E08: Creating customer interview questions before you have customers

Brett Lindenberg’s startup Mindstamp puts six figures of profit in his pocket every year, helping businesses create interactive videos for training and sales. But growth has leveled off, and he’s having trouble changing that.Does he niche down to one kind of customer, or stay general and change how he reaches the market? Either way, most of the buyers he wants have never heard of interactive video. Cohost Jessica Malnik and I dig in: A candid working session including: - the cheaper plan that has him fishing in bad waters - why his best buyers aren’t searching for him - SOC 2, and why Mindstamp should never issue the certificate - certifications people care about at the identity level - teaching better interactive video as the marketing ================= ME ME ME!!! ================= Subscribe on YouTube Subscribe via Podcast 📘 Get my book 📘 My bio + 20 years of articles Twitter | LinkedIn ============================= STARRING BRETT LINDENBERG ============================= Mindstamp Twitter | LinkedIn ================================== WITH COHOST JESSICA MALNIK ================================== Homepage Subscribe on Newsletter Subscribe on YouTube The Remote Work Tribe Twitter | LinkedIn ================================ REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE ================================ “The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method” “Not Business Advice” books—Alex West TIMESTAMPS

Mario Peshev reduced his agency from 60 to 30 employees thanks to his own AI innovations. But almost nobody there is working on landing new clients.Pouring money into sales means building a machine he has never had. He could sell, but then he has to prove that this agency is worth a lot of money. Cohost Jon Sturgeon and I dig in: A candid working session including: - agencies in the world of AI - why an NPS of 90 proves nothing - bench time: waste, or a feature clients pay for? - a live cold-call role-play =============== ME ME ME!!! =============== Subscribe on YouTube 📘 Get my book 📘 My bio + 20 years of articles Twitter | LinkedIn ========================== STARRING MARIO PESHEV ========================== DevriX Personal site Newsletter Twitter | LinkedIn ================================ WITH COHOST JON STURGEON ================================ Dingus & Zazzy uhoh.com (an IT company for businesses that don’t have IT problems) Newsletter Twitter | LinkedIn =============================== REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE =============================== “The Effortless Experience”—Dixon, Toman & DeLisi Hypergen, cold email TIMESTAMPS

How can George Paladichuk take his startup NaiL from 1 huge customer, to the next 100 customers? Cohost Dan Martell and I dig in: A candid working session including: - finding early adopters in public data - reading job postings to find your buyer's software - the $15K way inside a global franchise - products for many instead of a product for one - should he chase elephants or mid-market? ======================= ME ME ME!!! ======================= Subscribe on YouTube Get my book My bio + 20 years of articles Twitter | LinkedIn ======================= STARRING GEORGE PALADICHUK ======================= NaiL George's site LinkedIn YouTube ======================= WITH COHOST DAN MARTELL ======================= Dan Martell Growth Stacking Show (podcast) Martell Method (newsletter) YouTube https://twitter.com/danmartell https://ca.linkedin.com/in/dmartell ======================= REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE ======================= "Buy Back Your Time"—Dan Martell "Crossing the Chasm"—Geoffrey A. Moore TIMESTAMPS

Carl Alexander built Ymir — a serverless AWS platform that deploys WordPress and PHP applications onto a customer's own AWS account — and the twenty-five customers who run production stores on it never leave. They also all pay $39 a month, and nobody new signs up. Did four years falsify the market, or was it the wrong buyers? It's the second one. The $39, the self-serve signup, the WordPress developer he kept aiming at — every piece of the offer points away from the thing he's world-class at, which is teaching people how this works. Cohost Bryce Adams bootstrapped Metorik on the same platform, and he's been telling Carl to charge more for years. He and I dig into who the buyer actually is, and what Carl should be selling him. A candid working session including: - five years of talks, zero customers - $39 versus "bet our company on it" - the joke tier he shouldn't have deleted - what Metorik charged from day one - should he stop going to conferences? ME ME ME!!! Subscribe on YouTube 📘 Get my book 📘 My bio + 20 years of articles Twitter | LinkedIn STARRING CARL ALEXANDER Ymir Ymir Reports Blog Twitter | LinkedIn WITH COHOST BRYCE ADAMS Metorik Twitter REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE "Using the Needs Stack for Competitive Strategy" "SaaSocalypse" video by Jesse Hanley TIMESTAMPS

Hasan Cagli tripled PostPlanify to $3K MRR the month he started selling to agencies instead of indie hackers. The agencies use it every day, ask for features, and stay. Everyone else signs up, pokes around, and churns. Which means the niche is already sitting in his own customer list. But winning there means giving up customer number seven -- the one he's actually worried about. Cohost Laura Roeder built MeetEdgar in this exact category, scaled it past $5M ARR, and sold it. She and I dig into what it costs to stay vague -- including the years MeetEdgar spent on a niche defined by a feature instead of a buyer. A candid working session including: - "agency" is not a niche, it's one facet - the number 7 customer trap - sizing the market with powers of ten - what MeetEdgar's niche got wrong - pricing by workspace, not by account ME ME ME!!! Subscribe on YouTube 📘 Get my book 📘 My bio + 20 years of articles Twitter | LinkedIn STARRING HASAN CAGLI PostPlanify Twitter | LinkedIn YouTube WITH COHOST LAURA ROEDER Founder at Paperbell Read her blog at Twitter REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE "Your target market isn't demographic" "The Ultimate Sales Machine" — Chet Holmes TIMESTAMPS