“Too many founders have solutions, and are looking for problems,” says Brendan on this solo episode of Billion Dollar Tech. Today Brendan goes over the five key takeaways from his conversation with Trisha Kotari founder and CEO of Unit 21. Trisha cold called over 300 potential buyers and spoke to 100 before getting an RFP from Ebay. The advice she returned to throughout the episode was the importance of being customer-focused. This combined with the novel take on the product, helped Unit 21 differentiate itself in a saturated area.
This wasn’t easy with such a risk-averse audience. Still, Trisha was able to meet with people and was able to raise the seed round and gain early customer success. Brendan gives some insight into how she managed to achieve this.
Though he admits that what Trisha did isn’t always possible and that he’s seen it go just as easily in the opposite direction. He explains what made the difference.
Quotes
“A phrase that I have was said to me on a previous podcast was this idea that there’s too many founders out there that have solutions that are looking for problems, they design this thing that they think is cool, but they are not sure whether there’s actually a market for this thing.” ([1:17]-[1:31] | Brendan)
“That they were able to go out, have these conversations and land a few key customers, which then got them entree into a dozen other companies and ultimately, ultimately led to 12x growth in the following year.” ([3:50]-[4:02] | Brendan)
“You’re going to get a lot of advice from people and a lot of conflicting advice, especially early on as an entrepreneur, and especially from investors. It’s easy to try to take that advice as gospel.” ([6:02]-[6:12] | Brendan)
Connect with Brendan Dell:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandell/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanDell
Instagram: @thebrendandell
TikTok: @brendandell39
Buy a copy of Brendan’s Book, The 12 Immutable Laws of High-Impact Messaging: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578210926
Please don’t forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Billion Dollar Tech on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Use code Brendan30 for 30% off your annual membership with RiverSide.fm
About the Author
Brendan Dell
Brendan Dell is an author and the founder of The Daily Creative. As a freelancer he's worked with clients like Expedia, Cvent, Panasonic, Brother, Windstream and 100+ more to build unignorable tech brands. At The Daily Creative, he shares advice and lessons to help freelancers level up.
