Ara Mahdessian is the co-founder and CEO of ServiceTitan, a vertical SaaS company. He discusses optimal timing for software companies to launch second and third products.
“As soon as the product You are currently building has great product market fit. You have a high degree of success with customers that buy your current product. Then I think you should absolutely, you know, entertain the idea of building the next product.”
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More from Ara Mahdessian
Insight
Mahdessian: Product quality drives customer success more than CSMs
“The customer success, by the way, doesn't happen just from customer success teams. There's only so much a customer success manager can do. If the product isn't good enough, like how many workarounds is a CSM going to advise each customer on if the product does…”
Ara MahdessianJul 10, 2024▶ 30:37Ara Mahdessian: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier | E1175 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Mahdessian: Entering new markets or launching products requires founder leadership
“Anytime you're doing something new, going up market, going down market, building a new product, going into a new customer segment, you know, you're going from, you know, residential to commercial, or you're going from, I don't know, plumbing to roofing. I thin…”
Ara MahdessianJul 10, 2024▶ 14:24Ara Mahdessian: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier | E1175 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Ara Mahdessian: Very few software companies successfully switch market segments
“Very few software companies have successfully gone from down market to up market. And very few have gone from up market down market. So it is just very hard to do.”
Ara MahdessianJul 10, 2024▶ 21:10Ara Mahdessian: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier | E1175 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
What-if
Ara Mahdessian: ServiceTitan Should Have Launched Payments Earlier
“Yeah, I would say that was an example of us not seeing the opportunity to build a great payment solution. And we should have done it earlier.”
Ara MahdessianJul 10, 2024▶ 34:23Ara Mahdessian: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier | E1175 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Mahdessian: Doubts about executive hires are always justified
“In every case where there was doubt about an individual, that doubt has it every single time. Proven to be justified. And it turned out that that person was the wrong guy. It has never happened where given an extra six months, nine months, there's been some tr…”
Ara MahdessianJul 10, 2024▶ 44:10Ara Mahdessian: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier | E1175 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Mahdessian: Great leadership relies on one strategy choice and hundreds of execution decisions
“So great leadership is about one thing. Deliver extraordinary outcomes. That typically involves one decision about where to play. Successfully executing where to play involves hundreds of great decisions on execution.”
Ara MahdessianJul 10, 2024▶ 42:13Ara Mahdessian: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier | E1175 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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