Raaz Herzberg: evaluation

Transcript context

…I love that. Okay, so things started to click a little bit more. You started seeing enthusiasm. Can you talk about just what that phase was like, and any lessons from just that turn to, things are actually working? I have to say, I think the feeling, after we made that switch, what ended up happening is that after that big conversation that we know, I don't understand, we ended up having, and this never happens, I don't think it's ever happened since. It was almost a long, five-hour discussion, with all of the founders, where we decided to move away from that pivot to cloud security, which is what we really, in some ways, know best. That's our background, that's what we did before, and we felt the problems there was so big and so strong, and once we started having the conversations with the new pivot to cloud security, the room felt so different. I mean, it was all over Zoom, but our room, it felt very different. Once we found the right path, it was so easy to distinguish it from the wrong path, in some ways, because we did start getting those strong signals. And in some ways, they pushed us forward. A customer was like, "Okay, I want to start a POV," and we're like, "Oh, okay. Of course. Let's schedule for Thursday next week, or something. We tried to even postpone it a bit, because we had to run fast." Another learning I have from that phase was, I explicitly remember that first conversation, where it was like, "Okay, let's do a POV." It was a Fortune 10 company, a really big company, and we had a beginning of a product. We wanted to buy some time, until we actually started the POV. Just because of that, we said, "Okay, also we want to really understand exactly what they will connect to us as part of the POV," because everything was so initial. So we put this long list of technical questions, "What are you using for this? What are you doing here? What are you [inaudible 00:19:47]?" On the one hand, because we needed to know, to actually build a thing, on the other end, just because we wanted to buy time, and I was super scared. I remember studying that e-mail, and being like, "Ugh, they want a POV. And now, I'm going to scare them away, with this list of things they have to do, and list of questions, like it's counterintuitive." But actually, it came back filled a day later, and I remember my lesson being, "You know what? This is actually good. I want to make sure they're committed, right? I don't want to push somebody into a POV, if he is not committed to me at this stage." I mean, it's not a well-built product. It's going to be a journey we take together, so they need to really want it. I need that commitment from the other side. I'm not trying to push something on someone, especially not at this point, and my opinion, not ever, not even today, not even when you sell at large scales. I'm not trying to push anybody to anything, I really want to make sure they want it. I have to feel that want back. So that was another learning for me. It's like, first of all, when it works, it works, and you do know when it works. And the second is, "Don't be too afraid to get the pull from the customer." It's okay. You need that pull from the other end, as well. t of all, when it works, it works, and you do know when it works. And the second is, "Don't be too afraid to get the pull from the customer." It's okay. You need that pull from the other end, as well. Don't push too hard.…

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