Founder Breakthroughs Jeff Durso

If you’re involved in selling – and especially B2B selling for a SaaS business, then you’re going to love today’s episode. In the last episode, we talked with Stephen Steers about how storytelling is important to sales. Today’s guest – Matt Wolach – shares a masterclass on another aspect of B2B sales that will help you massively increase your close rate.
In sales, it can be tempting to share all of the unique features and bells and whistles of your product. Especially after you’ve spent to much care bringing it to life. But Matt explains how a different frame – based on deep curiosity for your customer’s challenges – is going to help you improve your results.
I had a blast talking to Matt – and learned a ton of nuance along the way. I hope you get some gems as well.

Links:

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwolach/
Website: https://mattwolach.com/ 

There’s one skill that every founder has to master in order to build a successful startup.
I’m talking – of course – about sales. But – there are a lot of misconceptions out there about what sales is and what it isn’t.
Today’s guest – Stephen Steers – has mastered the art of Startup Sales and codified it into a method he calls Contact Sales.
During our discussion, we talked about the importance of story – and why it’s critical to help your prospect see themselves in the story.
We talked about how to eliminate the pressure of closing – and help your prospect from the same side of the table.
We talked about how to structure your sales call for maximum effectiveness – and a lot more.
It was a value packed discussion – and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

To learn more about Superpower Storytelling & Stephen:

https://www.stephensteers.com/

The modern startup ecosystem has been evolving for decades – since the evolution of Silicon Valley from farmland to the hardware companies of the 60’s and 70’s – to the modern tech startup space of today.
But – even after all of these years, a founder looking for support can still feel like they’re living in the wild west. 
At the elite levels, accelerators like Y-Combinator and Techstars certainly offer transformational support. But outside of the top 1% or so – the rest of the space can be a bit confusing.
Today’s guest, Jonny Boyarsky is looking to help founders cut through the noise and get better advice.
His company, called “Literally Helping Startups” – is, wait for it – literally helping startups make sense of the journey.
We had a great in depth conversation around all of the challenges founders face today, what they can do to make more sense of the world – and what Literally Helping Startups is doing to help move things forward.

We’ve talked a lot on the podcast about the importance of asymmetric upside – or luck – in helping to drive entrepreneurial success.
Today’s guest, Vlad Mkrtumyan, has made stacking the deck into a science in his ventures.
In his first company, he launched an app featuring Drake quotes that got 2,000 downloads in week 1 - then he rinsed and repeated the process into hundreds of thousands of downloads.
He then turned what he learned into a method he uses for evaluating and executing new opportunities to make sure he and his agency’s clients are constantly in the flow of asymmetric upside.
We had an amazing discussion going deep into a whole bunch of rabbitholes – peeling back the layers of the onion and finding new insights on what makes founders win – and getting dangerously close to solving puzzles around success in general.
I had a blast talking to Vlad – and I hope you enjoy our discussion as well.

Every startup needs to make money – but some startups are architected with a much bigger purpose in mind.
Today’s guests, Mike Mills and Nick Spoors of Infinitary Fund – have found a unique way to fund their mission.
Their core innovation has enabled them to sell a product today that gives them cashflow and runway to build the business – while also funding a Think Tank that is going after some pretty amazing breakthroughs.
Their runway business keeps the lights on – and their think tank enables them to shoot for the moon.
I can’t even imagine how much innovation could be unlocked if more companies were designed this way.
We had a fascinating discussion going deep on this new model for doing business – and I hope you find it as inspiring as I did. 

Timing is one of the hardest challenges for founders. 
Execute an idea too soon – and you’ll run out of runway before someone gets there when the time is right.
Execute it too late – and you face still competition from the incumbent that got there first.
Today’s guest, Ace Bhattacharjya of MedicalRecords.com gives us a masterclass on how to stay true to a timeless vision while also leveraging timing to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
Over 20 years, he’s built multiple successful iterations of the business – while also being poised to pounce on huge trends as they’ve emerged.
Ace & I always have fascinating conversations – and I’m super excited to be sharing this one with you. 
I hope you gain as many takeaways from our conversation as I did.