The Exchanges

Q Thank you, Prashant. Dear listeners, you will find more about Zoho payroll in the show notes. Now let's further continue with the podcast. And so your revenue started coming in later part of the journey. First lot of usage started happening, as you said, right? And then you figured out how to, how to make revenue, how to make business model once you had usage.

A Um, yeah, that's right. We had pricing. So we show that to our customers. But we really didn't bother. We also didn't bother to, you know, in the very early days, we didn't really bother to have contracts. If there is no, if, if the customer doesn't require contract, let's just start working with them. Um, so we kind of removed all the barriers to the minimum. Um, In, in order for us to work with more great customers. So this software will be used by more companies that we can learn more and grow faster. Um, yeah, so that, that, this is something that we put, actually, this is how we put this right now. I mean, revenue right now has different meaning because revenue is basically is financing the innovation and financing this whole company.

AI assessment note: “yeah, that's right. We had pricing. So we show that to our customers.”

Q Got it. And can you describe your journey from zero to one mil, one to 10, and then 10 to hundred? Like, what are the various challenges faced during these phases?

A Well, that's a, that's a big question. I need to, uh, try to, uh, at the beginning, it was very hard for us to actually get funding, for example. And, um, that's really hard. I mean, I mean, the good answer that you'll get from a VC is, uh, no, it's not interesting for us, which is a great answer. Most cases you don't get an answer. And I think that that was a very, very different time than it was obviously last year in the last couple of years. Uh, back in. The environment was very different. It was very hard for us also specifically to raise money. Like I mentioned, but I think that this is what created this, uh, company. Um, and I think that there is a lot to learn from it. That one number one is that we said to ourselves, you know, what if investors don't understand what we do, um, let's stop chasing them. And chase building great technology that app developers can use and get value from. And the rationale is very simple. If you cannot build a product that deliver value to customers, why should you go ahead and raise money? There is no need to raise money if you cannot do that. And we thought, okay, We can build this technology. We don't have to have a lot of money to build it. Actually. We just, you know, uh, us, um, And in the end of the day, even if you have interest in as a VC is interested in us, they will give, they will call our customers and ask them, okay, is there…

AI assessment note: “at the beginning, it was very hard for us to actually get funding”

Q Yeah. Like, uh, on, on, uh, reaching out to the right set of customers, uh, right. How to, how, how to build your sales team, uh, and how to distribute, uh, you know, what are the various functions to have in your sales team that made you reach three hundred million in ARR?

A So in the early stage, it was a lot of market education. Um, so we didn't have, uh, competitors at all at the beginning, and then we had a few, but we, we were not really competing. Because it was really a blue ocean and all we needed to do is, uh, educate the market. Uh, we did some, some kind of growth hacking, like, like really hacking. Uh, uh, we had one competitor that managed to raise a lot of money. They had out of business and then they actually shifted, also built that, uh, product. So they've been really well funded. They had other business that been Financing that as well. Um, I remember, and we were, you know, bootstrap. Uh, and I remember that I, Added AppSlayer as their competitor in Crunchbase. Yeah, Crunchbase. So everybody that been looking for this company because they did a really good job in marketing education. Um, and this is basically what we needed. So market education. So people understand that there is a need for measurement. There is a need for attribution analytics. They're going to search for something and, and we want to make sure that they find us. So we added us as a competitor, which is not really the logical way to To think about things. I mean, usually companies say, uh, early stages say, ah, we don't have competitors. Uh, I think that maybe it's important for you to actually define a competitor so you can both go after the same vertical and l…

AI assessment note: “So in the early stage, it was a lot of market education.”

Q Oren, ah, would love to start by, you know, ah, what got you from entrepreneur, into entrepreneurship from the VC world, and why did you start in Israel first, and then move to US?

A You know, let's start, you start, you start with entrepreneurs. So first of all, I think that people are kind of making mistakes with the definition of entrepreneur. My, my personal definition of entrepreneur is someone that is deterministic about something, you know, good judgment, Uh, he's challenging the status quo and he or she just, you know, have this ability, uh, to And resilience and consistency around their ideas and their passion and their beliefs and how they can make this change, change in the world. And that's not necessarily, uh, uh, uh, living your day job and starting something of your own. Uh, uh, I think that there is a lot of entrepreneurship internally. I think that when I was, uh, working for different companies, I think that that was entrepreneur because this is how, what, how was my mindset? Um, And, um, and this is what I encourage. I encourage people. I encourage, uh, my people, uh, my, my team here to think like a founder, to think like entrepreneur because they are, um, and no one is telling them what to do and they need to figure this out. You can help them. And we have this as well. We have this kind of a structure, uh, but the structure doesn't need to limit, uh, if, if you have good ideas, all you need to do to, Um, actually to take your idea to convince people around you and get some budget to it and get some attention to it. And the same goes fo…

AI assessment note: “you asked me about, uh, how, uh, why I started the company, right?”