governments in the world will regulate AI usage appropriately, as none of them are interested in AI-supported crimes. This doesn't mean that all regulation will be the same, as global superpowers have differentiating viewpoints in their social and governing philosophies, which could cause problems down the line.Change happens faster than we think. Raj uses the analogy of how fast cars replaced horses in the early 1900's, when talking about how quickly the AI revolution can take place. Predictions are typically made drawing comparisons to the past, but as it's been proven time and time again - the future comes quicker than we can possibly imagine, and Raj sees a similar pattern with how AI is disrupting us right now.Tune into the full episode to learn more wisdom about the upcoming AI revolution!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 What's the true value of AI?03:48 Does tech democratization lead to good or evil?07:02 AI Regulations on social media 09:53 The potential destructiveness of AI12:41 GameStop and Silicon Valley Bank 16:59 Change happens faster than we thinkConnect with Raj - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajvermaceo/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve! To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io

In this episode, Eric is joined by Raj Verma, CEO of SingleStore - a Series F startup that provides a cloud-native database built with speed and scale to power real-time applications.Raj speaks on their journey of finding the problem in their market. They saw how inefficient it is to navigate between multiple data platforms and that data is often too fragmented and spread between too many sources to ensure quality conclusions due to there being too many points of failure. Big tech has a huge data advantage over mid-market competitors due to the fact that leveraging data is super expensive. SingleStore is on a mission to democratize data utilization in smaller companies, which also reflects in their client base - SaaS companies between $10-300 million ARR see the most benefit from implementing SingleStore, and their best performing segment are go-to-market tools, which is a motion that historically doesn't rely on data as much as other parts of the business.Generative AI is changing the way companies utilize data. Raj mentions that in the digital age, generative AI has been in the making for decades. He sees AI being discussed in 3 buckets - first one being that it will help automate easy work, second being that hard tasks will become easy, and third being that the impossible will become possible. He predicts that 50% of software jobs will become automated. Raj is fascinated by what it means for the impossible to become possible. He believes that science will be the sector that will see the most growth from AI, and he speaks on how AI is changing the way we approach medicine. Tune into the full episode to learn more about how SingleStore is democratising data!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 What does SingleStore do?02:06 The problem SingleStore saw in the market05:38 How agile teams suffer due to inefficient data tools09:21 What keeps incumbency in place? 12:47 How early stage startups can leverage their data16:42 How generative AI is changing the world21:40 AI implications in medicine Connect with Raj - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajvermaceo/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve! To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io

Today's bonus episode follows the 2 part episode with Shaun Savage, San Diego based Founder and CEO of GoShare - a cloud based logistics platform that connects truck owners with businesses and individuals to provide on-demand delivery & moving services.An organisation with a high level of trust also has a high level of autonomy, which creates scalability. Once you build a culture of trust, your team can run seamlessly and avoid bureaucracy and micromanagement.  In order to get to that point, psychological safety is a must - which means you need to make sure that your people don't hesitate to share their opinions and viewpoints because they know they won't be punished for having the wrong idea.  Eric recommends "The SPEED Of Trust", a book by Stephen M. R. Covey, which shows how trust—and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees, and all stakeholders—is the single most critical component of a successful leader and organization.In order to create trust in the marketplace, you need to have a customer service standard that goes above and beyond to please customers and settle disputes in a way that makes the customer feel heard, appreciated, and ultimately a winner.When it comes to investment, trust is a huge factor. Trust is built over time, which means you should always give a reasonable amount of time for processes like due diligence, otherwise you'll never secure venture capital.Check out the full episode to learn how to build trust in your business!Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit chaostoclarity.io

This episode continues the conversation with Shaun Savage, San Diego based Founder and CEO of GoShare - a cloud based logistics platform that connects truck owners with businesses and individuals to provide on-demand delivery & moving services. Shaun and Eric discuss the importance of customer interviews. Even though this activity might look inefficient on paper as it does not scale, there's still no substitute to sitting down and having a real conversation about the quality of the service you provide. In the case of GoShare, both the drivers and the end users are customers, so Shaun makes sure to listen to both sides of the coin.In 2024, fundraising is a hot and complex topic. Shaun has raised $8,000,000 in capital so far, and he recalls that SEO was a big reason why they secured their initial round of funding. The mindset of the investors was to research existing companies that solve this problem and figure out if it makes more sense to build this type of service from scratch, or to invest in a company that's already a few steps ahead. They evaluated GoShare and a few competitors and chose to go with Shauns company. This took about 6 months of relationship building to close the first lead investor, which led to a $1.2 million round. As GoShare evolves, so have the scaling challenges. Balancing supply and demand in the marketplace with an Uber-esque business model is always a big topic. Many of the sectors that GoShare serves are seasonal businesses, which means filling orders is a challenge year-round, especially due to the saturation of their market. The way they're solving this challenge is by always analyzing their market and having the data to stay one step ahead while also accounting for the worst.  Tune into the full episode to learn how to secure venture capital! HIGHLIGHTS:00:44 The Importance of Customer Interviews03:05 Fundraising in 202408:32 The Angel Investor Strategy 10:59 GoShare's Scaling Pains 13:34 Leadership Challenges 17:14 Managing Remote Company Culture Connect with Shaun - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunsavage/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io

In this episode, Eric is joined by Shaun Savage, San Diego based Founder and CEO of GoShare - a cloud based logistics platform that connects truck owners with businesses and individuals to provide on-demand delivery & moving services. Shaun's entrepreneurial journey began when he started a house painting business with a few friends from college. One of the biggest challenges he had at the time was making sure that materials were delivered to the painting site. At the time he wished for a service that ultimately became GoShare - a way to have heavy things delivered on-demand.GoShare was not the first company to go after their market. The thing that differentiated them was their laser focus on making communication between drivers and companies seamless, which is how they got to serve 10's of thousands of customers. That led them to having conversations with large retailers, which opened their eyes to the fact that there's a whole market out there that is currently outsourcing their delivery process to non-tech companies, which led to slow turnaround times and a ton of frustration.There were plenty of growing pains along the way. In the early stages, a lack of trust was a huge problem. Shaun shares a story where he contacted a client to chat about their service, and the person on the other line said that they were thinking they'll never see the mattress again. In later stages, the classic pain points of acquiring funding and building the right systems all came into play.Tune into the full episode to learn more about the journey of GoShare!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Shaun Savage's Entrepreneurial Journey 03:05 The Trap Of Getting Too Involved 07:11 How GoShare Approached Their Market 15:36 The Growing Pains Of GoShare20:04 Advanced Trust Tactics 22:10 Navigating Around MistakesConnect with Shaun - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunsavage/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io

Today's bonus episode follows the 2 part episode with JJ Parker, a serial entrepreneur who runs Tightrope Media Systems, Carousel Digital Signage and most recently Screenweave, a company that unblocks work by empowering people to communicate asynchronously with video.Systematic self improvement and self reflection are two aspects of entrepreneurial development that often get glossed over, and historically don't exist outside of engineering teams. Bringing these Agile principles into other departments has helped Eric's clients reach outcomes that previously seemed unattainable.Eric has implemented the retrospective workflows into all types of departments and across a variety of sectors, and those core principles have been impactful across the board.During the episode with JJ Parker they also discussed the importance of the wisdom that only experience brings. When you figure out how to apply leverage to everyday business problems, it unlocks a new level of efficiency that brute forcing simply does not match.Check out the full episode to learn more on how to improve as a founder! Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit chaostoclarity.io

This episode continues the conversation with JJ Parker, a serial entrepreneur who runs Tightrope Media Systems, Carousel Digital Signage and most recently Screenweave, a company that unblocks work by empowering people to communicate asynchronously with video.Something that most entrepreneurs learn through trial and error is the importance of leverage and efficiency. While it's completely normal to attach yourself to every process in your company at the early stages, it's highly inefficient to do so and will often lead you off the growth path. The sooner you learn how to apply leverage and successfully deleage, the quicker you'll get on a sustainable path of growth and prosperity.JJ attributes self awareness as the key to better performance. His path to true self development started with an initiative to help his team understand themselves better. They implemented new feedback mechanisms and coached them on better ways to communicate, which also led him to start a coaching business. These initiatives made him look inward and helped him figure out the inner workings of his mind.When it comes to leadership principles, JJ focuses on trust and autonomy. That means being clear with what you expect from your employees, holding them accountable and trust that they'll get the job done. He's not a fan of the return-to-office strategies that are now being pushed by many companies, as it can destroy the existing culture and make you lose your A+ players.Company Culture is formed and molded, which means that unless you're very purposeful about how you raise your company culture, you might end up in an unproductive environment that doesn't fit your vision.Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to build your business the right way!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Entrepreneurial Wisdom04:45 How To Find More Leverage07:09 The Value Of Coaching And Reflection11:15 Team Feedback Matters15:07 JJ's Leadership Principles17:25 The Secret To Great Company Culture Connect with JJ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jj-parkerDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io

In this episode, Eric is joined by JJ Parker, a serial entrepreneur who runs Tightrope Media Systems, Carousel Digital Signage and most recently Screenweave, a company that unblocks work by empowering people to communicate asynchronously with video.JJ took an unconventional path to entrepreneurship. He's an art and design graduate who noticed a market gap in early tech back in the 90's. Early in his career, JJ had to train school employees how to use video bulletin software, which is when he realized that the true problem behind why people use software inefficiently is an issue of design, not an issue of user intellect, and that's the first problem he went on to help solve.Eric and JJ discuss how entrepreneurs often try to solve a problem that they themselves have not encountered, which leads to a ton of misalignment between the founder and the end-user. A more effective path towards building a successful business is to find a job early on that nobody wants to do, and figure out a way to solve those tasks by innovating the workflow or the available tools.Running multiple businesses simultaneously is no easy task. When it comes to growth, JJ doesn't believe in putting all of your eggs in one basket and investing 100% in growing a singular enterprise. He much prefers working on a variety of projects at the same time, although he admits that when you're at an early stage, you need to give your full attention to a singular cause until the business becomes more mature. Tune in to the full episode to learn what it takes to become a serial entrepreneur!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 JJ's Path To Entrepreneurship04:42 The A-HA Moment 10:46 The Various Businesses JJ Has Started13:47 The Growing Pains Of A Serial Entrepreneur 16:25 When Do You Let Go?Connect with JJ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jj-parkerDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io

Today's bonus episode follows the 2 part interview with Davit Baghdasaryan, Co-Founder & CEO of Krisp - a software tool that maximizes the productivity and impact of every conversation by eliminating noise distractions,increasing the fidelity of voice communication, and transcribing and synthesizing the most relevant details and analytics from every voice interaction. Many founders build their technology and only then try to figure out what industry it's best applied to. In the case of Davit, they had 24 different use cases they were trying to present to the market, which caused them to struggle with their business model. They had to learn how to say “no” to alternative segments and use cases and pursue becoming market leaders in their niche. Diluting your positioning and strategy might work once you're an established brand with tons of resources to burn, but as a startup it's a losing strategy that will often steer you away from a winning strategy. In today's market people expect their products to be highly personalized and catered to their problems. Even if you have the best technology in the world, by sacrificing your positioning and refusing to niche down, competitors who get it right will run laps around you because their product is an exact fit for solving an individual problem.Tune into the full episode to learn how to approach GTM as a technical founder!Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit ChaosToClarity.io

This episode continues the conversation with Davit Baghdasaryan, Co-Founder & CEO of Krisp - a software tool that maximizes the productivity and impact of every conversation by eliminating noise distractions,increasing the fidelity of voice communication, and transcribing and synthesizing the most relevant details and analytics from every voice interaction. Krisp has grown significantly throughout COVID and beyond. They saw a huge market opportunity with call centers where the issue of noise cancellation is truly prevalent and expensive, which helped them grow through word of mouth. Throughout this growth spurt they've been able to add a plethora of new features, and now they're moving into the lucrative meeting assistant place. The next feature they're working on is accent translation, which automatically translates the speaker's accent to the listeners accent to help break through accent barriers.COVID wasn't a walk in the park for Davit. They had built a multiple org structure, which caused the company to overhire. Without alignment and verticalization they were becoming much slower to act and the environment became too bureaucratized to work at the level of efficiency that is required from a SaaS startup. They made a big pivot and moved back to a model that brought them their initial success and allowed them to return to scaling. Davit is a big believer in the fact that every person you hire adds overhead to your business, and even though you need to make the right hires to grow - hiring more people makes your processes run slower until they've been with you for a while. Your goal is not to just hire, it's to create more customer value. Check out the full episode to hear the scaling story of Krisp!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 How To Win At Differentiation 07:02 Scaling Challenges And New Technology 12:05 The Root Cause Of Market Corrections15:26 Building Multiple Lines Of Business17:22 Making The Right Hires Connect with Davit - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davitb/Check out Krisp - https://krisp.aiDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/

In this episode, Eric is joined by Davit Baghdasaryan, Co-Founder & CEO of Krisp - a software tool that maximizes the productivity and impact of every conversation by eliminating noise distractions,increasing the fidelity of voice communication, and transcribing and synthesizing the most relevant details and analytics from every voice interaction. Davit's background is in engineering. If you asked Davit if he plans to become an entrepreneur a year prior to founding Krisp, he would have said - no way. But when he took the plunge, it didn't take long for him to fall in love with it and unlock his hidden calling. Startup life is much more catered to those who have a growth mindset. Every year in a startup is a career in an enterprise when you look at how much intellectual velocity is needed to succeed and how quickly things change. Often those who leave enterprises to found startups have a hard time adjusting to the new paradigm, and on top of that you're more than likely to leave a lot of money on the table. Davit left Twilio to start Krisp right at the time when Twilio was growing at a rapid pace, so he had to temporarily say goodbye to a lucrative role - but it worked out for the best.The problem in the market that Davit saw came from his role at Twilio. He was traveling to his home country of Armenia and taking virtual meetings outside. The problem is that there's a ton of noise that disrupts the natural flow of virtual meetings. They gathered a team of scientists and took a machine learning approach to create their first prototype. 2 years in they had a production ready piece of technology and they shipped it.Check out the full episode to hear the journey of Krisp!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Davit's Journey To Entrepreneurship 04:15 Is It Worth It To Take The Risk?09:38 The Problem In The Market13:39 Early Pains Building Krisp17:35 What VC's Want To SeeConnect with Davit - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davitb/Check out Krisp - https://krisp.aiDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

Today's bonus episode follows the 2 part episode with Jan Arendtsz, Founder & CEO of Celigo - an iPaaS platform that simplifies the integration of business applications and data sources in the enterprise.During those two episodes, Eric and Jan discussed what it takes to truly grow a platform business. Many founders want to go after a broad market and grow their company into an industry staple. As a startup, the likelihood that you'll succeed increases if you find a narrow market and focus on an underserved niche.The way Jan did it was he scaled a consultancy first and foremost to 100+ members which allowed him to learn everything there is to know about his target market and build products based on the desired outcomes of their ideal client profile.Check out the full episode to learn more on how to create the next big platform!Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

This episode continues the conversation with Jan Arendtsz, Founder & CEO of Celigo - an iPaaS platform that simplifies the integration of business applications and data sources in the enterprise.In the previous part we established the story of how Celigo had to make some hard decisions that were ultimately for the best. In more recent history, they had to pivot to a new product even after they found what was supposedly working. Jan's reason is simple - the Total Addressable Market(TAM) was too small to fulfil his ambitions, so they started working on a model that would work across a variety of verticals. Celigo really built their platform by the book. Starting out with years of consulting experience to understand their market, then building a few platform iterations that were both scrapped and kept, finding product-market fit, increasing their TAM, and trying to solve larger problems as they scale. This approach has made them true experts of both their market and their product, and allowed them to scale while maintaining longevity in the market.Now they're focused on revamping their go-to-market strategy and making sure they're disciplined with targeting the right type of client. A very difficult but necessary step when scaling is figuring out which customers you've outgrown and letting go, as the drain that a customer who's no longer a great fit brings onto your team can significantly lower efficiency and morale.When asked about his leadership principles, Jan focuses on being fair and consistent - towards both his employees and customers. He's also evolved to be a great listener, which is a very important trait in a leader. Tune into the full episode to learn more on how Jan built a platform that scales!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 The Inflection Point07:01 Why Most Platforms Fail09:43 New Challenges With Scale13:07 Achieve True Focus15:20 Jan's Leadership Principles18:22 Learning to Let GoConnect with Jan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/janarendtsz/Check out Celigo - https://www.celigo.com/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric is joined by Jan Arendtsz, Founder & CEO of Celigo - an iPaaS platform that simplifies the integration of business applications and data sources in the enterprise.iPaaS stands for Integration Platform as a Service, which is a new term for an industry that's been around since the 90s. Their predecessor was the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) model which was led by companies like Informatica before the cloud model became standard. Jan's path to entrepreneurship began with him working as a software engineer for a couple of years and quickly realizing that it's not his true calling. He chose to stick with it for a while to build a solid technical background, after which he joined a consulting firm to learn a bit more about the business side of running a software company. When he got to his late 20's, he had gathered enough experience to go out on his own and start a company.Although Jan got the idea for Celigo way back in 2004, it wasn't the first venture he pursued when he went out on his own. For about 5 years he ran a consultancy that focused on processes and integrations, and he managed to scale that business to 100+ employees before ultimately starting Celigo in January of 2011.At the beginning Celigo encountered a major roadblock - their platform was built to be operated by technically advanced users, effectively making their platform inaccessible for the average business user. Their first iteration wasn't up to par, so Jan made the tough decision to scrap the platform and start from scratch. It turned out to be the best decision they made.Tune into the full episode to learn more on Jan's journey to founding Celigo!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 What does iPaaS mean?01:42 Jan's Journey Into Entrepreneurship04:48 The Inception of Celigo12:32 Finding Product-Market FIt15:47 Becoming a Victim of Your Own SuccessConnect with Jan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/janarendtsz/ Check out Celigo - https://www.celigo.com/ Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

Today's bonus episode follows the 2 part episode with Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel - a Series D startup that provides the developer experience and infrastructure to build, scale, and secure a faster, more personalized Web.

AI is currently disrupting how we approach building UI by increasing the speed at which we're able to articulate an idea and build the first model. 

These prototypes also enable us to get to the feedback stages much earlier in the process and with much less waste.
This is an absolute gamechanger in how we approach building UI, and a lack of AI integration in this use case will cause a ton of waste.
Check out the full episode to learn more on how AI is changing the way we build UI!Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

This episode continues the conversation with Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel - a Series D startup that provides the developer experience and infrastructure to build, scale, and secure a faster, more personalized Web.Eric and Guillermo discuss the benefits of using AI as part of the support structure for your SaaS product. Guillermo makes a great point that AI is more trustworthy when it comes to data privacy, however, AI does hallucinate from time to time and requires monitoring.Open source has become standard practice in many verticals, but AI is not one of them. Guillermo is excited for projects that are doing open source AI, however, since model quality is dependent on data quality, open source AI might not be a sustainable option.Guillermo believes that every business will become AI powered, it's just a matter of time. Right now, developers delegate tasks to AI co-pilots, and this trend will continue to grow as we better understand how to utilize AI and better tools become available. Similar developments can be seen across other business functions, including go-to-market teams.The new wave of cloud technology has shown that there's been a market shift from enterprises buying products for large teams to individual consumers looking for products that fit their workflow. This means that companies that are solely focused on enterprise sales and have made their product inaccessible to individual users are losing out on a rising amount of market share, which in the current economic landscape cannot be ignored.Tune in to the full episode to learn about the current gap in AI technology!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Are AI Tools Trustworthy Yet?09:57 When Will AI Tools Become Open Source?15:12 What's the Future of AI App Development?18:32 How Cloud Technology Demand Has Changed20:46 Should You Dumb Down Your Software? Connect with Guillermo - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rauchg/Check out Vercel - https://vercel.com/contact/sales Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric is joined by Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel - a Series D startup that provides the developer experience and infrastructure to build, scale, and secure a faster, more personalized Web.At the start of his career, Guillermo taught himself Javascript which led him to receive international job offers at the age of 17. He quickly realized that his true passion was in building companies, more specifically creating tools that increase productivity for developers. Guillermo chose to focus on Javascript due the web apps that were developed by Google and Amazon and how they transformed both the user and the developer experience. Having the ability to peel back and look at how popular web apps work inspired him to share the way these apps work with others - which is how Vercel came to be.When asked about the meaning of AI in app development, Guillermo mentions that he recently arrived at the term “AI Native UX”, which means that products and apps get developed with an emphasis on utilizing AI to its maximum capacity. He considers that to be the new north star to unlock for Vercel clients, and something that the industry as a whole should focus on.Listen to the full episode to learn more on how AI is changing app development!00:00 Guillermo's Path to Entrepreneurship. 02:24 Why Javascript?05:32 The Advancement of Cloud Technology09:17 Where Will AI Take Developers?16:32 Implementing AI Correctly19:25 AI Driven User ExperienceConnect with Guillermo - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rauchg/Check out Vercel - https://vercel.comDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

Today's bonus episode follows the 2 part episode with Mikael Dia, Founder and CEO of Funnelytics - a software that allows you to visually map and analyze how people flow through your marketing funnels. Eric speaks on how to prioritise the right things when building your product. Although user experience, support and marketing will grow your business, you won't see profitable outcomes unless your product solves a real problem.Quality of life improvements are important, but they aren't the end all and be all of product development.It's incredibly difficult to build the right product if you don't truly understand your customer and shape your product around their needs. The solution needs to develop organically based on the priorities of your client, instead of your guesses.Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to build the right product!Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

Today's episode continues the conversation with Mikael Dia, Founder and CEO of Funnelytics - a software that allows you to visually map and analyze how people flow through your marketing funnels. An extremely difficult puzzle that any SaaS company has to solve is finding product-market fit. To better understand their market and generate brand awareness, Funnelytics released their mapping tool for free, which turned out to be a double edged sword. The good part is that they grew like wildfire through word of mouth and user generated content, driving 8000 monthly signups across a variety of industries and company sizes. The bad part is that with such a large scope of client profiles, figuring out the optimal route for your product development and truly understanding your ideal client profile (ICP) becomes a huge challenge - but by narrowing down the persona based on usage and adaptation metrics, Funnelytics were able to figure out exactly who they serve and what their main use case is.A less known exercise that is necessary to ensure that product-market fit is achieved is to find your anti-ICP. Some clients might look great on paper, but will ultimately drain your resources by being a quasi-fit. For Funnelytics, their tool is not a great fit for agencies that aren't measured by their performance such as social media/branding agencies. The reason why it's their anti-ICP is because fundamentally these agencies aren't data-driven, even if they want to be. That leads to a huge workload for Funnelytics to educate and guide these agencies on how to be data-driven, which makes no business sense for them.As a serial entrepreneur, Mikael has had the chance to develop strong leadership principles and the best way to describe them is - efficient. The way Funnelytics operates is with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, timelines and check-in points, and their hiring strategy is to look for those who are best suited for their roles from day 1 and to let them strive. Check out the full episode to learn more on how to achieve product-market fit and do PLG the right way!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 The 3 Biggest Challenges With Funnelytics03:32 Finding Product-Market Fit Through Product-Led Growth13:52 The Anti-Ideal Client Profile17:34 How To Succeed at Product-Led Growth27:30 Mikael's Leadership Principles Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Check out Funnelytics- https://funnelytics.ioDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric is joined by Mikael Dia, Founder and CEO of Funnelytics - a software that allows you to visually map and analyze how people flow through your marketing funnels. Mikael's background is in Civil Engineering, where he would spend 8 hours a day making autocad drawings - which he absolutely hated. The decision to become an entrepreneur came from a family accident that showed him how finite and precious life is, so he made the decision to start pursuing his true goals and get out of a routine that wasn't working for him. Mikael's entrepreneurial journey started over a decade ago with his first real venture being a Mandarin language school in London - even though he doesn't speak Mandarin himself. His biggest lesson from building that initial business was that marketing fundamentals don't change - you need to understand your buyer and why they're buying, the rest will fall in place.The inception of Funnelytics came from Mikael's own pain running his marketing agency. When working with clients, he would use a whiteboard to draw diagrams of the customer's journey and build spreadsheets to demonstrate results and ROI. Strategy is presented through pictures and drawings. Results are presented through numbers and spreadsheets. The A-HA moment for Mikael was realizing that there is a true market need to align these strategic and data points for clients to draw a holistic picture. There's a real Catch 22 for small businesses when investing in marketing. There's not a ton of financial wiggle room for new projects, so demonstrable ROI is a must. Evaluation requires marketing analytics, which you can typically hire for when you already have a multi person marketing team. Scaling to that point requires successful marketing, so often it seems like an impossible task to get this right. Funnelytics understands this, so their offering is tailor-made for the small and medium businesses that need to fill a gap that they can't afford to hire for.Check out the full episode to learn more about an entrepreneur's journey from learning about how to build an online business all the way to running a successful SaaS company!HIGHLIGHTS:00:13 How Mikael Became an Entrepreneur06:36 Biggest Lesson Learned From Mikael's First Business08:13 Why Mikael Founded Funnelytics 14:37 Who Needs Marketing Analytics Most?18:43 Funnelytics Growth Pains Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Check out Funnelytics- https://funnelytics.ioDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

I Asked 5 SaaS C-Suite Executives About Their Leadership Principles..This episode is a quick recap of parts of the conversations we've had on Chaos To Clarity over the last year. Now we're moving into a new season, focused on Series A and Series B founders and the pivotal moments that took their companies from an idea to capturing venture capital.Stay tuned!Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com 

In this episode, Eric continues the conversation with Katy Trost, CEO Coach/Advisor at Katy Trost, Founder of PeraCEOs, and CEO Coach and Board Member of many other ventures. Katy works with CEO's on not only their business strategy, but also their personal brands. One of the common misconceptions she addresses is that a personal brand should not be just about the current venture of that individual - but instead it should reflect one's mission, vision and values both within their current occupation, but also holistically across the whole spectrum of things that they care about.Personal branding goes beyond your public image - even if you're not concerned with publicity, your team, investors and clients have a perception of you, and only by being intentional with the way that you present yourself and communicate with others will you build a winning culture around you.Katy shares a 4 week transformational story with a leader who was to be promoted to CEO but lost out on the opportunity due to not performing as a leader. Once they ran some assessments and gathered for an offsite, Katy's client had a breakthrough moment and truly understood the potential task at hand if he were to become CEO. Once he saw the prospective outcomes of changing the culture of the 350 employee company and aligned himself with that goal, a 180 transformation happened and a success story was born.If you don't have a great team - you'll never become a great CEO. If you're too busy doing delegatable work and have no bandwidth to focus on high impact tasks, your business will never scale. To help figure out your weakest link, rebuild trust and reignite their function, our coaches suggest that you run a mind map exercise and build a clear path. If no path can be found, it's time to look for another candidate.Tune into the full episode to learn more on the roadblocks to becoming an exceptional CEO!HIGHLIGHTS:00:17 The HERO Mindmap02:12 CEO's Personal Branding Playbook08:30 Katy's 4 Week Transformational Story15:31 Focusing On Your Vision18:02 Bad Executive Team = Failing CEO 23:56 The Transition From Start to ScaleConnect with Katy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katytrost/Check out her webpage - https://katytrost.com/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric is joined by Katy Trost, CEO Coach/Advisor at Katy Trost, Founder of PeraCEOs, and CEO Coach and Board Member of many other ventures. Katy moved to the United States from Germany 7 years ago and started her US coaching career in New York. She found herself working in the tech industry, and soon located her passion working with leaders that are in the scale up stage. Now she's working with clients across the US and in European business hotspots.Katy enjoys working in chaotic environments with CEO's who are in the scaling stage. She's a master at bringing executives from chaos to clarity and helping her clients navigate towards an organized and sustainable method of work. She starts her process with rigorous questioning to identify the top priorities, and typically sees positive and impactful outcomes within the first 3 - 5 months of an average engagement. The markers of success that Katy looks for during her client engagements and the outcomes she pursues is a healthy and excellent leadership structure, a strong business operating system and a high performing culture. Ultimately this comes from figuring out how to achieve alignment between teams and build clear roadmaps for responsibilities, metrics and goals. When it comes to the core competencies of Katy's work, for CEO's it's typically leadership development, performance and personal brand, while for the organization itself the focus shifts to strategic clarity, execution and fundraising. All of that ties into having difficult conversations with the executive team and building a culture of high performers.It's no secret that becoming a truly exceptional CEO is no easy task. There is no one-size-fits-all, linear trajectory towards excellency, and an expensive MBA is not going to save you when you're trying to navigate the seas of executive leadership. Both Eric and Katy agree that continuous improvement and intentional reflection are key to winning at leadership and for that we need other people who can help us reflect, keep us accountable, and give us feedback that we might have a hard time self-evaluating.Tune into the full episode to learn how to level up your leadership game!HIGHLIGHTS00:59 What Does Katy Do?03:00 How To Juggle Working In Multiple Countries04:04 The Challenges CEO's Face In The Scaling Stage.06:26 What Does a Successful Engagement Look Like?12:40 Core Areas of Focus for Katy14:48 Achieving CEO Excellency 17:43 The 15 Commitments of Conscious LeadershipConnect with Katy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katytrost/Check out her webpage - https://katytrost.com/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this solo episode, which follows the two-part interview with Trisha Price, Chief Product Officer at Pendo.io, Eric talks about the fact that it's never too early to measure customer success.Too many startups are so laser focused on building products that they end up disregarding customer data, which is the one thing that will accurately show them what to prioritise and build next.Product isn't about building features, it's about building customer outcomes - which requires a deep understanding of the actual problems your customers face. When building a new product or feature, you should always start with the question “What does success look like for our customers”, and work backwards from there.Once you understand the criteria by which your customers derive value from your product, you'll have a much easier time measuring the right things and attributing them to outcomes, letting you make educated, data-driven decisions in every facet of your product.Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric continues the conversation with Trisha Price, Chief Product Officer of Pendo.io.Pendo.io is on a mission to elevate the world's experiences with software, and so far they've raised a total of $469.5 million in funding, and have amassed a team of 800+ members.Continuing the conversation on data and measurement, Trisha speaks on how to focus on the right metrics that will drive retention and renewals. Her approach is to identify which feature usage correlates with long-term retention, and steer new clients to try out and adapt those features as soon as possible.Trisha approaches driving usage through a set of bespoke guides that are segmented based on their current experience with the platform. Getting the right, personalized message to users in the right moment is crucial to make sure that adaptation becomes a streamlined and seamless process, and doesn't put the burden of discovery and implementation solely on the Customer Success team.To get a true understanding of the right time to reveal features and push for implementation, you must whiteboard the customer journey. At the end of the day, you're the only one who cares about your product releases - your customers care about solving their problems at the appropriate time in their journey. It's very easy to get caught up in focusing on the day 1 of the customer's journey, instead of seeing the full picture and understanding that you need to provide continuous education in bite-sized chunks.Product Leadership is a newer role in the grand scheme of things, but it's not at its infancy anymore - so a big sign of a great product leader is someone who's built their core principles. For Trisha, it's all about driving customer value and finding interesting and hard problems to solve for your customers. You need to play the long game, understanding that outcomes won't be driven overnight, so you won't really know if your new feature is a success from the get go. Trisha's technical background has typically landed her roles where she's both the CPO and the CTO, and this exact background drives her curiosity to understand product on a molecular level giving her an edge due to her holistic vision of what is possible to achieve. Not having a technical background often drives a lot of insecurity in Product Leaders and Managers, and even though Trisha doesn't deal with this fallacy herself, she suggests that the way to overcome it is to have an engineering partner that you can truly trust - which is also the model they currently have at Pendo.Check out the full episode to learn how to create the ultimate customer experience!HIGHLIGHTS: 00:00 How To Improve Your Retention Rate02:26 Drive Sticky Feature Usage With Guides04:35 Mapping The Customers Journey08:45 Timing Is Everything11:32 Trisha's Principles as a Product Leader14:11 Overcoming the “I'm Not Technical Enough” Fallacy18:42 Trisha's Leadership PrinciplesConnect with Trisha - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trisha-price-3063081/Check out Pendo.io - https://www.pendo.io/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric is joined by Trisha Price, Chief Product Officer of Pendo.ioPendo.io is on a mission to elevate the world's experiences with software, and so far they've raised a total of $469.5 million in funding, and have amassed a team of 800+ members.Trisha's journey to becoming the CPO at Pendo starts with her gaining a technical background. She is a math major, and her first role out of college was a software engineering role at a finance software company out of Boston. Back then, the responsibilities of a product manager weren't as clearly defined as they are now, so Trisha had to wear many hats in her role.During this time, Trisha was able to discover that her true north star was solving big problems and providing value to customers. Instead of focusing on how to code, she wanted to focus on what to code and ultimately drive new and innovative products, so product management was the perfect role for her.Early stage startups often don't have a clear roadmap on how to prioritize data implementation. Trisha mentions that startups need to make sure they've first and foremost established their product market fit, and then move on to usage as your main indicator. Having a relentless focus on outcomes is a must, and in order to achieve that you need to bring in analytics from the get go, while understanding that data is only worth something if you're able to properly determine the outcomes that are being driven. Once asked about a client's success from Pendo, Trisha tells a story about a business that's outside of the tech world - the banking giant Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley at the time were focusing on retention and their top priority. Prior to Pendo, they were certain that their Customer Success team was working flawlessly, however, it took them losing a very large client to start looking for a problem they didn't even see coming. Turns out, they had neglected a crucial part of the implementation process, effectively steering their client to their competitor due to an abundance of manual processes with Morgan Stanely's platform. This is where Pendo came in. Their "Happiness Marker" feature helped Morgan Stanley realise that clients expect them to drive continuous improvements and innovations, and gave them the data to support making the decisions that lead to high retention rates.HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Trisha's Journey to Becoming CPO at Pendo02:25 Making Sure You're Building the Right Things09:48 How Should Start-Ups Invest In Data?13:21 Pendo's Morgan Stanley Success Story17:42 The Importance of Measuring Outcomes Connect with Trisha - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trisha-price-3063081/Check out Pendo.io - https://www.pendo.io/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this solo episode, which follows the two-part interview with Chandika Jayasundara, Co-Founder and CEO of Creately. In this episode Eric talks about the importance of not being afraid of change, and pursuing innovation at all cost.Denying the necessity of adaptation when all signs show that its time to pivot is a huge reason why businesses fail and products fall into obscurity.If you're a founder and you've built something, your biggest fear is losing it all. This same fear is what will cloud your judgement and let you fall victim to a sunk cost fallacy. Really ask yourself - does a sacrifice today open the opportunity for a much bigger win down the line?If so - it might be time to take that leap.Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric continues the conversation with Chandika Jayasundara, the Co-Founder and CEO of Creately. Creately is a visual collaboration platform that helps teams ideate, plan and execute on an infinite workspace, and as of August 2023 they have reached over 10 million users.During the first part of the conversation, it was established that Chandika is a risk taker. When faced with the uncomfortable truth of having their platform built on a foundation that was on its way to irrelevancy they pivoted to a new, Javascript built platform that was not nearly as feature rich - fully knowing that they might lose clients in the short run.This same theme of courageous business decisions is continued upon in this part of the conversation. Chandika is great at avoiding sunk cost fallacies, and pivoting to new horizons. This isn't by any means dumb luck - Chandika is able to make these decisions fruitfully due to his deep understanding of his market and great foresight into what his ICP will need in the future.His conviction stems from a mindset that isn't afraid of short term losses if that helps them avoid falling into obscurity in the future. Chandika talks about the difference between a good business and a “Home run” business, and mentions that he pursues the second at all cost - while making sure the current status quo can sustain them during the growth spurt stages when risks are taken and innovations are born. Chandika's first core company value is growth. Whether on a work project or a personal matter, his mentality is that without growth you're not really doing much. Second value is trust -  in this case meaning that any decision should be explainable and accessible to anyone, as when you don't have a clear, presentable “why” is when unwanted politics come into play, causing team members to lose trust in the transparency and process of their peers. When it comes to personal principles, Chandika values his ability of being present in every single conversation, which is something that gets lost in the distracting nature of modern business. He also likes to dig deep before making decisions, and really view the whole picture prior to calling shots - both in his business and personal life. That also means giving the benefit of doubt to everyone who surrounds him, even if prior situations might indicate that open mindedness is not a requirement when dealing with a particular individual. Tune in to the full episode to learn more on what steps you need to take to stay relevant in a competitive market for 15 years!00:00 Bet Everything on the Path of the Future02:35 Finding True Conviction07:30 Chandika's Value & Leadership Principles10:57 Personal Principles13:42 Trust is a Non-Negotiable16:23 Reaching the Next Stage of GrowthConnect with Chandika - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandika/Check out Creately - https://creately.com/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric is joined by Chandika Jayasundara, the Co-Founder and CEO of Creately.Creately is a visual collaboration platform that helps teams ideate, plan and execute on an infinite workspace, and as of August 2023 they have reached over 10 million users.Chandika's founder's journey starts during his childhood - he always had a mind for tech, and loved solving problems using technology while also being a natural creative. He started his first small venture back in school with a group of friends building apps and websites for companies. After graduation, Chandika was focused on learning more on how large enterprises operate their day to day and figuring out how he could help them reach their business goals.His idea for Creately stemmed from the difficulty of aligning data, visuals and knowledge in the same place so participants could swiftly catch up to what's going on in high complexity projects. In the early days of Creately in 2007/2008, the status quo for products in this space was either a lackluster feature set, or an offering that's built exclusively for enterprises and inaccessible to those without a 7 figure budget allocated for this particular problem.Creately found their initial product validation early on, and built their first MVP. The first roadblock they ran into was adaptation. Using a browser for prototyping was unheard of in 2008, and considered too much hassle by a good portion of their ICP, so Creately had to downscale their initial offering down to a flowcharting and diagramming tool so they could effectively go to market.At the end of 2009, they launched with a “dumbed down” version of their initial tool, and saw a good bit of success. Their UX was much better than Microsoft Visio at the time, which was their status quo competitor at the time. One of the features they pioneered was real time collaboration, which was practically unheard of at the time.In 2019, a big challenge that Creately faced was the fact that they were on borrowed time due to their platform being built on Flash, which was rapidly becoming outdated. They needed to pivot to Javascript, and ultimately transfer over millions of existing clients to a new platform that wasn't nearly as feature rich as their previous model. This ended up being a good thing in the long run, as this new Javascript based platform would unlock doors for Creately to acquire larger clients and open them up to enterprise level profits.Tune in to the full episode to learn more about Chandika's journey building Creately!00:00 Chandika's Founder's Journey03:21 Why Creately Was Born07:39 Lessons Learnt Building Creately12:32 Too Many Features Can Be a Bad Thing16:26 Rebuilding From Scratch 20:28 Avoiding Sunk Cost Fallacies22:19 Rising With the TideConnect with Chandika - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandika/Check out Creately - https://creately.com/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this solo episode, which follows the two-part interview with Krish Ramineni, Founder and CEO of Fireflies.ai, Eric discusses the perils of sunk-cost fallacies and the ultimate consequence of over-investing in unfruitful projects: driving your business into the ground. All too often, founders become excessively attached to the product they've been developing, even when the rational choice would be to start from scratch. Avoiding this common pitfall played a significant role in the success story of Fireflies.ai. They have secured a $14 million USD Series A Round, expanded their team to over 75 people, and earned a household name status in their category.Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com 

This episode of Chaos to Clarity continues the conversation with Krish Ramineni, the Founder and CEO of Fireflies.ai.Krish's approach to pricing stems from Atlassian, Calendly, and other product-led giants. The goal is to avoid wasting time on negotiations and keeping pricing transparent to make the enterprise sales cycles more efficient.Krish and Eric dive deep into the concept of eliminating friction in the buyers journey. Krish predicts that those who are focusing on activity metrics will be replaced by AI, and only true relationship builders with backgrounds that are relevant to the product they sell, will retain their sales positions.A great way of eliminating friction in the buyers journey is implementing a product-led growth motion. Instead of having your salespeople focusing on outbound, they can effectively have an infinite amount of leads with a functional product-led motion. Having a functioning PLG motion is a huge selling point when trying to attract top-tier salespeople, as the concept of brute-force outbound is rarely anyone's preference nowadays, and has proven to be ineffective in this economic downturn.Tune in to this episode to learn more about how to eliminate friction in your sales process!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Krish's Approach to Pricing03:20 Eliminating Friction in the Buyer's Journey07:21 How PLG and Sales Align12:25 Be True To Yourself as a Founder16:07 Surviving the Economic Downturn19:15 Fireflies Market Expansion Plans21:02 Krish's Growth Journey as a LeaderConnect With Krish - https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramineni/Try Fireflies.ai - https://fireflies.ai/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric is joined by Krish Ramineni, the Founder and CEO of Fireflies.ai. Fireflies allows you to record, search, & collaborate across all your meetings in one central place.Krish shares his journey into product management, starting from his college days to working with startups and landing a PM role at Microsoft. Krish chose to go into product management due to the freedom and flexibility that the role brings, and it's what ultimately led him to start his own company. The concept of Fireflies.ai stemmed from the fact that there's a lot of valuable information in everyday business conversations that gets buried. The huge pain they wanted to help solve is that meetings come with a ton of waste. Krish drops the stat from the Spotify research paper that highlights the true cost of meetings, which they evaluated at average of $1500-$2000/hour, assuming a 4 person attendance, and the status quo approach simply does not make the most of this investment.Today, they've grown to a team of 75+, and a lot of their growth can be attributed to the organic visibility of the app - once someone joins a meeting with a Fireflies user, they are automatically exposed to the Fireflies brand through the notetakers seat on the virtual conference. Tune in to this episode to hear more about Krish's journey from Product Management to Entrepreneurship!HIGHLIGHTS:[00:01:58] Finding the Pain Point[00:04:08] Meetings are Expensive[00:11:00] Scaling Your Tech[00:15:00] The Flintstone Method[00:19:07] Building a Freemium ProductConnect With Krish - https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramineni/Try Fireflies.ai - https://fireflies.ai/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode, Eric is joined by Ken Babcock - Co-Founder and CEO of Tango.Tango takes the pain out of documenting processes by automatically generating how-to guides while you work.Ken's career started in consulting and took a quick turn when he joined Uber in 2014, where he stayed for 4 years. He managed to wear many hats there, which gave him a ton of super valuable experience being part of one of the biggest rocket ships of our generation.Now, he's leading a team of 40 at Tango with over 400 active users.At Uber, Ken quickly learned how to ramp up new markets and gain a ton of velocity when scaling, which ultimately led him to discover the product market fit for Tango.One piece of advice that changed Ken's business trajectory was to take a manual process that helped scale Uber, and create a tool that helps automating or enabling it.Ken's approach to product strategy is to set your non-negotiables early, and to keep to the principle of having a generous pre-product. Drive product-led growth through the value that your product brings, and start charging based on usage when the time comes.When it comes to user testing, Ken believes being reactive is not the best course of action. Instead, you need to stay in your lane and stand by your principles. After all, what works for customers today becomes their baseline expectation, but they'll still expect more as time goes on.Tango's first product is all about knowledge capture - enabling the user to document their processes in a simple manner is a game changer for successful onboarding and delegation.Their second product enables their users to have intuitive, feedback-based walkthroughs of new processes, and help identify missing links in pre-built processes while enabling constant improvements.Check out the full episode to learn how to successfully delegate through excellent documentation!HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 The Beginnings of Ken's Career03:18 How Tango Came to Be04:37 Ken's Learnings From Scaling Uber07:28 Economies at Scale & Launching Uber in Miami09:26 The Challenges of Scaling 12:04 What Product Strategy Really Means16:41 Ken's Process to Developing Core Principles 21:35 Don't Compromise on UX and Data24:08 First Use Cases of Tango26:59 What Tango Does Differently 30:18 The Recurring Challenges of Delegation33:28 Eric's Approach to Delegation 34:55 Stories of Tango's Client-Facing Day to Day37:25 Ken's Leadership Principles40:51 Eric's Experience With Overbearing Leadership43:30 Scaling With Transparency Connect With Ken - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode of Chaos to Clarity, Eric is joined by Marcos Rivera, Founder and CEO of PRICING I/O - a company that assists growth-stage B2B SaaS companies in designing the ideal pricing model for scaling up.Marcos' approach to determining the optimal pricing strategy for your product or service involves combining psychology and math to enable value-based pricing.He has observed that a common mistake made by founders is adding too much value to their lowest tier offer while undervaluing their highest tier offer, which ultimately harms their business.A statistic that Marcos brought up is that many of his newer clients typically see approximately 70% of their customers opting for the lowest tier of their product. This suggests that these companies have not structured their pricing in a manner that encourages additional use cases, which could benefit their clients as they scale.Check out the full episode to learn more on how to incorporate value-based pricing and make price your ultimate competitive advantage. HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 How Marcos Found His Calling07:58 Common Mistakes that Founders Make when Deciding on Pricing13:52 How to Figure Out Which Features to Move to a Higher Price Point19:52 Choosing Between Freemium and Free Trials 22:05 How to Set Up Free Trials Correctly23:35 Structuring Your Product-Led Growth Motion30:42 Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS36:30 Defining Your Product Market Fit40:26 Finding your Anti-PersonaConnect with Marcos - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcoslrivera/Check out Marcos' Book “Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS” -https://www.amazon.com/Street-Pricing-Playlist-Leaders-SaaS/dp/1737528010Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode of Chaos to Clarity, Eric is joined by Neil Hoyne, Chief Strategist at Google.Neil is an expert at combining data with customer insights to form the ultimate approach for revenue teams.In this episode, Neil provides tactical advice on how you can apply data and metrics correctly in your revenue strategy, and at what stage your company should start investing in data.Neil emphasises building a data-driven culture from day one, and optimising your approach based on the insights provided by your most profitable customers.He also goes in depth on the difference between being product/order-centric, and being customer-centric, and the impact that this shift can have on your business.Check out the full episode to learn new and improved ways on how to approach your overall business strategy!HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 Intro01:01 Neil's Journey into Data Analytics02:23 How to Connect Data with the Customer's Voice06:55 The Impact of Machine Learning on Large Data Sets09:04 Making the Right Decisions with your Data12:30 What's the Right Time to Invest in Data17:35 How Neil Approaches LTV:CAC19:55 The Difference Between Order-Centric and Customer-Centric Approaches22:24 Prioritising for your Customers Future22:43 Use Competitive Analysis to Find Your Niche25:00 Go for Big Changes26:35 What does “Chief Strategist” Entail?31:30 Why Large Consultancies Might Not Be The Right Answer36:19 The Right Way to Approach Transformation41:28 How to Measure The Success of your Strategic EffortsCheck Out Neil - https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilhoyne/Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com 

On this episode Eric is joined by Doug Camplejohn - CEO and Co-Founder of AirspeedDoug is a veteran in the Tech space -  starting his career in Apple, and moving up the ladder to becoming an executive at Salesforce and LinkedIn.Doug is also a serial entrepreneur, having founded 4!!! companies.3 of those companies - Mi5 Networks, Fliptop and Myplay - all ended up being acquired by enterprises.He's now on a mission to help employees feel more connected and celebrated, which in his own words he could do for hundreds of years.Doug shares a ton of valuable insights on scaling teams in both startups and enterprises, plus he dove into his leadership method, adaptation of new technology, and most importantly - building a culture that works.Highlights:00:00 Doug's origins working at Apple01:25 How Doug founded multiple startups and landed successful exits04:00 The Highs and Lows of Remote Work07:40 How Much Time is Invested in Culture in a Remote Workspace09:49 Building Culture Databases13:06 Airspeed's Client Success Stories15:45 The Value of 5 Minute Fun Time in Corporate Meetings17:23 Doug Getting the Band Together for Airspeed19:47 Doug's Leadership Philosophy 25:28 Doug's Approach to Hiring Marketers26:09 Key Mistakes When Hiring Key Employees28:39 Coffee Talk Announcement30:20 From Colleagues to Friends34:52 The Importance of Feedback from Interviewees 36:39 Doug's Ideas of Fostering a Great Culture46:48 Roadmap Clarity When Building ProductsDoug has prepared a special offer for all of our listeners, check out Airspeed - https://www.getairspeed.com/podcasts/chaos-to-clarity/?utm_source=chaostoclarity&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ctc_podcast_may23Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode Eric is joined by Alfonso de la Nuez - Co-Founder of UserZoom and Board Member of UserTesting, and the Author of The Digital Experience CompanyBoth companies famously merged in April of 2023 to Help Organizations Build Human-Centered Experiences for All.With how easy it's become to build software, neglecting User Experience will bring you a very undesirable churn rate due to your competitors making a much better first impression and allowing clients to have a frictionless user journey.Tune in for this episode to learn more on how to turn user experience into your competitive advantage!Highlights:00:00 The Beginning of Alfonso's Career02:30 Alfonso's Path to Entrepreneurship04:03 Focus on the User Experience08:29 The Pitfalls of Under-Prioritising UX10:59 How the SaaS Model has changed how buyers make decisions13:45 How UX and UI Roles have Changed over the Years16:33 UX is a Team Sport20:27 UserZoom and UserTesting - how do they do it?22:52 Discovery-Led Growth and creating Product-Market Fit26:00 The Importance of Proper Research before your Product Launch33:44 Why You Need to a Neutral 3rd Party for your Research35:58 Alfonso's Book - The Digital Experience Company39:57 The 2018 McKinsey Report on the Business Value of Design42:30 What we can borrow in how Customer Experience is Treated in Brick-and-Mortar Stores45:30 Alfonso's American Dream JourneyConnect with Alfonso - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfonsodelanuez/Check Out The Digital Experience Company - https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Experience-Company-Winning-Insights/dp/1946633992Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve! To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

In this episode joining Eric is Sujan Patel - Co-Founder of Mailshake.Sujan is a serial entrepreneur, who typically oversees  Product and the GTM motion within the companies he launches.While Sujan typically wears many hats in his ventures, the ace up his sleeve is his personal brand - 40k+ followers on LinkedIn, 50k+ subscribers to his newsletter, and a team that publishes anywhere from 50-75 pieces of content per month.Tune in to find out Sujan's approach to personal brands, content and entrepreneurship in this value-packed episode of Chaos to Clarity. Highlights:00:00 Sujan & Eric's paths to entrepreneurship 05:16 The benefits of working on multiple projects simultaneously07:33 What verticals is Sujan currently working in14:13 What's Sujan's role in his ventures17:00 Customer-Facing Non-Negotiables20:11 Sujan's personal branding playbook24:56 How to build a personal brand29:37 Content engines for busy founders33:17 Top 6 ways to build a personal brand38:52 The Importance of short-form video41:08 How the attention economy brings in business Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

Today joining Eric is Abi Noda, CEO & Co-Founder of DX - The developer insights platform designed by researchers.Abi was a developer for 6 years prior to moving into management and truly experiencing the friction between dev teams and management.The problem we discussed is that development teams and engineers are often measured on outdated and ineffective metrics that cause more harm than good.That's why Abi is on a mission to optimise for the developer experience and help dev teams thrive.During this episode, a ton of insights were laid on where friction rises between dev teams and management, and what steps you can take to move in the right direction of adding true efficiency to the development process.Highlights: 0:00 - Who is Abi Noda02:19 - Where developer KPI's go wrong04:43 - Failing Metrics in Development Teams08:14 - Don't focus on speed, focus on flow09:52 - What metrics SHOULD you focus on?14:26 - Early Success Stories with Abi17:48 - How do you implement DX?21:25 - Management and Developer Friction24:50 - Where Standard Measurement Goes WrongDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

This episodes guest is Jasmine Ober, CEO of Pitch Genius.Jasmine started Pitch Genius based on the difficulties she saw companies face when pitching for investment. To attempt to fill this market gap, she started a service that helps startups nail their pitch and land the ever elusive capital opportunities that they've worked so hard to get.During this episode, we identified over 30 different pitfalls, mistakes and best practices that will make or break your next opportunity to raise capital.Highlights:00:30 How Jasmine got into Fundraising04:48 Common Mistakes Founders make when trying to land an investment 07:55 Where founders go wrong with preparing their funding pitch12:36 Eric's experience with young founders raising capital without a business plan14:28 The Pitfalls of Not Having an Exit Strategy 20:10 No Competitive analysis = no deal31:36 The Type of Story that Sells33:25 Tactical Empathy Wins37:02 Powerful Storytelling comes from Client OutcomesDon't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

On this episode of the Chaos to Clarity podcast, host Eric Weiss chats with tech entrepreneur Brett Barlow, CEO of Everee. Originally on a sports marketing path, Brett's unexpected detour into advertising taught him valuable lessons about the unpredictable world of startups and the importance of customer-centric strategies.   They unpack the realities and challenges of leading a company from startup to IPO, emphasizing the pitfalls of short-term thinking and stock price obsession. Brett shares how he fosters a vibrant company culture, promotes values-based behavior, and encourages diversity, particularly in Utah's business landscape. This episode is brimming with wisdom and practical tips for anyone navigating the business world. Subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for more entrepreneurial insights! Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Startup to IPO, Business Culture, Diversity, Brett Barlow, Eric Weiss.

On this episode Eric talks with Eilon Reshef, Co-Founder of Gong. They talk about the importance of hyper-focusing and expanding, and how Gong prioritizes customer success through their operating principles, including making sure customers appreciate the value of Gong. Additionally, Eilon discusses how Gong's platform automates the process of tagging and searching for specific conversations, making it easier to find valuable feedback and insights. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into the world of sales and how technology can help companies improve their conversion rates and customer success.To reach out to Eric and learn more about the show, visit: FullCycleProduct.com

Unlock the secrets of scaling your SaaS business and achieving exponential growth with this must-listen episode. Join Eric as he talks with renowned software sales coach and host of the Scale Your SaaS podcast, Matt Wolach. Together, they dive deep into actionable strategies and best practices to help you succeed in today's competitive software market.In this power-packed episode, you'll learn: The Four Pillars of Exponential SaaS Growth and how to apply them in your business Matt Wolach's game-changing Perfect Deal Process for boosting your close rates Techniques for understanding your customers' real pain points and building strong connections The crucial role of storytelling in sales and its impact on forging lasting brand relationships How to lead the sales process with confidence, authority, and expertise Whether you're a SaaS founder, sales professional, or entrepreneur, this episode is packed with valuable insights that will propel your business to new heights. Tune in and discover the secrets to outperforming your competitors and achieving long-lasting success in the SaaS industry.Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com#SaaS #Sales #Scaling #MattWolach #ChaosToClarityPodcast #Growth #SalesStrategy #CustomerEngagement #BusinessSuccess #TechPodcast #SEO

On this episode Eric sits down with Jeff Chow, the CEO of InVision, to explore the future of collaboration, continuous improvement, and cross-functional teamwork. They discuss Jeff's unique leadership style, which involves encouraging his team to be curious, authentic, and open to learning. The two dive deep into the world of agile methodologies and change management, as Jeff emphasizes the importance of quick feedback loops, instinct, and intuition for successful collaboration.As the conversation progresses, they explore the challenges teams face when transitioning from brainstorming to execution, with Jeff sharing an innovative approach that InVision has recently introduced to address this issue. Finally, they envision the future of collaborative workspaces, aiming to break down silos and facilitate seamless cross-functional workflows on a single canvas.Join Eric and Jeff as they uncover the power of collaboration, the value of listening to customers, and the impact of a unified workspace on productivity and continuous improvement. This episode is packed with valuable insights and practical tips for leaders and teams looking to revolutionize the way they work. Don't miss it!To connect with Eric, visit fullycycleproduct.comWatch/Listen at ChaosToClarity.io

In this powerful episode, Eric Weiss delves into the game-changing strategy of customer-driven feedback loops for startups striving to achieve product-market fit. Learn how to pivot from the outdated "build it, they will come" mindset to a customer-centric approach that drives sustainable growth. Discover actionable tips on creating and implementing feedback mechanisms, empathizing with customers, and unlocking the true potential of your startup. Don't miss this essential conversation packed with insights that can revolutionize your business strategy. Listen now and transform your startup journey.Founders interested in startups, product-market fit, customer-driven feedback loops, business strategy, customer-centric approach, and sustainable growth need to hear this guide to success in today's SaaS and product driven world.To learn more, visit FullCycleProduct.com

On this episode Eric sits down with João Ferrão dos Santos, Executive Assistant to ChatGPT and CEO of Underdog Founders and Aisthetic Apparel, who has recently gone viral after hearing about a prompt called "Hustle GPT". João's prompt is essentially: "You are HustleGPT, an entrepreneurial AI. You will be the CEO and I will be your Executive Assistant. You have $1,000 and 1 hour of my day, everyday. Make the most successful company possible."In an era of rapid technological advancements, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in various industries is no longer surprising. João has taken the conversation about AI's capabilities to a new level. Santos discusses his unique journey with Chat GPT, an AI language model that he uses to make key decisions for his company. This thought-provoking interview raises questions about the potential benefits and ethical concerns surrounding AI-driven decision-making.From Underdog Founder to AI-Powered CEOSantos' story began with a simple idea: sharing stories about underdog founders on LinkedIn. As the stories went viral, he saw the potential in building a brand around these authentic startup journeys. This led to the creation of Underdog Founders, a platform showcasing the genuine struggles and triumphs of entrepreneurs who have faced rejection and adversity but have persevered.Through this venture, Santos embraced AI technology to redefine entrepreneurship. With Chat GPT prompts, he founded a company from scratch called Aisthetic Apparel, where he delegates all key decisions to the AI language model. From creating a brand name, logo, and designs, to determining retail price points, pre-money valuation, and minimum ticket size for investors, Chat GPT takes the lead. Santos, however, still handles the smaller details himself.AI in E-commerce: The Shopify and Printful BlueprintSantos' innovative approach to AI extends beyond decision-making. During the interview, he reveals how he asked Chat GPT to create a ten-step plan for building a successful print-on-demand e-commerce store using Shopify and Printful. This not only demonstrates the versatility of AI language models but also highlights their potential to revolutionize the way businesses are created and operated.OpenAI and the Ethical LandscapeWhile Santos' use of AI is undoubtedly groundbreaking, it also raises ethical concerns. OpenAI, the organization responsible for developing the language model, is aware of the potential risks and maintains a cautious approach. They issue disclaimers before each response, emphasizing the importance of human accountability and responsibility.The podcast interview delves into the possibility of AI making decisions that might not be in the best interests of humans. The discussion highlights the need for a global agreement on building and training AI models, as well as maintaining ethical standards in AI development. As AI capabilities continue to grow, there will be increasingly complex scenarios to navigate and ethical considerations to address.AI's Impact on Business and SocietyThe conversation also touches on AI's potential to disrupt industries and change what we consider important work. With AI-driven decision-making becoming more prevalent, there will be a significant shift in the workforce landscape. For instance, tasks such as content generation may increasingly rely on AI, as demonstrated by Santos' use of Chat GPT. However, he acknowledges its limitations in terms of quality and storytelling ability compared to human writers.This is a fascinating episode and will be impactful for anyone who is interested in enabling AI to start a business.Visit fullcycleproduct.com to learn more and get in touch with Eric.

On this episode of Chaos to Clarity we dive deep into the world of cybersecurity and ethical hacking with none other than Ted Harrington, renowned security expert and bestselling author of "Hackable." Prepare to have your perspectives challenged as Ted reveals the secrets of thinking like a hacker and how contrarian thinking can unlock new opportunities in life.

On this episode with two seasoned experts, Eric sits down with Dr. Bryan Rill to discuss the significance of human-centered design, product-market fit, and research in product development. They debunk the solo genius myth and highlight the importance of understanding customers and driving discovery-led growth. Learn about listening posts, research operations, and the vital role product managers play in partnering with agencies. Hear real-life experiences in transforming leadership and cultivating a culture of evidence-based decision making. You don't wanna miss this episode!

On this episode Eric talks to Ravi Parikh, CEO and Co-Founder of Airplane, to talk about their shared history as professional DJs, product market fit from a numbers perspective, and frameworks to ensure success in the long run for SaaS companies.Check out Airplane for internal tooling solutions here:Airplane.devIf you would like to connect with Eric, you can do so here: https://www.fullcycleproduct.com/