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Bootstrapping Your Way to Thirty Million Dollars with Vivek Bhaskaran, Founder and CEO at QuestionPro
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A big shoutout to all product leaders. Welcome to the Product Leaders Podcast by Fireart with your hosts, Dima Venglinski and Tolik Nguyen. Every episode is a deep dive into different aspects of product leadership to enhance the end-user experience.
In this episode, Tolik is joined by Vivek Bhaskaran, Founder and CEO at QuestionPro, a leading provider of online survey software. The platform offers tools for creating, polling, distributing, analyzing surveys, and data visualization. Vivek shares his insights across a broad spectrum of topics, including bootstrapping, prioritizing product development, always be selling, and the secret behind success and longevity.
Topics we discuss:
- Bootstrapping and its viability in today’s environment
- How to prioritize product development
- Always be selling
- The secret of eighteen years of longevity as a founder
Hot Takes and Key Highlights:
Bootstrapping and its Viability in Today’s Environment
Vivek mentions that bootstrapping, if anything, has gotten simpler now. He recalls how he started eighteen years ago by writing code and building his server by himself. Today, software development is a much simpler and quicker process. For founders wishing to go the bootstrapping route, there are many more opportunities today. He also mentions that the constant across the eighteen-year timeline is that the real challenge is getting the software in the hands of the first thousand users.
“Building software is relatively easy and straightforward; the real challenge is distribution, getting in the hands of your first hundred or thousand customers”.
Product Development - Taking a Unique Problem and Making it Generic
How you handle customer feedback-based product modifications depends on your growth phase. In the initial stages, when you’re still trying to optimize product market fit, you must resolve the customer problem in totality. In effect, you’re customizing your product for the user. When you’re further down the growth path, you first generalize the customer issue and apply minor tweaks to the product. Customers who still want specific issues to be addressed are an opportunity to open a revenue pipeline through customization.
“The ability to generalize a specific problem is the most important skill for product developers”.
Always be Selling
Many people have issues with selling, yet we have all been in a situation where we need to do the selling. The key is to look at selling as solving a problem. You have something to offer that a specific group of people need; all you need to do is find the buyer-seller match. Another fear linked to selling is the fear of rejection. The way around this is to stop personalizing the rejection. If someone says no, keep moving on till someone says yes.
“If you want to be good in sales, you must overcome the fear of rejection”
The Secret Behind Surviving and Thriving for Eighteen Years
Viveks pegs his longevity as a founder to motivation. He stays motivated by taking regular breaks and not the vacation types. He took a break from QuestionPro from 2010 to 2015 and trusted the management team to run the company successfully. He started new ventures and learned new skills. When he returned to QuestionPro, his role changed from the day-to-day operation to a more strategic vision of taking the company to 100 million dollars in sales. Listen to the podcast to get insights on how to stay motivated and prevent burnout.
“Taking a company from one to ten million is very different from taking it from ten to thirty and on to 100”
Guest at a Glance:
Vivek Bhaskaran describes himself as a computer engineer driven by two things every day; motorcycles and client success. He is the Founder and CEO of QuestionPro, and he has bootstrapped his way to a thirty-million-dollar company.
Hosts at a Glance:
Dima Venglinski: Dima is the CEO of Fireart Studio, a boutique design and software development company committed to innovation and technology. His client portfolio ranges from startups to established global brands like Rolls Royce, Google, and Atlassian.
Connect with Dima on LinkedIn
Fireart Studio Website
Tolik Nguyen: Tolik is the CSO and Partner at Fireart Studio and leads the strategy team while solving the company’s end-user issues from an early idea stage.
Connect with Tolik on LinkedIn
Fireart Studio Website
Product Leaders Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
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