Jumping Straight Into a SaaS Startup: Brave or Stupid? With Daniel Bakh of Fullview
In this episode of SaaS Origin Stories, Phil speaks with Daniel Bakh, CEO of Fullview, a platform that enables SaaS companies to deliver delightful support that is fast, personable, and scalable. He is also the Host of the Collective Hindsight podcast where accomplished founders and investors share their stories, and was previously the Growth Manager at Contractbook and a Product Evangelist at TwentyThree.
Join them as they delve into how Daniel turned his frustration in a customer-facing SaaS role into an entirely new business, why going full-time with Fullview straight away was a very risky but worthwhile move, and why your SaaS product needs a hook for your investors. They also discuss why listening to your customers' problems is one of the most important things you can do as a founder.
Guest at a Glance:
Name: Daniel Bakh
About Daniel: Daniel Bakh is the CEO of Fullview, a platform that enables SaaS companies to deliver delightful support that is fast, personable, and scalable. He is also the Host of the Collective Hindsight podcast where accomplished founders and investors share their stories, and was previously the Growth Manager at Contractbook and a Product Evangelist at TwentyThree.
Topics we cover:
- How Fullview saves time for B2B SaaS companies
- Going fulltime from day one and the fundraising process
- Jumping straight into the company: brave or stupid?
- Pitching the idea to investors
- Sometimes all you need is a powerpoint
- Figuring out your North Star
- Why you should meet with every user of your product
- Visualizing the design of a feature before actually making it
- Listen to the customers, but focus on their problems
And more!
Key Takeaways:
Turning Frustration Into Business
Daniel says that when he and his founder were working in customer-facing roles together, they would find it really difficult going back and forth with customers over the phone; even just trying to understand their problems proved to be a challenge. That’s when they decided to come up with Fullview, so that they could actually see what problems their global customers had and could help them solve them in real-time.
“The idea for Fullview came from a personal frustration that we felt - myself and my co-founder. We worked in customer-facing and product related roles, and we basically felt this pain of trying to help customers, going back and forth with them over the phone, email, and chat [...] We got fed up with that and thought, let’s build a better solution to the problem.”
Going Full Time With Fullview
Daniel admits that he isn’t entirely sure if going full-time straight away and jumping straight into the business was really a good idea, after all it could have fallen through and gone wrong. Eventually it all worked out, but it was a very risky move. He says that it took them about two months to raise money for the business from that point on; luckily they already had a network within the industry, so when it came to pitching to investors there was already some trust established.
“We just jumped straight into the deep-end of the pool. I don’t know if it’s an unusual way to do it and it’s high-risk, but we were so confident about the idea that we just quit everything and did it overnight.”
Pitching Your Product: Start With a Hook
Any product you want to create, especially when pitching it to investors, needs to have a hook to draw them in. In Daniel’s case, the hook was the screen sharing feature, something which no other technical support company was offering - from there, they kept building upon and refining it, making it the best it could possibly be. Because their hook was so good and fitted into a certain niche, they were able to get regular customers within the first six months - an impressive timeframe!
“We started with that, and we realized that’s a good product hook. I think it’s important that you start with a hook that instantly people will get. Just a thirty second hook to understand the value.”
Meeting With Every User of the Product
At Fullview, they make sure to meet with every user of their product so that they understand how to use the product efficiently. Daniel says that if you’re not talking to your users, you’re crazy. You can’t make your product work better for them if you don’t listen to what they have to say about it - this is super important if you want your product to really be successful. He always asks customers what they want included, then he’ll go and ask other users if it’s what they want, and if there’s a general consensus that it is, then they will make it. It’s all about listening.
Listen On
