Jul 16, 2020
Being a venture funded SaaS founder is like walking into a
casino to bet all of your employees’ salaries… every single
day.
Your decision to make one choice over another – bet on
red or black – can cost your company millions.
A few wrong bets can dry up your finances and run your company into
the ground.
But a few consecutive right bets can leave your
competition for dead and give you the lion’s share of the
market.
I’m not a gambling man.
I never bet on chance. I bet on proven
strategies. Only.
If you could make repeated strategic bets without
losing, you could turn a small business into
a massive company in barely a few years.
But how do you do that? How do you evaluate priorities
and make the
right decisions… Every. Single. Time?
Let’s ask Des Traynor.
Des is the co-founder of Intercom.com, a customer chat, and
support application.
Hailing from Dublin Ireland (a city not exactly known for its tech
industry), Intercom has supported multi-million-dollar businesses
in Silicon Valley from the other side of the planet.
Des puts the success of his company down to their ability to choose
the right things to say “No” to. He knows how to bet
big and win.
I sat down to interview Des on the latest episode of the Escape
Velocity Podcast, and… just wait until you hear this
guy’s incredible strategic
mind.
If you want to know how to win big with your company then you HAVE
to tune in.
Once Des got up to speed, that Irish accent just took off and we
got talking about:
- How to divide and conquer (the 70 / 30 split)
- How Intercom’s key product wasn’t intended to be sold
- Why you shouldn’t fear your competition
- Relationships between PMs, Design, and Engineering
- RICE scores: Intercom’s framework to win big repeatedly
- The Cocktail Recipe for Innovation
- Drawing a line and nailing your niche
- Why it pays to stop caring what people think of you
I’m an angel investor in Intercom.
I met Eoghan (pronounced ‘Owen’), the other Irish co-founder of
Intercom at a conference years ago.
Eoghan showed me an early prototype of Intercom. I can tell
you… I immediately got it.
I’ve worked the support tickets at my own companies for years and
built lots of customer-management tech in the past.
When I first saw what they wanted to do with Intercom, I knew it
was a winner and I invested.
It looks like I made a good bet…
In 2018, Intercom was valued
at $1.275 BILLION.
Companies don’t soar that high without great leadership from a team
that knows when to make the right bets.
You’re going to learn a TON from this interview with Des. Don’t
miss this one. Get your headphones in and fire it up right here, right now.
--
Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown
has people and teaches startup founders like you how to
scale. He previously created, raised venture funding
for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and
Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets
that are actually awesome.
+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell