In this episode, of How I'm Building This, Prateek interviews Zach Barney from Mobly who shares his journey as a founder and his thinking about growth. He discusses the pain point Mobly solves, which is the manual and time-consuming process of lead retrieval at events. Zach shares how they won their first customers and the importance of validating the problem before building the product. He also talks about the tactics they use to scale, including being active on LinkedIn and attending events. Zach emphasizes the need for work-life integration as a founder and offers advice for aspiring founders.
Takeaways:
- Validate the problem before building the product
- Get your name out there and start building relationships early
- Be patient and don't spend money until it's in the bank
- Invest in marketing early to boost your company's visibility
- Strive for work-life integration rather than work-life balance
- Take risks and go all in if you want to build something big
Sound Bites:
- "The chances that I keep them interested and win that deal are significantly lower than they should be."
- "Get your name out there. Don't wait. Just get out there, meet people."
- "Don't spend money till it's in the bank. Things take longer, deals take longer, investments take longer, just be patient and wait."
In this episode, we cover:
00:00 Introduction and Background
04:45 Mobly's Solution and Target Market
08:02 Winning First Customers
09:56 Iterating and Scaling
15:42 Mistakes and Lessons Learned
20:07 Work-Life Integration
22:28 Advice for Aspiring Founders
Where to find Zach:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbarney/
Mobly: https://www.getmobly.com/
Where to find Prateek:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateekmathur
Activated Scale: https://www.activatedscale.com
For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email prateek@activatedscale.com
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