Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast

Jyoti Bansal is the CEO of  @Harnessio  and  @TraceableAI . He is also a co-founder of Unusual Ventures.In a special episode of the Startup Field Guide podcast, Jyoti sits down with John Vrionis – his co-founder and friend of 20 years — to discuss the recent merger of Harness and Traceable. This merger positions Harness + Traceable to create the most advanced AI-native DevSecOps platform in the world!Join us as we discuss:00:00 Product market-fit is a journey1:38 The recent merger between Harness and Traceable3:09 The insight that led to Traceable’s founding4:37 The technical inflection that Jyoti saw in 20197:46 The initial idea for Traceable11:39 Figuring out the right customer14:12 Iterating on Traceable’s GTM approach16:34 Advice for early-stage founders21:54 The big vision for Traceable + Harness25:56 One book all founders should read26:26 Jyoti’s advice on team-building27:55 Essential soft skill for founders28:55 Perspective on leadershipJohn Vrionis is the co-founder and CEO of Unusual Ventures.Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Samantha Mckenna is the founder of SamSales and a leader in building go-to-market strategies. She has spent her nearly 15+ year career in enterprise sales doing two things: breaking over 13 sales records and doing so by leading with a buyer-first approach to sales. In this episode of the Startup Field Guide podcast, she shares why early stage founders should focus on solving challenges for buyers rather than selling, the need for thorough research and personalization in outbound prospecting, and the effectiveness of LinkedIn as a marketing platform. Some topics we covered with Sam include: 00:00 Preview: Importance of solving customer challenges first 00:18 Sam’s early journey into sales and GTM 02:20 Common mistakes in enterprise sales process for startups 02:37 Challenges and misconceptions about enterprise sales 04:10 How technical founders can get started in sales 9:26: How founders can start doing outbound sales while building their product 14:26 Tips for effective outbound messaging 18:18 Selling to engineers 19:57 Why founders should be using LinkedIn 22:25: Strategies for marketing on LinkedIn 38:15 AI tools for outbound sales and marketing 43:01 Hiring the right sales leaders for early stage startups Samantha Mckenna is the founder and CEO of SamSales. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Relyance AI is a global privacy compliance and data governance platform that allows enterprises to protect customer data, avoid expensive fines, and build customer trust. It provides visibility and control over all enterprise data processing. In this episode, we chat with Abhi Sharma, CEO and co-founder of Relyance about the early days of the company, and how Relyance has recently completely transformed its sales culture. Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Preview: Culture is about what you do day-to-day 1:28 The insight behind Relyance 6:20 Early feedback from design partners 9:17 Abhi’s learnings as a second-time founder 11:10 Transforming Relyance’s sales culture and strategy 15:30 How Unreasonable Hospitality influence Abhi’s thinking about company culture 18:18 What the hospitality industry can teach software founders 24:18 How Abhi coached his team into changing their mindsets 30:06 How Relyance’s customers and team have responded to the shift in the sales culture 35:51 Advice for early-stage founders on building strong company culture Abhi Sharma is the CEO and co-founder of Relyance. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Clay is an AI-powered platform for sales prospecting that gathers data from over 75 sources to build lists and help growth teams send personalized outreach messages. Recently valued at over $500M, Clay has several high-profile enterprise customers, including go-to-market teams at Intercom, Ramp, Notion, Anthropic, Verkada, Vanta, and more. In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Kareem Amin, CEO and co-founder of Clay. Join us as we discuss:  00:00 Preview: Picking the right customer 1:53 Lessons learned from Kareem’s first startup, Frame 4:54 Decision behind choosing acquisition for Frame 7:10 The founding insight behind Clay 9:20 Fundraising for Clay 11:52 Narrowing down the ICP for Clay 17:21 Clay’s decision to focus on growth marketers 21:12 Product feedback from early adopters 22:27 Picking the right strategy to monetize 28:37 Building the early team 32:14 Integrating GPT-3 into the product  34:38 Clay’s product roadmap 37:00 Advice for new founders Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected]. Kareem Amin is the CEO and co-founder of Clay. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Scribe makes it easy to share how you do your work by creating automated documentation. Scribe raised a Series B recently and has grown to millions of users with enterprise customers like Gong, LinkedIn, and Shopify. In this episode, Scribe’s co-founder and CEO, Jennifer Smith chats with Sandhya Hegde about Scribe’s early days. Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Preview — capturing institutional knowledge 1:46 The insight for starting scribe 5:40 Building the Founding Team 8:10 Product Launch and Early Adopters 12:40 Launching the GA Product 15:08 Analyzing User Feedback and Customer Profiles 16:42 Early go-to-market strategy 20:18 The evolution of Scribe’s GTM strategy 22:50 Leveraging AI Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at ⁠[email protected]⁠. Jennifer Smith is the CEO and co-founder of Scribe. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at ⁠https://www.unusual.vc/⁠.

Eightfold AI is a talent management platform used by hundreds of large organizations like Vodafone and Activision Blizzard. It helps them leverage data to find great people with the skills they need, both internally and externally. Last valued at $2.1 billion, Eightfold was launched in 2016. In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Ashutosh Garg, co-founder and CEO of Eightfold AI. Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Why Ashustosh wanted to build a talent platform 1:47 Ashutosh Garg's early career at Google 5:09 The founding insight for Eightfold AI 7:38 Why Ashustosh decided to focus on HR tech 9:42 Challenges of selling to large enterprises 17:11 Advantages of being an "outsider" in HR tech 19:32 Ashutosh's learnings as a repeat founder 22:58 The impact of recent macro shifts on the labor market 24:50 The impact of GenAI on Eightfold's roadmap 30:16 The future of work 35:11 Advice for first-time founders Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected]. Ashustosh Garg is the CEO and co-founder of Eightfold AI. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Monte Carlo is an end-to-end data observability platform that monitors pipelines for missing or inaccurate data. Last valued at $1.6B, Monte Carlo has over 150 customers, including data teams at companies such as CNN, JetBlue, Hubspot, PepsiCo, and Toast.  In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Barr Moses, co-founder and CEO of Monte Carlo.  Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Preview —Early feedback from a potential customer 1:37 Why Barr and Lior decided to focus on data observability 6:28 Profile of Monte Carlo’s early adopters 12:27 Common pain points among early adopters 16:05 How Monte Carlo narrowed in on their ICP 21: 33 Early product feedback and surprises 26:27 Monte Carlo’s current go-to-market strategy 31:22 How AI will impact the data ecosystem 35:57 Advice for founder building data platforms Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected]. Barr Moses is the founder and CEO of Monte Carlo Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that answers user questions. Founded in 2022 and valued at over $1B, Perplexity recently crossed 10M monthly active users and is growing fast. In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Denis Yarats, co-founder and CTO of Perplexity. Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Reactions to Perplexity’s prototype in 2022 1:33 How Arvind and Denis started working together 4:04 Building a text-to-SQL tool initially 6:34 Launch of ChatGPT and pivot to general search 9:46 Focusing on user data, and not on the foundation model 14:43 Perplexity’s early adopters 16:42 Early customer feedback 18:44 Perplexity’s core technical competencies 22:44 Subscription pricing and future gross margins 25:12 Perplexity’s hardware partnerships  29:49 Future product vision  32:50 Advice for founders in the AI space Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected]. Denis Yarats is the CTO and co-founder of Perplexity. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Everlaw is a legal tech company started in 2011 that helps law firms and corporations run what’s called “e-discovery”— essentially a process of investigating often massive piles of documents to find the key pieces of evidence, the smoking gun, and then to construct a narrative from it. Last valued at over $2B, Everlaw has over 1,000 customers over the world.   In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with AJ Shankar, CEO and founder of Everlaw. Join us as we discuss:  00:00: The vision for Everlaw  0:36 Introduction to Everlaw 1:45 AJ Shankar's Journey to Starting Everlaw 4:43 The Vision and Early Years of Everlaw 6:41 Challenges in Fundraising and Building the Early Team 9:56 Understanding Customer Needs and Building Authenticity 11:38 Product Development and Technical Skills 16:22 Impact of Everlaw on the Legal Industry 20:36 Fundraising Challenges and Success 23:59 Adoption of Generative AI and its Implications 29:30 The Future of Everlaw and the Legal Industry 35:51 AJ Shankar's Evolution as a Founder and CEO Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected]. AJ Shankar is the CEO and founder of Everlaw. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Deepgram is a voice AI company that has built an incredible reputation in the market for the quality of its speech recognition. Last valued at over $250M, Deepgram has over 500 customers, including NASA, Spotify, and Twilio.  In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Scott Stephenson, CEO and co-founder of Deepgram. Join us as we discuss:  00:00 Preview: Fully contextualized speech-to-speech is the future 01:07 Scott's background in particle physics and starting Deepgram 7:18 Scott's first years as a founder 13:17 How the Deepgram team gathered early customer feedback 17:38 Early use cases and product feedback 22:58 How conversational AI will impact the customer support industry 26:54 Specialized hardware in the AI Industry 30:34 How additional hardware specialization will impact Deepgram 32:14 Deepgram's product vision 36:46 Advice for Founders starting an AI company Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected]. Scott Stephenson is the CEO and co-founder of Deepgram. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.