April 17, 2025 • 18 mins
When Moran Mizrahi joined us on the Predictable Revenue Podcast, the conversation started with something every founder can relate to: the moment you hit a wall using a tool that clearly wasn’t designed for people like you.
For Moran and Rebillia, that moment came in the subscription billing space. After years running retail and eCommerce businesses, they were spending heavily to acquire customers, only to watch them churn after one or two purchases. Subscriptions felt like the solution. But the tools were rigid, hard to use, and far from customer-centric.
Highlights include: Has Anyone Actually Tried This? (03:53), Where did Rebillia’s First Customer Come From? (09:33), The Product-Fit Moment (13:05), and more…
Stay updated with our podcast and the latest insights in Outbound Sales and Go-to-Market Strategies!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
also be kind, this is my first time reading this particular ad read. We used to have like pre-roll, like podcast pre-roll ads that Sarah did who hasn't worked here in a couple of years. And one of my mentors has been encouraging me to do my own ad reads. So this might take, might take an extra try or two Moran Mizrahi (00:00):
That's not a problem. Let me know if we need to rephrase something. Also, as I said, I'm, I tend to be talkative, so I think we're gonna be fine. Collin Stewart
(01:00):
juggling product revenue, hiring, and a million other decisions. So what if you had a proven framework and expert guidance to ha help you navigate the chaos? That's where a coaching program comes in. Whether you're trying to find your first customers or fine tune your go-to market strategy, we help you build a business that scales predictably. See, I worked the name of the podcast in there. Now let's get to the episode. Moran, thank you so much for joining me today. I'd love to talk about, I'dlove to start with where did the idea for REIA come from? Moran Mizrahi: Awesome. First of all, let me say thank you so much for having me today. My name is Mahi. Co-founder here at reia. We are a subscription management platform. What we are doing is billing automation and subscription, however, in a very adjustable and flexible way. So this is our added value and we started reia and that's actually our third product under REIA umbrella. So this is in a way a new company, a new venture. And
(02:00):
originally we have launched reia due to our own frustration in the arena of subscription. So we used to be in retail. That's my background. And then in e-commerce for quite a few years, we did really well in e-commerce and we find out that we chasing a client, we're bringing the clients that's cost an arm and a leg. They purchasing they happy and some of them do. Comeback. However, the effort is endless. You always have to reinvent the wheel and keep bringing clients because once your client likes the product, they might gonna go and buy it somewhere, right? So the goal is really to find a way to create. A RR and LTV and that's what subscription is all about. And we have tried different arenas of subscription and we find that it's not
(03:00):
as user friendly and not customer centric. And we wanted to find some approach that bring revolution to this arena. That's where we decide if no one else can do this well enough, we should. And that's what we get. The team and the i the idea become a product. I wanna say pretty quickly, but not really quickly as much as with a lot of effort I would say years of development and working very hard to get to where we are today.So I Collin Stewart: are, was there a specific moment in time where you thought, ah, this could be better? Was there, you were trying to, fill out one of those like billing platforms, links, and you're like. Just frustrated and that was the inspiration or was it just accumulation of everybody's shared experience? Moran Mizrahi: You've probably been trying products before when you thought if everyone, anyone actually tried
(04:00):
that, like anyone took the full step to try it from A to Z because there was so many obstacles. With that being said, now. I note that those obstacles are the reason, obviously, and that we have a lot to overcome. And sometimes you just go and you think, oh, this can be so much better if I will do this versus that. And along the way, trying to fix the system, you find out it is way more difficult than whereyou thought it would be. However we have walked the walk and we came up with a pretty great product. I think product wise we're pretty, pretty much in a great place. Obviously there's other, every every other company, there's other obstacles, but product wise, I think we really is in a really good spot. Because we really emphasize on the r and d, the product, what is it that we're really trying to achieve and
(05:00):
how we taking this walk all the way through. And I think that what's unique about us is really our super flexible adjustable product that really not just looking at subscription, right? Of course we're doing subscription and this is great and I think the world move towards subscription. However, we took the runoff subscription and looked in the pain points and the frustration and said, we wanna do this differently.And we came up with a product that is super flexible and really look at the clients as mentioned and understand what the clients want. And actually we no longer even need to educate the market that the merchant should. Look into what their clients want to be successful. So this is this is what's great about our product. And I think that's just clicked. Collin Stewart: Fantastic. So, so you had the idea about we're
going to, we're gonna tackle the subscription space, which is a big market and there's some big competitors in there. How did you validate the idea? So talk to me about, going from the thought of, hey, we should start rebellion to, you know what this is. We've decided a hundred percent this is it. Did you did you interview customers? Did you find groups? What did that process look like? Moran Mizrahi (06:00):
So to be perfectly honest, and we're talking 10 years ago as young entrepreneurs, we've been a bit more impulsive about things. But over the year, we of course learned our lesson and correct on the way. With that being said, I think that's what really helpful that we've been in those shoes before. So we came all, each and every one of us, or not each and every one of us, but the main co-founders in REIA came from the arena of retail e-commerce. We did those two. We had those two
(07:00):
experience. Seeing how the grow the world, growing from retail to e-commerce, how the different cost of acquisition look like in those two arena, and what does it cost really to bring a client and how important it is to leverage on subscription to create LTV. And I think that's one thing that gave us 80% more on other companies. They just. Really asking the questions and interviewing,which we did as well. But with that being said, we actually had the experience. We came from this arena. We knew exactly what's bothered us, and we even more than that sometimes. Sometimes the client doesn't even know what they want before it's been invented. You can only as a client, you can only pursue what you know. Or you can only dream what. You're dreaming, right? But we
(08:00):
actually had some under deeper understanding of what if this could halting look different. So I think that's been a big advantage to really I wanna say we've been lucky to create a great product with a wonderful product market fit upfront. However, it's not really the luck that's brought us there, it's really the experience. With that being said, I do think every founder needto go and ask as many questions and validate the product to a lot more as what we did back in the day, 10 years ago. With our newest versions and our products along the way and different versions, of course, we took more. Steps to understand deeply what the client needs. It's been a bit easier as we already had CL paying clients, and we've been really keeping an open channel
(09:00):
to understand needs and actually execute. So I think that's also. Frustration that we solved by not just listening and asking questions, but also being really chilly about bringing solution to clients and really every for every specific feature or interest that the client showed. If we find out that makes sense for a few more clients, we've been. Very IC about thinking this true and bring an innovationto to the product. Collin Stewart: I wonder if you could walk me through where your first customers came from. Moran Mizrahi: So I think one of the biggest thing that we did as a new company is aligning with the marketplace. I think that trying to bring clients. By own versus always rely on an ecosystem is two different things. You should try to do both. But we've been partnering with we started with
BigCommerce, then we partnered with a few other channels and a few other marketplaces, and I think that's really the best way to bring clients. And Collin Stewart (10:00):
I'd love to understand and hear the story of where did your, tell me about the story of closing your first customer on Rebell. Moran Mizrahi
(11:00):
Methods are actually great and it sometimes could be easier to just give your product for free. But we have tried the other way around. We have really emphasized of our success in the e-commerce arena. And allowed the first cop, the first client to understand that we see the frustration, we see, we understand that those pain points and took the approach of we writer on ourself. This is walking.If you want this magic to counter you, you should give. And I think one of the most fascinating things about what we did, we sold the product so well that we create in a waiting list. So we actually had paying clients. Paid us in advance to be enrolled into the platform. So I think we did something pretty great in and unique in that essence of giving the clients the feel that we have the right
(12:00):
approach, that we know what we're doing, and that if they be patient. They will get a really good solution. And sometimes it's a matter of momentum. Now, obviously we have started more than 10 years ago with those older versions that we had. So, that no longer exists, by the way. So the market was not as competitive as today and we've been really taking approach of our maincompetitor being industry giants. And I think one of the most appealing thing for our clients is that we've been a startup, new innovative coming from where. Walked where they walked. And I think that also they have talked directly with us versus with some account manager. So we could have give them a very a very I would say a special treatment. So I think that's what kind of
brought us the first few clients and things have rolled from there. Collin Stewart (13:00):
Love it. Describe the moment that you realized you had might have product market fit. Moran Mizrahi
(14:00):
also that a funny thing for us, that when we have planned the product, we are thinking, oh, those three verticals gonna be the best. But then we talk with people and they have said, oh, you know what? And they shift the conversation towards other things they need or other things they have. And that's where we. They have a point. So to give you an example, sometimes we talk with investors. And we talked about talking about the multi-layer of subscription, forexample, and the payment automation. And we're trying to emphasize how this will be a great investment to those in those verticals. And they goes, wait one second, if I take this to my business. I'm as an investor, invest, investing in so many other businesses and I have to look at each one differently. With your product, I can look at all of them in once and here you created a product market fit here, you created a vertical. So, I think that was something pretty
(15:00):
excited. We have really invested deeply into a product. And I think that we've been just happy to see that the market. Rep correctly. And I think a lot of this confident being built by our client and a lot of the great ideas, great features great options actually came from the market. So I think. I think every business have obstacles. So do we. But I think that product marketfit have not been such a big obstacle for us due to the really deep understanding of what the market needs. Collin Stewart: Amazing. So what comes next? Moran Mizrahi: So, another way to answer that is to actually mention that our product right now is really robust and our, we don't invest in sales or marketing. We have great direction from mid-market and enterprise, that is a
(16:00):
lot to handle. And that's changed a lot of things. We moved from selling to a lot of SMBs. That is a big, our bread and butter, I would say, to this new robust software. And bringing new ocean of flexibility and customer understanding. And so the next thing will be to start enrolling those enterprises, which is it seems like a rich people problem to have, right? We have a good product, we havetraction. They want us, we want them. Seems like easy peasy, but obviously it's not that way. There is some some. Way to take here and approach that need to to be taken and measures that need to be think about and prepared to. So that's our next step to enroll a few more enterprises into the software. We also have a few other things on their roadmap that are new features. We've just launched a wonderful
(17:00):
feature. Not just we, we had this feature for a year, but a lot of other companies taking on it right now. You might have noticed that. The world's moving to ecosystem where everything works together. So we have a great feature that is a partnership feature where you can probably sell your products product a on subscription, and then you can partner with other products and on your own platform, on yourown website. Or software you can sell goods or other services on subscription that and this is stream of revenue that you never had before, so. We're combining those into flexible subscription options, and that is a really big. Big next thing is world moving to rely on ecosystems. Collin Stewart: I love it. If people are interested in REIA or they want to get in touch with you, what's the best way for
That's not a problem. Let me know if we need to rephrase something. Also, as I said, I'm, I tend to be talkative, so I think we're gonna be fine. Collin Stewart
(01:00):
juggling product revenue, hiring, and a million other decisions. So what if you had a proven framework and expert guidance to ha help you navigate the chaos? That's where a coaching program comes in. Whether you're trying to find your first customers or fine tune your go-to market strategy, we help you build a business that scales predictably. See, I worked the name of the podcast in there. Now let's get to the episode. Moran, thank you so much for joining me today. I'd love to talk about, I'dlove to start with where did the idea for REIA come from? Moran Mizrahi: Awesome. First of all, let me say thank you so much for having me today. My name is Mahi. Co-founder here at reia. We are a subscription management platform. What we are doing is billing automation and subscription, however, in a very adjustable and flexible way. So this is our added value and we started reia and that's actually our third product under REIA umbrella. So this is in a way a new company, a new venture. And
(02:00):
originally we have launched reia due to our own frustration in the arena of subscription. So we used to be in retail. That's my background. And then in e-commerce for quite a few years, we did really well in e-commerce and we find out that we chasing a client, we're bringing the clients that's cost an arm and a leg. They purchasing they happy and some of them do. Comeback. However, the effort is endless. You always have to reinvent the wheel and keep bringing clients because once your client likes the product, they might gonna go and buy it somewhere, right? So the goal is really to find a way to create. A RR and LTV and that's what subscription is all about. And we have tried different arenas of subscription and we find that it's not
(03:00):
as user friendly and not customer centric. And we wanted to find some approach that bring revolution to this arena. That's where we decide if no one else can do this well enough, we should. And that's what we get. The team and the i the idea become a product. I wanna say pretty quickly, but not really quickly as much as with a lot of effort I would say years of development and working very hard to get to where we are today.So I Collin Stewart: are, was there a specific moment in time where you thought, ah, this could be better? Was there, you were trying to, fill out one of those like billing platforms, links, and you're like. Just frustrated and that was the inspiration or was it just accumulation of everybody's shared experience? Moran Mizrahi: You've probably been trying products before when you thought if everyone, anyone actually tried
(04:00):
that, like anyone took the full step to try it from A to Z because there was so many obstacles. With that being said, now. I note that those obstacles are the reason, obviously, and that we have a lot to overcome. And sometimes you just go and you think, oh, this can be so much better if I will do this versus that. And along the way, trying to fix the system, you find out it is way more difficult than whereyou thought it would be. However we have walked the walk and we came up with a pretty great product. I think product wise we're pretty, pretty much in a great place. Obviously there's other, every every other company, there's other obstacles, but product wise, I think we really is in a really good spot. Because we really emphasize on the r and d, the product, what is it that we're really trying to achieve and
(05:00):
how we taking this walk all the way through. And I think that what's unique about us is really our super flexible adjustable product that really not just looking at subscription, right? Of course we're doing subscription and this is great and I think the world move towards subscription. However, we took the runoff subscription and looked in the pain points and the frustration and said, we wanna do this differently.And we came up with a product that is super flexible and really look at the clients as mentioned and understand what the clients want. And actually we no longer even need to educate the market that the merchant should. Look into what their clients want to be successful. So this is this is what's great about our product. And I think that's just clicked. Collin Stewart: Fantastic. So, so you had the idea about we're
going to, we're gonna tackle the subscription space, which is a big market and there's some big competitors in there. How did you validate the idea? So talk to me about, going from the thought of, hey, we should start rebellion to, you know what this is. We've decided a hundred percent this is it. Did you did you interview customers? Did you find groups? What did that process look like? Moran Mizrahi (06:00):
So to be perfectly honest, and we're talking 10 years ago as young entrepreneurs, we've been a bit more impulsive about things. But over the year, we of course learned our lesson and correct on the way. With that being said, I think that's what really helpful that we've been in those shoes before. So we came all, each and every one of us, or not each and every one of us, but the main co-founders in REIA came from the arena of retail e-commerce. We did those two. We had those two
(07:00):
experience. Seeing how the grow the world, growing from retail to e-commerce, how the different cost of acquisition look like in those two arena, and what does it cost really to bring a client and how important it is to leverage on subscription to create LTV. And I think that's one thing that gave us 80% more on other companies. They just. Really asking the questions and interviewing,which we did as well. But with that being said, we actually had the experience. We came from this arena. We knew exactly what's bothered us, and we even more than that sometimes. Sometimes the client doesn't even know what they want before it's been invented. You can only as a client, you can only pursue what you know. Or you can only dream what. You're dreaming, right? But we
(08:00):
actually had some under deeper understanding of what if this could halting look different. So I think that's been a big advantage to really I wanna say we've been lucky to create a great product with a wonderful product market fit upfront. However, it's not really the luck that's brought us there, it's really the experience. With that being said, I do think every founder needto go and ask as many questions and validate the product to a lot more as what we did back in the day, 10 years ago. With our newest versions and our products along the way and different versions, of course, we took more. Steps to understand deeply what the client needs. It's been a bit easier as we already had CL paying clients, and we've been really keeping an open channel
(09:00):
to understand needs and actually execute. So I think that's also. Frustration that we solved by not just listening and asking questions, but also being really chilly about bringing solution to clients and really every for every specific feature or interest that the client showed. If we find out that makes sense for a few more clients, we've been. Very IC about thinking this true and bring an innovationto to the product. Collin Stewart: I wonder if you could walk me through where your first customers came from. Moran Mizrahi: So I think one of the biggest thing that we did as a new company is aligning with the marketplace. I think that trying to bring clients. By own versus always rely on an ecosystem is two different things. You should try to do both. But we've been partnering with we started with
BigCommerce, then we partnered with a few other channels and a few other marketplaces, and I think that's really the best way to bring clients. And Collin Stewart (10:00):
I'd love to understand and hear the story of where did your, tell me about the story of closing your first customer on Rebell. Moran Mizrahi
(11:00):
Methods are actually great and it sometimes could be easier to just give your product for free. But we have tried the other way around. We have really emphasized of our success in the e-commerce arena. And allowed the first cop, the first client to understand that we see the frustration, we see, we understand that those pain points and took the approach of we writer on ourself. This is walking.If you want this magic to counter you, you should give. And I think one of the most fascinating things about what we did, we sold the product so well that we create in a waiting list. So we actually had paying clients. Paid us in advance to be enrolled into the platform. So I think we did something pretty great in and unique in that essence of giving the clients the feel that we have the right
(12:00):
approach, that we know what we're doing, and that if they be patient. They will get a really good solution. And sometimes it's a matter of momentum. Now, obviously we have started more than 10 years ago with those older versions that we had. So, that no longer exists, by the way. So the market was not as competitive as today and we've been really taking approach of our maincompetitor being industry giants. And I think one of the most appealing thing for our clients is that we've been a startup, new innovative coming from where. Walked where they walked. And I think that also they have talked directly with us versus with some account manager. So we could have give them a very a very I would say a special treatment. So I think that's what kind of
brought us the first few clients and things have rolled from there. Collin Stewart (13:00):
Love it. Describe the moment that you realized you had might have product market fit. Moran Mizrahi
(14:00):
also that a funny thing for us, that when we have planned the product, we are thinking, oh, those three verticals gonna be the best. But then we talk with people and they have said, oh, you know what? And they shift the conversation towards other things they need or other things they have. And that's where we. They have a point. So to give you an example, sometimes we talk with investors. And we talked about talking about the multi-layer of subscription, forexample, and the payment automation. And we're trying to emphasize how this will be a great investment to those in those verticals. And they goes, wait one second, if I take this to my business. I'm as an investor, invest, investing in so many other businesses and I have to look at each one differently. With your product, I can look at all of them in once and here you created a product market fit here, you created a vertical. So, I think that was something pretty
(15:00):
excited. We have really invested deeply into a product. And I think that we've been just happy to see that the market. Rep correctly. And I think a lot of this confident being built by our client and a lot of the great ideas, great features great options actually came from the market. So I think. I think every business have obstacles. So do we. But I think that product marketfit have not been such a big obstacle for us due to the really deep understanding of what the market needs. Collin Stewart: Amazing. So what comes next? Moran Mizrahi: So, another way to answer that is to actually mention that our product right now is really robust and our, we don't invest in sales or marketing. We have great direction from mid-market and enterprise, that is a
(16:00):
lot to handle. And that's changed a lot of things. We moved from selling to a lot of SMBs. That is a big, our bread and butter, I would say, to this new robust software. And bringing new ocean of flexibility and customer understanding. And so the next thing will be to start enrolling those enterprises, which is it seems like a rich people problem to have, right? We have a good product, we havetraction. They want us, we want them. Seems like easy peasy, but obviously it's not that way. There is some some. Way to take here and approach that need to to be taken and measures that need to be think about and prepared to. So that's our next step to enroll a few more enterprises into the software. We also have a few other things on their roadmap that are new features. We've just launched a wonderful
(17:00):
feature. Not just we, we had this feature for a year, but a lot of other companies taking on it right now. You might have noticed that. The world's moving to ecosystem where everything works together. So we have a great feature that is a partnership feature where you can probably sell your products product a on subscription, and then you can partner with other products and on your own platform, on yourown website. Or software you can sell goods or other services on subscription that and this is stream of revenue that you never had before, so. We're combining those into flexible subscription options, and that is a really big. Big next thing is world moving to rely on ecosystems. Collin Stewart: I love it. If people are interested in REIA or they want to get in touch with you, what's the best way for
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