March 6, 2025 • 23 mins
Quitting a stable job to start a company is a bet on yourself. For Courtney Krstich, that bet started with a simple but widespread problem in the landscaping industry: business owners didn’t have an easy way to track their finances.
You don’t need the perfect product from day one to turn an idea into a business. it’s You need constant validation, adaptation, and execution.
Product-market fit is a spectrum. It’s a process of proving demand, refining the solution, and earning customer trust.
Highlights include: Betting on Your Skills (01:21), Accelerating Your Start-Up Idea (04:39), Customer Development Interviews (06:24), Validating Your Start-Up Idea (10:18), One of the Hardest Things to Figure Out as a Founder (14:10), And more…
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Welcome back to the Predictable Revenue Podcast. I'm your host, Collin Stewart. Today I'm joined by Courtney Krstich. She's the founder at EarthaPro, and we are going to talk founder journey, founder story. Courtney, welcome to the show. Courtney Krstich (00:00):
Yeah, I'm happy to be here. It's like thanks for asking me to be here. I am excited to talk about EarthaPro, and I guess I think discuss my journey. Collin Stewart
no money for a while. Walk me through this crazy decision. Courtney Krstich (01:00):
Yeah. Yeah. Obviously taking the jump is it's a risk, but you're like betting on yourself in a way. Like you're betting that your skills and your talents can take you somewhere. Especially being an entrepreneur and a startup founder. So I started off my career at PepsiCo. I was driving routes and then I became a manager of the people who drove routes. And so basically the entire job was just like, execute this in this account, make sure you do the weekly changeover, make sure you tell your reps what to do every week, just like do work with one on ones and everything. And it's very much a hundred percent execution based. Someone's telling you what to do. And so I thought I want to be able to make my own place. And so I found a company that was very similar in a way, like the work. Was similar. Like I got to travel all over the mid Atlantic all over the U S really. And go to I got different big box retailers, like the home and Home Depot and Lowe's. I got to go to independent garden centers
(02:00):
and like lawn care centers. I got to go to co ops. And so it was really awesome doing that. And I got to create my own place that would either affect a single store somewhere or like a hundred stores. And so I really enjoyed having that spirit to create and try new things, create new programs. And that's when I thought I want to create a startup. And a common problem I would see. Would be like, I would go to a long care center and they would have a landscapingdivision or a long care division and they wouldn't be doing like a million dollar business in that way, but they just didn't know exactly because they were like, everything's in my brain. It's in my noggin. I was like, okay, how do you know how much you're making that? Yeah. And they're like, I'm using Apple notes. I use like my, yeah. I use Excel or something. And so I was like why don't you just use a software? They were, and they just said it's too inaccessible.
It's too expensive. It feels like it just feels like too much. And so I thought I talked to my I talked, oh my gosh, my boyfriend at the time, now husband. And he's a software developer. And we were like, let's make something. So we named it after our cat, Ursa. And that's like how the idea of Ursa Pro was born. Collin Stewart (03:00):
So you were in the field, you were selling to basically selling to your audience already, and you saw all these folks with pieces of paper, notepads. Or Apple notes and just no systems, no process whatsoever. Courtney Krstich
insight. I did a very poor job of applying my insight. So I'm not going to project that onto you. But I'm curious, how did you go from, okay, we've got this idea. Let's name our startup after our cat. Yeah. How do we validate it and decide, Hey, this is a, make the call of is this a terrible idea or is this a great idea? Courtney Krstich (04:00):
Yeah. So we went like a very traditional route with this. We were looking at accelerators and pre accelerators. Specifically. There are these programs usually funded by whatever state you're in or they're funded. By I guess a state or they're nonprofits or something and they'll have these precede these pre accelerators. We went through 1 and in Virginia and basically it helps you go through a cohort and it helps validate your idea. So they force you to do interviews with your like. Ideal customer profile, or who you think that would be, they force you to get your idea out of your head to just say what is the actual issue going on?
(05:00):
And is it profitable? Is it actually solvable? And would people like, would people want it? So I really enjoyed going through that program because before we found it, we were building in a vacuum. Like we were talking to like potential customers, especially with something that's like super software oriented, like us we were we were we didn't have much direction as to like, how do you even start a business? Like what paperwork do you need? Like, how do you ask questions in a way that isn't that people won't just be like,Oh, yeah, sounds good. Because that's like the worst feedback you can get. Collin Stewart: Yeah, I had a bunch of people, I went and showed them like, Hey, look at these mockups. And they're like, looks cool. Really smart idea. And then I went and built it. And they were like, I'd never pay for that. Courtney Krstich: Yeah, they're until someone like takes out their credit card I don't even care if they take it out just to Do a seven day free trial. And then they intend to cancel on the last day. If they don't take their
credit card out, like their opinions are like, take it with a grain of salt. Collin Stewart (06:00):
Totally. It's not customer development interviews until one of them becomes a customer. Otherwise it's just, I don't know, a university research project. Courtney Krstich
for left handed people only. And you're like, why? I Courtney Krstich (07:00):
was like, I will, I might be able to do that, but I need. I need to be a profitable business before I can start adding those things. Especially in the beginning. So Collin Stewart
completely different things to different people, but you also want to say things in a way that makes sense to them. I talked to a lot of people who are very non technical who are very intimidated by softwares. And so you don't want to be like, Hey, you're going into the software. Here's the CRM and here are all these jargon words. Cause that's not a good way to, to go into anything. Collin Stewart (08:00):
And so you interviewed 50 folks, you had all the data put into the one place. What was the initial insight? Not insight. What was the initial kind of signs of life where you're first starting to say, Hey, there's a pattern here. What did that look like to you? What did it feel like? Courtney Krstich
(09:00):
in lawn care landscaping. And meeting a few of these people and asking what are your biggest problems? so much. What are your biggest pain points? And if you had something that would do this, would you try it? Would you at least try it? And hearing a yes was really affirming even before we really had our software even before we had an MVP or knew all the features we were going to put or have the flow, because because our software is pretty, Involved because we have a CRM for them.We have estimating and job costing scheduling and then invoicing. So like the whole flow for them. I guess hearing how we wanted to make that flow in as soon as we had. Like we talked to people about our company and then they would be like, Oh, so do you have this? And we'd be like, yes, we do have it. That's great. Kind of them asking questions of do you have these things? And then I'll saying yes, was like the first spark of being like, we're on the right, we're on the right path.
Collin Stewart (10:00):
I love it. And so an interesting piece here, you actually, before you quit your full time jobs, you went to some conferences, you were testing it out, validating it. Hey, would you, if we built this, would you try it? Cool. What was the moment that convinced you? Was that the moment that kind of convinced you? All right, let's do it. Let's quit job, quit our jobs, get into pre accelerator. Courtney Krstich
customers and you're making money or even if you're not even net positive, like they're always like, are you okay? Like I'm worried about you. I hope you're doing well. I don't know if you got that, but like we got that up until we had customers and then everyone was like, Oh, we knew you do well. Collin Stewart (11:00):
I think my mom kept sending me job postings until it was like weird, like a million in revenue. I'm like, mom, I got 30, maybe not 30 employees. I got 12 employees, 15 employees. Like I don't need a job. And my old boss for the first five years every time he like bought a new truck for his new salesperson or had a particularly large commission check, he'd take a picture. He'd cover up the name, take a picture and send it to me. He'd be like, yours would be bigger. And five years of him, like taunting me to come back to work for him. And one day, one day I took a shot of our PNL and sent it back to him. I was like, sorry, Steve. So it Courtney Krstich
stat for startups is like. One out of every one out of every 10, you probably know this, but it's like one out of every 10 startups like succeeds or continues past five years. Yeah. I'd be surprised if it was that high, but Courtney Krstich (12:00):
yeah. I think if you're in a pre accelerator, you're going through an accelerator. I think it's much higher cause you have the support, but but yeah I'm sorry that. I'm sorry, you still got up postings after you were like a while into your startup. That's it Collin Stewart
huge time for us. like people looking for softwares. I'm sorry. Can you ask that again? Yeah, no problem. Where did, so we're talking about like where and when did your first customers hit? Who paid you first? Courtney Krstich (13:00):
Oh yeah. Sorry. So yeah, social media was really good for us. We got our first few customers on Instagram. I didn't even so it wasn't even through an advertisement. So I would just start creating like sizzle reels. Basically. So it's like getting people interested in looking at our stuff. I would go to like relevant profiles of people who I think could like using Arthur pro. So I like I'd follow them, like their content and stuff, not too much, but just like a little bit. And started gaining a little bit of a following and then I'd reach out to them later and I'd say Hey, I think this could work for you. I would be happy to give you a demo and get you on a free trial. And here's what we got. And I got I got some good feedback through that. But that's where we got the first few. And then I've
also been using Apollo to sequence emails. That hasn't worked as well, especially in the beginning where it's not about, it's not like you, you can't outsource that stuff in the beginning, it's all about meeting people in person. So we started going to some trade shows and we're getting really good really good traction and really good leads there. Collin Stewart (14:00):
I think one of the hardest things to figure out there for like new founders to figure out, and even myself I've made this mistake as well. I was trying to, I was doing a, working on a side project, targeting the property management space. And I was trying to hit them up with LinkedIn. I'm like, they don't use LinkedIn at all. Yeah. Okay. My wife is a property manager and she barely uses I don't think she's updated it and she definitely doesn't post on it. And so we'd like, I spent a month running campaigns. I'm like, Oh, we're getting nothing. I'm like, but they don't use it. And one of the hardest things to learn, cause you got to do it manually is like, where do, where does your audience hang out? What channels do they use? Courtney Krstich
it sounds like Instagram in your case, I don't imagine there's a huge, like Twitter mafia of landscaping companies. No, on there, I know a few folks that run landscaping companies or have run landscaping companies. And I don't the count is not very high. These aren't very social media focused folks. Courtney Krstich (15:00):
No, they're not. LinkedIn is not a place to go. There are some companies on there, but it's usually a page and it's usually a larger companies of not typically the kind of not typically our audience. And so a lot of them have Facebook pages. If they like, sometimes they don't even have websites, they just have Facebook pages and that's how they like anyone who's ever used their service on Like their hours and services and stuff. Collin Stewart
it was really good and then it stopped being good. And then I was like, we just got to go to the shows because people will remember meeting you at a show and like how you made them feel, they'll remember that our company is named after our cat, they'll remember that we're like, we're family owned, we're made in the US, we didn't outsource anything that's Courtney Krstich (16:00):
what makes people like, interested and that's what makes people trust you rather than just saying hi, I'm Courtney. Here's my like hundredth cold outreach email. I hope you think that this was directly to you because, it's coming from Apollo. Like that's not really a way to do it in the beginning. It's good to know how to, but at least that's how I feel. Collin Stewart
director of AI solutions on the episode dropped a couple of weeks ago. So check that out. Oh yeah. They didn't pay to be on. The show, I just like them and I invite their people on. Cause I want to, I want the inside scoop on what's happening. What's coming next. And I want to berate Tyler and be like, Hey, give me the access to these things. Let me do this. But at the same time, it's also like 99 a month and getting handed the keys to a rocket ship. And they're like, good luck flying. See ya. You're like, okay, what do I do now? What? Courtney Krstich (17:00):
There's so many features and stuff I didn't mean to say that it's a bad tool because I really think I still use it. It's not about the Collin Stewart
missing one of them. Courtney Krstich (18:00):
Yeah. I didn't mean to imply that it doesn't work at all for anyone. I think it's a great tool. I am, I'm still using it. I meant to say like when you're starting a startup. And it can be like, it can be really good to get to know how to use, but all your like first initial customers, they're not going to come from cold email. They're going to come from going to trade shows and meeting people. They might come from social media just because they're used to seeing your content and you show your face on socials and stuff like that. It's just it's harder to get across who you are and really get to know someone through an email. Collin Stewart
trade shows, which I think is fantastic. Describe the moment where you realized I think we have product market fit. Courtney Krstich (19:00):
Okay. So I think that's a complex question because finding product market fit is like one of the hardest things you can do. And you're never like, every time you think that you're certain something new comes up or you meet someone new who's no, you don't. It makes you think that you don't. And Collin Stewart
(20:00):
I thought we were building it for everybody. It turned out we had a product market fit of one. So I'd call that like weak product market fit, strong product market fit. It would be like Uber when they launched Uber Eats. Hey, do you own a restaurant? Do you want more customers? Do you want to not pay that delivery driver 20 bucks a month or an hour, for them to maybe work or not. And do you want us to bring you more customers? Cool. Extreme product market fit. So two, two bookends, where did you, can you describe the moment where you felt like, ahthere's really something here, not just Hey, we've quit enough to quit our jobs on, but I'm excited about this. And I think this is going to Courtney Krstich: be big. Okay. Probably gonna cut this out. Because because I'm really thinking about the question. So you mean before, before we put our jobs? Collin Stewart: I'm sorry, after, and I'll make it. Courtney Krstich: Yeah, it was our first trade show. So our first trade show was technically our like, it was technically our launch. So we had finished our beta program, we've gotten everything done.
(21:00):
And we were like, okay, world Eartha Pro's out, like this was our like announcement and going to the show and the show. It was a really great show in Atlanta and like, when we had people stop by our booth, we had people who had been like lawn care landscapers for 20 years. Just sit down with us for an hour, just because they wanted to talk to us and we would show them like, we would talk to them about like everything and then they'd be like, okay what do you do now?After an hour? And we'd show them this. We showed this 1 guy, the software and he sat with us for another 30 minutes, like telling us. What he liked about it and what other features he would want or like what the flow if there was issues with the flow and everything. And in general, he was like, yeah, like for me, there's still, there's still more things you can do, but I think that this is a good product. And I was like, wow, that means so much after months and months of
just grinding and we're still grinding, but that was a moment where I was like, tearing up a little bit. I was like, wow, all this stuff wasn't for nothing. We're actually proving that we worked our asses off in 2024. Collin Stewart (22:00):
It's such a magical feeling that, that first time, especially when they're leaning in and they're like, you can feel them like pulling it out of you. They're like, Oh, you have to build this. Oh, I have to have this. It's that, that feeling of Oh, I've accomplished the thing. Yeah. And to your point, there's still a lot more to go in this product market that's going to keep getting stronger and stronger for you. It's never really done. It's just something that like, this is the first big significant moment. So congrats on that. Courtney Krstich
Yeah, I'm happy to be here. It's like thanks for asking me to be here. I am excited to talk about EarthaPro, and I guess I think discuss my journey. Collin Stewart
no money for a while. Walk me through this crazy decision. Courtney Krstich (01:00):
Yeah. Yeah. Obviously taking the jump is it's a risk, but you're like betting on yourself in a way. Like you're betting that your skills and your talents can take you somewhere. Especially being an entrepreneur and a startup founder. So I started off my career at PepsiCo. I was driving routes and then I became a manager of the people who drove routes. And so basically the entire job was just like, execute this in this account, make sure you do the weekly changeover, make sure you tell your reps what to do every week, just like do work with one on ones and everything. And it's very much a hundred percent execution based. Someone's telling you what to do. And so I thought I want to be able to make my own place. And so I found a company that was very similar in a way, like the work. Was similar. Like I got to travel all over the mid Atlantic all over the U S really. And go to I got different big box retailers, like the home and Home Depot and Lowe's. I got to go to independent garden centers
(02:00):
and like lawn care centers. I got to go to co ops. And so it was really awesome doing that. And I got to create my own place that would either affect a single store somewhere or like a hundred stores. And so I really enjoyed having that spirit to create and try new things, create new programs. And that's when I thought I want to create a startup. And a common problem I would see. Would be like, I would go to a long care center and they would have a landscapingdivision or a long care division and they wouldn't be doing like a million dollar business in that way, but they just didn't know exactly because they were like, everything's in my brain. It's in my noggin. I was like, okay, how do you know how much you're making that? Yeah. And they're like, I'm using Apple notes. I use like my, yeah. I use Excel or something. And so I was like why don't you just use a software? They were, and they just said it's too inaccessible.
It's too expensive. It feels like it just feels like too much. And so I thought I talked to my I talked, oh my gosh, my boyfriend at the time, now husband. And he's a software developer. And we were like, let's make something. So we named it after our cat, Ursa. And that's like how the idea of Ursa Pro was born. Collin Stewart (03:00):
So you were in the field, you were selling to basically selling to your audience already, and you saw all these folks with pieces of paper, notepads. Or Apple notes and just no systems, no process whatsoever. Courtney Krstich
insight. I did a very poor job of applying my insight. So I'm not going to project that onto you. But I'm curious, how did you go from, okay, we've got this idea. Let's name our startup after our cat. Yeah. How do we validate it and decide, Hey, this is a, make the call of is this a terrible idea or is this a great idea? Courtney Krstich (04:00):
Yeah. So we went like a very traditional route with this. We were looking at accelerators and pre accelerators. Specifically. There are these programs usually funded by whatever state you're in or they're funded. By I guess a state or they're nonprofits or something and they'll have these precede these pre accelerators. We went through 1 and in Virginia and basically it helps you go through a cohort and it helps validate your idea. So they force you to do interviews with your like. Ideal customer profile, or who you think that would be, they force you to get your idea out of your head to just say what is the actual issue going on?
(05:00):
And is it profitable? Is it actually solvable? And would people like, would people want it? So I really enjoyed going through that program because before we found it, we were building in a vacuum. Like we were talking to like potential customers, especially with something that's like super software oriented, like us we were we were we didn't have much direction as to like, how do you even start a business? Like what paperwork do you need? Like, how do you ask questions in a way that isn't that people won't just be like,Oh, yeah, sounds good. Because that's like the worst feedback you can get. Collin Stewart: Yeah, I had a bunch of people, I went and showed them like, Hey, look at these mockups. And they're like, looks cool. Really smart idea. And then I went and built it. And they were like, I'd never pay for that. Courtney Krstich: Yeah, they're until someone like takes out their credit card I don't even care if they take it out just to Do a seven day free trial. And then they intend to cancel on the last day. If they don't take their
credit card out, like their opinions are like, take it with a grain of salt. Collin Stewart (06:00):
Totally. It's not customer development interviews until one of them becomes a customer. Otherwise it's just, I don't know, a university research project. Courtney Krstich
for left handed people only. And you're like, why? I Courtney Krstich (07:00):
was like, I will, I might be able to do that, but I need. I need to be a profitable business before I can start adding those things. Especially in the beginning. So Collin Stewart
completely different things to different people, but you also want to say things in a way that makes sense to them. I talked to a lot of people who are very non technical who are very intimidated by softwares. And so you don't want to be like, Hey, you're going into the software. Here's the CRM and here are all these jargon words. Cause that's not a good way to, to go into anything. Collin Stewart (08:00):
And so you interviewed 50 folks, you had all the data put into the one place. What was the initial insight? Not insight. What was the initial kind of signs of life where you're first starting to say, Hey, there's a pattern here. What did that look like to you? What did it feel like? Courtney Krstich
(09:00):
in lawn care landscaping. And meeting a few of these people and asking what are your biggest problems? so much. What are your biggest pain points? And if you had something that would do this, would you try it? Would you at least try it? And hearing a yes was really affirming even before we really had our software even before we had an MVP or knew all the features we were going to put or have the flow, because because our software is pretty, Involved because we have a CRM for them.We have estimating and job costing scheduling and then invoicing. So like the whole flow for them. I guess hearing how we wanted to make that flow in as soon as we had. Like we talked to people about our company and then they would be like, Oh, so do you have this? And we'd be like, yes, we do have it. That's great. Kind of them asking questions of do you have these things? And then I'll saying yes, was like the first spark of being like, we're on the right, we're on the right path.
Collin Stewart (10:00):
I love it. And so an interesting piece here, you actually, before you quit your full time jobs, you went to some conferences, you were testing it out, validating it. Hey, would you, if we built this, would you try it? Cool. What was the moment that convinced you? Was that the moment that kind of convinced you? All right, let's do it. Let's quit job, quit our jobs, get into pre accelerator. Courtney Krstich
customers and you're making money or even if you're not even net positive, like they're always like, are you okay? Like I'm worried about you. I hope you're doing well. I don't know if you got that, but like we got that up until we had customers and then everyone was like, Oh, we knew you do well. Collin Stewart (11:00):
I think my mom kept sending me job postings until it was like weird, like a million in revenue. I'm like, mom, I got 30, maybe not 30 employees. I got 12 employees, 15 employees. Like I don't need a job. And my old boss for the first five years every time he like bought a new truck for his new salesperson or had a particularly large commission check, he'd take a picture. He'd cover up the name, take a picture and send it to me. He'd be like, yours would be bigger. And five years of him, like taunting me to come back to work for him. And one day, one day I took a shot of our PNL and sent it back to him. I was like, sorry, Steve. So it Courtney Krstich
stat for startups is like. One out of every one out of every 10, you probably know this, but it's like one out of every 10 startups like succeeds or continues past five years. Yeah. I'd be surprised if it was that high, but Courtney Krstich (12:00):
yeah. I think if you're in a pre accelerator, you're going through an accelerator. I think it's much higher cause you have the support, but but yeah I'm sorry that. I'm sorry, you still got up postings after you were like a while into your startup. That's it Collin Stewart
huge time for us. like people looking for softwares. I'm sorry. Can you ask that again? Yeah, no problem. Where did, so we're talking about like where and when did your first customers hit? Who paid you first? Courtney Krstich (13:00):
Oh yeah. Sorry. So yeah, social media was really good for us. We got our first few customers on Instagram. I didn't even so it wasn't even through an advertisement. So I would just start creating like sizzle reels. Basically. So it's like getting people interested in looking at our stuff. I would go to like relevant profiles of people who I think could like using Arthur pro. So I like I'd follow them, like their content and stuff, not too much, but just like a little bit. And started gaining a little bit of a following and then I'd reach out to them later and I'd say Hey, I think this could work for you. I would be happy to give you a demo and get you on a free trial. And here's what we got. And I got I got some good feedback through that. But that's where we got the first few. And then I've
also been using Apollo to sequence emails. That hasn't worked as well, especially in the beginning where it's not about, it's not like you, you can't outsource that stuff in the beginning, it's all about meeting people in person. So we started going to some trade shows and we're getting really good really good traction and really good leads there. Collin Stewart (14:00):
I think one of the hardest things to figure out there for like new founders to figure out, and even myself I've made this mistake as well. I was trying to, I was doing a, working on a side project, targeting the property management space. And I was trying to hit them up with LinkedIn. I'm like, they don't use LinkedIn at all. Yeah. Okay. My wife is a property manager and she barely uses I don't think she's updated it and she definitely doesn't post on it. And so we'd like, I spent a month running campaigns. I'm like, Oh, we're getting nothing. I'm like, but they don't use it. And one of the hardest things to learn, cause you got to do it manually is like, where do, where does your audience hang out? What channels do they use? Courtney Krstich
it sounds like Instagram in your case, I don't imagine there's a huge, like Twitter mafia of landscaping companies. No, on there, I know a few folks that run landscaping companies or have run landscaping companies. And I don't the count is not very high. These aren't very social media focused folks. Courtney Krstich (15:00):
No, they're not. LinkedIn is not a place to go. There are some companies on there, but it's usually a page and it's usually a larger companies of not typically the kind of not typically our audience. And so a lot of them have Facebook pages. If they like, sometimes they don't even have websites, they just have Facebook pages and that's how they like anyone who's ever used their service on Like their hours and services and stuff. Collin Stewart
it was really good and then it stopped being good. And then I was like, we just got to go to the shows because people will remember meeting you at a show and like how you made them feel, they'll remember that our company is named after our cat, they'll remember that we're like, we're family owned, we're made in the US, we didn't outsource anything that's Courtney Krstich (16:00):
what makes people like, interested and that's what makes people trust you rather than just saying hi, I'm Courtney. Here's my like hundredth cold outreach email. I hope you think that this was directly to you because, it's coming from Apollo. Like that's not really a way to do it in the beginning. It's good to know how to, but at least that's how I feel. Collin Stewart
director of AI solutions on the episode dropped a couple of weeks ago. So check that out. Oh yeah. They didn't pay to be on. The show, I just like them and I invite their people on. Cause I want to, I want the inside scoop on what's happening. What's coming next. And I want to berate Tyler and be like, Hey, give me the access to these things. Let me do this. But at the same time, it's also like 99 a month and getting handed the keys to a rocket ship. And they're like, good luck flying. See ya. You're like, okay, what do I do now? What? Courtney Krstich (17:00):
There's so many features and stuff I didn't mean to say that it's a bad tool because I really think I still use it. It's not about the Collin Stewart
missing one of them. Courtney Krstich (18:00):
Yeah. I didn't mean to imply that it doesn't work at all for anyone. I think it's a great tool. I am, I'm still using it. I meant to say like when you're starting a startup. And it can be like, it can be really good to get to know how to use, but all your like first initial customers, they're not going to come from cold email. They're going to come from going to trade shows and meeting people. They might come from social media just because they're used to seeing your content and you show your face on socials and stuff like that. It's just it's harder to get across who you are and really get to know someone through an email. Collin Stewart
trade shows, which I think is fantastic. Describe the moment where you realized I think we have product market fit. Courtney Krstich (19:00):
Okay. So I think that's a complex question because finding product market fit is like one of the hardest things you can do. And you're never like, every time you think that you're certain something new comes up or you meet someone new who's no, you don't. It makes you think that you don't. And Collin Stewart
(20:00):
I thought we were building it for everybody. It turned out we had a product market fit of one. So I'd call that like weak product market fit, strong product market fit. It would be like Uber when they launched Uber Eats. Hey, do you own a restaurant? Do you want more customers? Do you want to not pay that delivery driver 20 bucks a month or an hour, for them to maybe work or not. And do you want us to bring you more customers? Cool. Extreme product market fit. So two, two bookends, where did you, can you describe the moment where you felt like, ahthere's really something here, not just Hey, we've quit enough to quit our jobs on, but I'm excited about this. And I think this is going to Courtney Krstich: be big. Okay. Probably gonna cut this out. Because because I'm really thinking about the question. So you mean before, before we put our jobs? Collin Stewart: I'm sorry, after, and I'll make it. Courtney Krstich: Yeah, it was our first trade show. So our first trade show was technically our like, it was technically our launch. So we had finished our beta program, we've gotten everything done.
(21:00):
And we were like, okay, world Eartha Pro's out, like this was our like announcement and going to the show and the show. It was a really great show in Atlanta and like, when we had people stop by our booth, we had people who had been like lawn care landscapers for 20 years. Just sit down with us for an hour, just because they wanted to talk to us and we would show them like, we would talk to them about like everything and then they'd be like, okay what do you do now?After an hour? And we'd show them this. We showed this 1 guy, the software and he sat with us for another 30 minutes, like telling us. What he liked about it and what other features he would want or like what the flow if there was issues with the flow and everything. And in general, he was like, yeah, like for me, there's still, there's still more things you can do, but I think that this is a good product. And I was like, wow, that means so much after months and months of
just grinding and we're still grinding, but that was a moment where I was like, tearing up a little bit. I was like, wow, all this stuff wasn't for nothing. We're actually proving that we worked our asses off in 2024. Collin Stewart (22:00):
It's such a magical feeling that, that first time, especially when they're leaning in and they're like, you can feel them like pulling it out of you. They're like, Oh, you have to build this. Oh, I have to have this. It's that, that feeling of Oh, I've accomplished the thing. Yeah. And to your point, there's still a lot more to go in this product market that's going to keep getting stronger and stronger for you. It's never really done. It's just something that like, this is the first big significant moment. So congrats on that. Courtney Krstich
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