AI Boom Boosts Demand for Compliance and Security
“We didn’t know the AI boom was about to happen.” But it’s now driving more demand for everything @DrataHQ does - compliance, security assurance, vendor risk. @markowitzadam on the difference between luck and positioning. Full episode: https://t.co/QqQ8deMpCS https://t.co/FaqsVeUjfP
AI Additions Void Prior Security Reviews, Spark Compliance Crisis
Your vendors added AI features since their last security review. That means the risk profile you approved is already outdated. @markowitzadam (@DrataHQ , $100M+ ARR) on why AI is creating an entirely new compliance crisis most companies aren't ready for. https://t.co/WzM8x2xm2s
Use Your Product First; Proof Builds Trust and Growth
He refused to sell his product until his team used it themselves first. Then 100 customers signed in 6 weeks. 1,000 in year one. @markowitzadam built @DrataHQ to $100M+ ARR by proving trust with evidence - not promises. https://t.co/MZNP2TLl8H
Urgent Buyers, Internal Use Prove True Product‑Market Fit
My top 7 takeaways from my chat with Adam Markowitz who built Drata from from zero to $100M ARR in 4 years (8,000+ customers): 1. Product-market fit shows in buyer urgency, not just signups. Adam's edtech startup took years to...
Rapid Growth Crushed Margins and Infrastructure
$2M to $9M ARR in one year. Sounds amazing but... Support went from 200 to 20K tickets/month Servers crashed for a full day Gross margin went from 90% to 20% They threw money at AWS because there was no other option. https://t.co/eT4oChv5G3
Narrow Positioning and Separate Budgets Beat Industry Giants
My top 5 takeaways from my chat with Gille Berteaux, Livestorm's CEO (nearly $20M ARR, 3,500 customers): 1. Expanding too broadly can kill product-market fit: After COVID, they added meetings and sales demos. Suddenly they looked like a smaller version of...
Student-Built Livestorm Scales to $20M ARR
Gilles Bertaux built Livestorm for a university final exam in 2016. Nearly $20M ARR. 3,500 customers. $35M raised. Last round was 2020. https://t.co/DXieBIwtcs
Narrowing Focus Revives Growth After Overexpansion
Are you justifying 'how our product's different' on every sales call? There’s a reason and a counter-intuitive solution: Gilles Bertaux's company experienced this firsthand. They grew from $2M ARR to $9M ARR in one year during COVID. But then they almost lost...
Start with Familiar Use Case, Not Lofty Vision
Most founders position their products around their ultimate vision rather than what users can immediately understand. This is why so many brilliant products struggle to gain traction early on. Flo Crivello from Lindy shared a perfect case study with me:...
Ship Imperfectly, Let Users See Your Vision
Flo Crivello , founder of Lindy told me he gave early users a product that was oily, half-broken, and rough around the edges. His no-code AI automation platform wasn't ready. Not by traditional standards. The first people through the door...
SEO Still Works: Replicate Proven Playbook for AI Growth
I asked Adam Fard how he bootstrapped UX Pilot AI to $5M ARR in 2 years. His answer goes against every hot take on social media right now. Adam built a UX design agency before launching UX Pilot, an AI...
First Customer’s Offer Propelled Qualia to $100M ARR
Most founders say they're "close to their customers." Nate Baker took it further than anyone I've interviewed. When he started Qualia , he was 21 with zero industry experience. His first customer didn't just sign a contract. He made Nate...
Uncover SaaS Blind Spots with Free Churn & Founder Tools
Your SaaS has blind spots. I built free tools to help you find them: → Revenue Ceiling Calculator: See if your churn is quietly capping your growth → Founder Archetype Quiz: Discover the fatal flaw holding you back 5 minutes. Zero fluff. https://t.co/jxT71w5LNN
Build Vision‑Driven Products, Not Customer Feature Requests
Your customers don't know what they want. Every time a founder tells me "we're just building what customers asked for" I know they're in trouble. When a customer asks for a feature, they're describing a trunk. They feel their pain...
Live‑code Fixes Win Enterprise Deals, Not Slide Decks
Standard advice for B2B SaaS founders: "Never do a live demo." Saket Saurabh ignored that rule. And it's exactly how his startup landed Instacart as its first enterprise customer... In the early days of Nexla , Saket got a meeting...
Demand One Unreasonable Effort to Drive Massive Growth
"What is the one thing you will put unreasonable effort into this week?" That's the question Richard Hollingsworth asks his team every Monday. And considering his company, Fyxer AI , went from $1M to $18M ARR in just 9 months...
Give Away Your Product, Watch Users Multiply Organically
The counterintuitive viral growth strategy that got Read AI to millions of users (without spending on ads): I asked David Shim how Read.ai scaled so fast. His answer surprised me. Most meeting note apps force you to visit their website...