I’ve led customer discovery efforts aimed at uncovering actionable data my company could use to refine early products. I just referred to it as “talking to people.”

I invited them individually and in groups into our office or met them at coffee shops to learn more about what they loved/hated about our product. Afterwards, I’d summarize these interactions and share them with our product and engineering teams.

This feedback didn’t always help us set priorities or make decisions, but directionally, it was useful as we iterated toward a MVP and beyond.

After a while, I realized that these interactions gave our earliest users a perceived sense of ownership that made them personally invested in whether we became successful. Done thoughtfully, customer discovery can drive engagement and speed your time to market.

“When you go through that process, you end up building exactly what these customers asked for,” said Renen Hallak, CEO of AI infrastructure company VAST Data. “And at that point, it's not your product that you're trying to sell to them. It's their product, it's their idea that you built for them.”

In this episode, he talked about forming a framework for assessing user feedback that will lead you to your first paying customers. Renen also spoke about the process he used to become a domain expert in a new field that helped his team rework their pitch and develop customer personas based on what they learned.

“Myself in a room is useless, because I know how to solve maybe well-defined problems, but I don't know which problems need solving.”

Episode breakdown

What VAST Data does
Renen's career shift and the early challenges he faced starting VAST
Why his previous fundraising failed: “I did not know how to do it. I didn't understand the game.”
Customer discovery processes and early challenges in gaining traction/building credibility
What he learned from failure about fundraising and VC dynamics
Strategies for creating innovative products that withstand competition from big players
How VAST used customer feedback to shape their product development
The process and timing of building a team, particularly focusing on sales + marketing
Initial customer acquisition and how VAST secured large-scale data users early on
From zero -> $1 million ARR -> $10M ARR in about 18 months
How VAST anticipates/integrates future AI trends into its pipeline + business model
Renen’s personal advice for new founders transitioning from technical roles to CEO positions

A few show updates:

Temporarily pausing new transcripts

For the time being, I’m going to pause posting new episode transcripts. Reviewing each one is a lot of work, and I have more than 25 episodes to edit for season 2!

I may resume posting them in season 3. Thanks for your understanding.

Creating a new LinkedIn group

I’m going to shut down the existing LinkedIn group and create a new one that does not require approval to join. My goal was to keep spam from “SEO specialists” and “link builders” to a minimum, but it’s also stifled engagement.

I’ll debut a new one soon and will share a link when it’s ready.

I hope you’re all having a great summer! Thanks for listening.

– Walter.