May 29, 2025 • 13 mins
In the early days, it’s tempting to say yes to everything, especially if you’re in services and can technically do it all.
But if you want to build a business people refer to, remember, and trust, saying “we do everything” is a fast track to being forgotten.
Walt Maclay learned this the hard way. He didn’t start with a GTM strategy or customer persona. He just started consulting after selling off a previous company. And like many technical founders, he figured the work would come if the skills were strong.
It didn’t. The turning point wasn’t better execution. It was focus.
Highlights include: Selling Worldwide Since 1999 (01:00), Going for What People Ask For (04:00), Specializing and Niching Down (05:37), 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.
Collin Stewart (00:00):
I'm your host Colin Stewart. And today I'm joined by Walt McClay. He's the founder and chairman over at Voler Systems. We're gonna talk about his product market fit journey. But first, this episode's brought to you by our predictable revenue founder coaching service founders. Let's be real. Scaling a company is challenging. You're juggling product revenue, hiring, and a million other decisions. But what if you had a proven framework and expert guidance to help you navigate that chaos? That's where our founder coaching program comes in. Whether you're finding your first customers or fine tuning your go-to-market strategy, we'll help you build a business that's well predictable. Now to the episode. Walt, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm really excited to get a chance to hear your story. But I want, and I wanna start with where did Voler s where did the idea behind Voler systems come from? Walt Maclay
(01:00):
products. We sold products worldwide. And in 1999 I sold off that business and we got into consulting. I probably should start with the consulting and ignore the really old part. And it was a when I sold off the old business, I had to figure out what I was gonna do next. And I'll tell you, this is where. Experience has taught me a lot. I didn't do it right at the time. I looked around for something that looked good and it looked like consulting was good, it shouldhave gotten advice from a lot of good people, which I didn't. But anyway, it started out in it's been successful. But the real big change was when I had a mentor who taught me to do networking. Now. Almost anybody would say you're in the business of selling services. Networking is pretty important. In fact, networking is pretty important for any business. I'm an engineer. They didn't teach networking in engineering school. Collin Stewart: Maybe a different type
of networking. Walt Maclay (02:00):
I had to have someone tell me about it and show me how to do it, and I got pretty good at it. And that changed the business. That's when things became successful. So that's one of the first things I tell people they should do. And then as far as the first customers first customers come from where, so past business you have connections. When people start out in consulting, usually they end up working for their previous employer. In this case, it was previous customers. But that's a, that's just the beginning. And to make it into a real business, I had to learn how to get new customers, and that was networking primarily. So now we've gotten really good at networking. I, I've been we've grown from a couple of people to about 20 or more than 20 people, and so it takes a lot of networking. A lot of marketing and. The other thing that I've learned is to narrow
the scope of what you market. We could do virtually anything in electronics and firmware, but we, what we've focused on is wearable devices and medical devices, and in fact, a combination of wearable medical devices is really a fit. That's pretty narrow, but it's a really good area and. It's much more successful to market that narrow area than to market all of electronics. If you can't tell people exactly what you do, they won't remember what you do. Collin Stewart: Absolutely. Did you start with that really narrow focus, or did you slowly work your way into it? Walt Maclay (03:00):
Worked my way into it. That's another case of where I listened to the customers. When they kept asking for certain things okay. That's what we should tell people we do. And you know that's not a bad way to do it. When you got some time, and we were, we had a business and to make it succeed, I listened to customers and we went for what people were asking for.
Collin Stewart (04:00):
It must have felt like you're saying no to so much business by saying we only focus on medical, like wearable medical devices. Walt Maclay
software development agencies and saying, we're you unique? Oh, we've got, these people. We've got these people. They're very hard differentiators to build. Any sort of revenue campaigns on, and so I love that you're focused on Walt Maclay (05:00):
just what the people do. Collin Stewart
extremely tight of a nation. I thought, wow, that's a, that's either gonna work extremely well or it's gonna be way too nation, not at all. And he had the same fear and it's worked out very well for him. What was it that pulled you into medical wearables? You started off on the consulting side and then was it just the suite of customers? Like was there a Yeah. A particular customer that, that brought you that direction? Walt Maclay (06:00):
I can remember one customer where we did some medical work. 20 years ago, or at least 20 years. More than 20 years ago. And, it, it requires skills that at the time we didn't have, but we could learn. And so we could do a little medical and then we could do a little more medical and the next time a little more. And after 10 years you become an expert. So that's one way to do it. The other way. I could have hired people who were already experts. But at the time, I didn't have the resources to find that person. Collin Stewart
individual. Sometimes you have to grow them from home. Walt Maclay (07:00):
It can be, yes. Now, we had an interesting experience. Just this year our V or VP of engineering left had found a great opportunity, had to find a replacement. And partly from knowing who to ask, and partly from being lucky, we found someone with exactly the skillset that matches what we're promoting. Collin Stewart
doing outbound marketing. That's been quite successful in bringing in customers. Collin Stewart (08:00):
Interesting. Yeah. Tell me more about the outbound marketing. Walt Maclay
there are people who are good at it. I don't know how they do it. But targeting the right people makes a big difference. If you just call anybody you're not gonna get the people that have a need. Collin Stewart (09:00):
Absolutely. I think having, one thing that's really help must be helping you is that the people that you want to target is very narrow because you also have very narrow focus. And so there's almost a perfect alignment between what you're going after and, and the target market. Walt Maclay
(10:00):
moment, it was a period of many years. Part of it is when if you keep getting asked to do something, there must be, it must be a good market. So the more you hear people asking for it, the more you promote it. That was, that's really how, that was the main thing. That's how we got there. So I do networking with people who are. Likely to be in that market or as much as possible I know, or in that market. But it was slowly learning just by listening tocustomers. Collin Stewart: Such a underrated tactic these days. It's so simple. Get it can't be so hard to do. Yeah. Walt Maclay: Listening to customers is always important, Collin Stewart: I've heard I heard you mention in our kind of pre-call that you've transitioned from CEO to chairman. What comes next for you? What comes next for Voler? Walt Maclay: I am, I've cut back on my work, so I'm in semi-retirement. That's why I brought in a guy to run
marketing for me who's really good at marketing and made him president, CEO. So it gives me some spare time. I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I'm not ready to retire completely, but I'm enjoying working a little less. Collin Stewart (11:00):
That sounds like the dream. If I'm being honest. I don't think I would want to retire and be just straight up done with it. 'cause I do enjoy what I do. But being able to just just do the things I want sounds like exactly what it sounds like exactly where you're at. Walt Maclay
good at networking. There are some engineers who are very good at it, but that networking, number one being focused on marketing, a narrow focus is really important. Having. Mentors. I've learned an awful lot from mentors. Now I think I know enough I can go and mentor other people because I've made lots of mistakes and I've learned how to do it right. So I'm looking forward to sharing what I've learned. Collin Stewart (12:00):
Amazing. If people are looking to, if they're curious about V Systems and they want to learn more what's the best place for them to take a look? Walt Maclay
I'm your host Colin Stewart. And today I'm joined by Walt McClay. He's the founder and chairman over at Voler Systems. We're gonna talk about his product market fit journey. But first, this episode's brought to you by our predictable revenue founder coaching service founders. Let's be real. Scaling a company is challenging. You're juggling product revenue, hiring, and a million other decisions. But what if you had a proven framework and expert guidance to help you navigate that chaos? That's where our founder coaching program comes in. Whether you're finding your first customers or fine tuning your go-to-market strategy, we'll help you build a business that's well predictable. Now to the episode. Walt, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm really excited to get a chance to hear your story. But I want, and I wanna start with where did Voler s where did the idea behind Voler systems come from? Walt Maclay
(01:00):
products. We sold products worldwide. And in 1999 I sold off that business and we got into consulting. I probably should start with the consulting and ignore the really old part. And it was a when I sold off the old business, I had to figure out what I was gonna do next. And I'll tell you, this is where. Experience has taught me a lot. I didn't do it right at the time. I looked around for something that looked good and it looked like consulting was good, it shouldhave gotten advice from a lot of good people, which I didn't. But anyway, it started out in it's been successful. But the real big change was when I had a mentor who taught me to do networking. Now. Almost anybody would say you're in the business of selling services. Networking is pretty important. In fact, networking is pretty important for any business. I'm an engineer. They didn't teach networking in engineering school. Collin Stewart: Maybe a different type
of networking. Walt Maclay (02:00):
I had to have someone tell me about it and show me how to do it, and I got pretty good at it. And that changed the business. That's when things became successful. So that's one of the first things I tell people they should do. And then as far as the first customers first customers come from where, so past business you have connections. When people start out in consulting, usually they end up working for their previous employer. In this case, it was previous customers. But that's a, that's just the beginning. And to make it into a real business, I had to learn how to get new customers, and that was networking primarily. So now we've gotten really good at networking. I, I've been we've grown from a couple of people to about 20 or more than 20 people, and so it takes a lot of networking. A lot of marketing and. The other thing that I've learned is to narrow
the scope of what you market. We could do virtually anything in electronics and firmware, but we, what we've focused on is wearable devices and medical devices, and in fact, a combination of wearable medical devices is really a fit. That's pretty narrow, but it's a really good area and. It's much more successful to market that narrow area than to market all of electronics. If you can't tell people exactly what you do, they won't remember what you do. Collin Stewart: Absolutely. Did you start with that really narrow focus, or did you slowly work your way into it? Walt Maclay (03:00):
Worked my way into it. That's another case of where I listened to the customers. When they kept asking for certain things okay. That's what we should tell people we do. And you know that's not a bad way to do it. When you got some time, and we were, we had a business and to make it succeed, I listened to customers and we went for what people were asking for.
Collin Stewart (04:00):
It must have felt like you're saying no to so much business by saying we only focus on medical, like wearable medical devices. Walt Maclay
software development agencies and saying, we're you unique? Oh, we've got, these people. We've got these people. They're very hard differentiators to build. Any sort of revenue campaigns on, and so I love that you're focused on Walt Maclay (05:00):
just what the people do. Collin Stewart
extremely tight of a nation. I thought, wow, that's a, that's either gonna work extremely well or it's gonna be way too nation, not at all. And he had the same fear and it's worked out very well for him. What was it that pulled you into medical wearables? You started off on the consulting side and then was it just the suite of customers? Like was there a Yeah. A particular customer that, that brought you that direction? Walt Maclay (06:00):
I can remember one customer where we did some medical work. 20 years ago, or at least 20 years. More than 20 years ago. And, it, it requires skills that at the time we didn't have, but we could learn. And so we could do a little medical and then we could do a little more medical and the next time a little more. And after 10 years you become an expert. So that's one way to do it. The other way. I could have hired people who were already experts. But at the time, I didn't have the resources to find that person. Collin Stewart
individual. Sometimes you have to grow them from home. Walt Maclay (07:00):
It can be, yes. Now, we had an interesting experience. Just this year our V or VP of engineering left had found a great opportunity, had to find a replacement. And partly from knowing who to ask, and partly from being lucky, we found someone with exactly the skillset that matches what we're promoting. Collin Stewart
doing outbound marketing. That's been quite successful in bringing in customers. Collin Stewart (08:00):
Interesting. Yeah. Tell me more about the outbound marketing. Walt Maclay
there are people who are good at it. I don't know how they do it. But targeting the right people makes a big difference. If you just call anybody you're not gonna get the people that have a need. Collin Stewart (09:00):
Absolutely. I think having, one thing that's really help must be helping you is that the people that you want to target is very narrow because you also have very narrow focus. And so there's almost a perfect alignment between what you're going after and, and the target market. Walt Maclay
(10:00):
moment, it was a period of many years. Part of it is when if you keep getting asked to do something, there must be, it must be a good market. So the more you hear people asking for it, the more you promote it. That was, that's really how, that was the main thing. That's how we got there. So I do networking with people who are. Likely to be in that market or as much as possible I know, or in that market. But it was slowly learning just by listening tocustomers. Collin Stewart: Such a underrated tactic these days. It's so simple. Get it can't be so hard to do. Yeah. Walt Maclay: Listening to customers is always important, Collin Stewart: I've heard I heard you mention in our kind of pre-call that you've transitioned from CEO to chairman. What comes next for you? What comes next for Voler? Walt Maclay: I am, I've cut back on my work, so I'm in semi-retirement. That's why I brought in a guy to run
marketing for me who's really good at marketing and made him president, CEO. So it gives me some spare time. I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I'm not ready to retire completely, but I'm enjoying working a little less. Collin Stewart (11:00):
That sounds like the dream. If I'm being honest. I don't think I would want to retire and be just straight up done with it. 'cause I do enjoy what I do. But being able to just just do the things I want sounds like exactly what it sounds like exactly where you're at. Walt Maclay
good at networking. There are some engineers who are very good at it, but that networking, number one being focused on marketing, a narrow focus is really important. Having. Mentors. I've learned an awful lot from mentors. Now I think I know enough I can go and mentor other people because I've made lots of mistakes and I've learned how to do it right. So I'm looking forward to sharing what I've learned. Collin Stewart (12:00):
Amazing. If people are looking to, if they're curious about V Systems and they want to learn more what's the best place for them to take a look? Walt Maclay
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