Student Interview0 to 18 sales calls booked

All right, so. Hey everyone, my name is Brandon Miles, I got here Stefan P. with me, CEO of Subbly. We've been working together for the last couple of months, just was pulling some data and it looks like the last 30 days we've gotten them 17 appointments. And in the last 60 days we've done 33 appointments. Does that sound about right to you, Stefan?

Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate.

Nice, all right. So we've been getting some good results so far, a lot more good work to be done, but before we get into that, why don't we start back at the beginning? Stefan, tell me a little bit about Subbly and what you guys were doing before we engaged.

Sure, yeah. So Subbly is a bootstrapped startup. We are a subscription e-commerce platform, and it's a pretty tall ask, trying to build an e-commerce platform from scratch, bootstraps. When Harry and I connected way back originally, we were doing literally nothing. It was just pure product focus, some minor marketing activities. But I knew deep down that there was another level, another gear and we were nearly ready to start, start accelerating, from a walk to a jog. And that's when I saw Harry's message and it resonated with me.

Thanks!

When I say message, it wasn't that he messaged me, it was that I saw his website actually, it resonated with me.

How did you first hear about ConvoPanda and like what peaked your interest then?

I believe I saw your comment somewhere, I can't remember it was so long ago now. But I clicked on your website and read it and I was like, this guy gets it. That was the first thing that came to my mind, I was like, this guy understands it. And that's somebody I want to work with, period. And in fact at that point, it didn't even have a plan for what we're doing now. It wasn't, it didn't exist. And then we had obviously multiple conversations and I was excited. And I think that, you know, where we are now is a testament for that natural progression. It was a natural evolution from those initial conversations and obviously what also excited me was that you were excited because we were a fit for you as well. And I think that emphasized my excitement even more, it was like a perpetual-

That's really cool, that's awesome. So what made you decide to wanna do business with us? What ultimately made you pull the trigger on working with us?

Well, over time it became not so much a decision as much as it was a need, actually, it became a need. There was no way we couldn't do it. I think that I had no doubt in ConvoPandas capabilities I had, as I said, I was excited about it. It took some back and forth to eventually get to the point where it was clear on what needed to be done and that was a collaborative effort. And then, it went from we want to work with these people to this is how we're gonna work together and this is the right solutions to, I guess you could call it a problem. I don't think it was necessarily prominent, it was the desire to get to the next level. And there is only so many different ways you could do that. And we identified one of the ways of doing that, that was where the decision was made.

Cool, so like what- Tell us a little bit more about what we've done working together. What's it been like working together? What have we specifically done? What's been most valuable to you?

Yeah, so basically in short, we've been doing outreach and the process itself is involved, coming up with a structure, a hypothesis, an actual framework and also a message that resonates with the audience. And also we even went through the process of finding an audience. We kind of didn't even know it existed within our audience, which has a lot of those two- The really big takeaway, it's not just sales opportunities, it's actually the learning that's come from it, which has really been quite informative for allowing us to realize what needs to be done in the long run as a business, as well as presenting opportunities for today as well. So that's been a huge, huge part for us. But, yeah, it's been outreach, setting up demo calls and the process at the beginning was very involved to get to that point, which was awesome.

What sort of learnings have you kinda taken away? You were talking about it now, like broader learnings that the outreach process has generated for you.

Okay, but learnings specific to the business? Or other learnings, yeah okay. So yeah, I think we found that, although we have this general product, which addressed a problem back at the beginning, five years ago, that as the industry has matured, that there are these specific pain points to speak to, specific realms or rungs of customers and our targeted customers, the ones that we actually really, really wanna work with, have these very specific pain points. So we can narrow, double down from a product perspective and address. From all sorts of different metrics inside of their businesses, but yeah, it's been really interesting. Does that answer the question? I think it does.

Yeah, yeah. And like more about the process of working together, what's been most valuable to you in the process of working with me?

Where I am as an entrepreneur on my journey right now, I'm like a sponge. I feel like I'm back at school and I've learned so much from you. A lot of it's been confirming things that I may have known, but in other words. And you know, multiple data points that work when connected but now it's like, , that point of ah, that makes so much sense, 'cause you've articulated it exceptionally well. And the education that's come with has been like super, super important for me as an entrepreneur on my journey.

Yeah, it's almost like, I try and obviously get the result the client wants, which is the appointments and the new relationship with customers. But I really also think that I try and change the DNA of the founder or the people that I'm working with and help them get educated and start getting new skills and new superpowers.

Absolutely. And I can attest to that because, you know, it shows that you care. I mean, that kinda goes without saying, but the fact is that you take the time to explain something and even pushed me. And I said, right at the beginning of the engagement, you're gonna have to manage me. That was made clear and you were like, "Okay, cool". And you have. And I hope I've been a good sponge in this process. There's certainly gonna be things that take a couple of explanations, but, I mean, that's been hugely valuable, the educational component.

Nice. What results do you feel like y'all gotten both tangibly, intangibly so far working together?

Tangibly we've had some trial signups, We've had some verbal yeses from the ideal customers that we want to work with. Intangibly, insight, actually, it's still kinda tangible, to be honest with you, but that's a point for a different conversation. Intangibly, we have formed our roadmap for the next quarter or even six months. So it's gonna help us position our product and also that too, positioning from the marketing, messaging and the direction that we're gonna be going with our marketing, is now very clear. And as I mentioned already in the education component.

Yeah, like how for you personally, has your personal life changed at all and improved?

Yes and no. Yes, because I know that somebody who is very capable and responsible is managing this side of our business needs. But also not so much because there's so many calls. 'Cause I have to put my pants on early. And that's painful sometimes, but hey, you know, like that's a really good problem to have.

There's some opportunity for growth around, more excitement around having the demos versus big-

Yeah, oh yeah! It's also the... There's so much to do already. And it's like trying to like, I'm getting better at it. And this is something that you actually coached me on, get like structuring as much as possible, but you know, you can't, you can't fall through on that. So there's no time to take a moment and be like- Okay, now I can like let myself digest, but there's no time for that when you're just next thing, next thing, next thing. And that can be quite challenging, but again, that's a good problem to have.

Yeah, I feel like I've noticed with you that your capacity to handle more has gone up, but as we push more on you, you feel at the brim, it's just, the brim is getting wider. You have more capacity-

100%.

You're staying at full capacity each month. That makes sense.

Yeah, yeah. That's exactly right.

That's exciting.

Yeah, that is. And that's the thing that I guess I was trying to say about the education, that's part of that, and- You know it's like a muscle, you just got to strengthen it. And then, after all that said, the other thing as well is learning coping mechanisms or ways of setting boundaries as well as an entrepreneur. So like, to say, "Okay, do you know what? I'm just, actually, not gonna do that, because I can't." And that has been really valuable as well. So the whole process has just been a massive education.

Yeah, 'cause you've been doing so much with the product and now you've been able to hire new people on the product side, putting in new processes around there. You're still involved, but you're delegating more. And then now with that, you're able to do the sales calls that we're booking for you. So all of a sudden it's like you're wearing these new hats that the education and the demos have kind of enabled for you and-

Yeah. Yeah, exactly, yeah. All of it has been awesome. So thank you.

Nice, nice. Well, I guess how likely are you to recommend us? Would you do it all over again and work with us again?

I wouldn't recommend you because you're my secret weapon.

So yeah, you're barring that.

No, I would recommend you absolutely. I guess that last statement says it all.

And yeah, so if someone else is listening and they're on the fence, like why should they take action now and go ahead and sign up?

I think, as I said, the big value point has been the insight and education. And for that alone, you can't really put a price on it because you know, this whole concept of R and D and putting yourself on courses, the cost is so astronomical in the long run and you're not really being held accountable, but, working with somebody like you who cares, has been extremely important and critical in making sure that we are marching forward. 'Cause you're invested in the results. And Harry knows his stuff, I'll tell you that guys.

So what's next for Subbly?

World domination. No, what's next is to double down on the roadmap and then accelerate the sales and scale up.

Right, yeah. So we're working on a sales process, scripting, increasing the closed rates and kind of making that part of the sales funnel, dialed in now at this point, now that we've figured out lead generation and demo booking.

Yeah, exactly, yeah. And applying that to marketing as well in a scalable manner.

Nice, awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been great.

Yeah, very welcome, thank you.