Welcome to Season 2 of Onmanorama's Startup Launcher Podcast. This season, we bring you the success stories of some incredible Kerala startups. Episode guest: Shihab Muhammed, CEO of SurveySparrow.
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[00:00:03] In this day and age, it's important for businesses to collect feedbacks from their employees and customers to stay ahead of the competition. This is where digital feedback service can help. All it takes is a comprehensive tool and few clicks of a button to create and distribute
[00:00:27] forms among the stakeholders. Kerala-based startup, Survey Sparrow is creating ripples in this data-driven industry by growing from a feedback tool to an omnichannel experience management platform. This is Onmanorama's Startup Launcher podcast, a show for budding entrepreneurs who dream of turning their ideas into successful businesses.
[00:00:48] Season 2 of Startup Launcher will cover the success stories of some incredible Kerala startups. I am Adhira Madhu, Assistant Producer at Onmanorama. In this episode, let's chat with CEO Shihab Mohammad to know more about his dream to make Survey Sparrow a customer-led brand. Shihab, welcome to Startup Launcher.
[00:01:11] First of all, can you introduce your company, Survey Sparrow to our listeners? I am Shihab, Founder and CEO of Survey Sparrow. Before Survey Sparrow, I was fortunate to be part of two biggest successes from Indian startup, Zoho and Freshworks.
[00:01:28] I started my career with Zoho, spent 4.5 years there and then I was fortunate to be part of the founding team of Freshworks as well as employee number 3 at Freshworks. Built and scaled multiple million dollar products from Freshworks and then back in 2017 we started this company called Survey Sparrow.
[00:01:54] Survey Sparrow is more of a cloud-based experience management platform which helps you to collect feedbacks at every touch point, especially customer touch points where it's actually, for example, if you are traveling via flight, what you have seen is actually checking experience
[00:02:11] on-flight experience and off-boarding experience from the flight journey. So just like that you can collect feedbacks at every touch point and today customer experience is the new marketing. As you know today every other Uber ride, every other is actually even food ordering app or
[00:02:32] everywhere is actually you've been asked to rate their service. Some of these things including is actually in India's Meshaw, DreamLeven, some of India's best companies is being powered by Survey Sparrow today to collect their feedbacks at customer touch points.
[00:02:50] Survey Sparrow is actually we enable many HR organizations to collect feedbacks while it is actually on-boarding as an employee exit service, employee on-boarding and even employee 360 which is actually will help customers or the HR team to analyze your performance.
[00:03:09] So what are the products and services offered by your company and to how many customers? Survey Sparrow offers is actually experience management platform. As of today we have one product called Survey Sparrow where you can create a service or is
[00:03:25] actually create feedback collection projects which will help you to collect feedbacks at different touch points and inside is actually at Survey Sparrow as a platform. We help customers to not just collect the feedback via surveys, we help them to act
[00:03:44] on it for example once the feedback gives you actually whatever the feedback. After that one you have two scenarios where the customer is giving you the brand with a good feedback in that particular case you can convert them as advocates by using
[00:04:01] our reputation management module available in the platform. In the case where is actually the feedback is not great, you can create a ticket and you can act on it before they are going into social media and talking about the bad experience.
[00:04:19] That is what we call it as closing the loop. So as a platform we help to even close the loop after the feedback is collected. Apart and we do help many customers to measure their net promoter score or NPS which is
[00:04:36] a metric today many companies including NASDAQ listed companies include in their quarterly calls to have is actually to include the net promoter score. What I mean by net promoter score is generally you would have seen this question when you
[00:04:51] go for a vehicle service to my Riddhi on a scale of 0 to 10 how likely you will recommend our brand to your colleagues or friends right? What is the question is mean is actually it is calculated a metric or net promoter score right?
[00:05:09] Based on is actually it is about the percentage of promoters by minus percentage of detractors right? So if you score is actually 9 or 10 in that question that means you are a promoter right? So we are as biggest brands like Amazon, Tesla and kind of things and Spotify kind
[00:05:30] of companies has got a net promoter score above 60 and sometimes Amazon has got a score of 71. So most of the biggest brands in the world measure the net promoter score and we do help brands to measure their net promoter score and improve it.
[00:05:46] There is a free calculator in your website right? Yes you can have a free calculator as well but at the same time the tool provide everything needed to automatically capture those feedbacks either right within your mobile app if you
[00:06:02] have a mobile application is there we do have an SDK which provides to collect which can collect that feedback maybe is actually when they are using the app or when they are quitting the app or anything like that or if you want to collect the same feedback
[00:06:15] in your website or your SaaS product right within the application you can just put a small code which will help you to collect it right? Again is actually you can collect it in an offline devices or you can collect it via
[00:06:31] email or even is actually right within your WhatsApp you can collect this kind of feedback. So we enable multiple organizations including some of the best brands like Misho or Godrej or is actually Dekatlone in India is actually we are helping them to collect this kind
[00:06:49] of metrics right and the other side of the thing is actually on an employee experience side we not only help people to collect the employee engagement surveys right we help organizations to collect employee engagement feedback right on top of it is actually we
[00:07:07] help customers and companies to do performance reviews so every company does a yearly performance uproarysal so what 360 helps you to do is actually to get an opinion about a subject we call it as an employee as a subject you can do a 360 survey where is
[00:07:25] actually your manager, your peers, your colleagues, your report is rating you and at the end is actually you can get a very good report which will help you to improve yourself by getting feedback from everyone who is closely working with you and that will automatically
[00:07:45] improve the performance of a person and it will help organizations to identify the blind sports in a particular person or areas of improvements kind of thing and which will help people to thrive in their workplaces.
[00:08:00] Right and you had done a self introduction but I am asking you again can you talk about your educational background and career before Service Paro? So just to give you a little idea about my education I am born and brought up in
[00:08:14] the small town called Narikuni in Kori Kodi district right and I did my education until plus two in Kori Kodi only after that one I got into Adore Engineering College of Kusat Gochin University I completed my B Tech from
[00:08:33] Adore Engineering College which is an IHRDA education institution and I got selected into Zoho that point is actually it was called Adornate right back in 2006 right and my career is started with Adornate that point today it is
[00:08:48] Zoho right so that was a background of my education starting of my career. Right and how did you recognize an opportunity in digital feedback survey market? So this was back in 2016 I was in US for a customer visit and I saw one
[00:09:10] day actually is like one customer visit got cancelled and I was just going through is actually like that was the same day actually I was getting a survey from our company to complete it and one of the comment from the HR team
[00:09:25] was your team is not filling the forms I was trying to open this form in in my mobile device because I was on the move and it was not loading properly in my mobile device right and then I realized that when there's still opportunity for
[00:09:43] somebody to come and then do something is actually very much mobile friendly right and it's a lot more and that's when the same kind of things like WhatsApp was moving very fast in terms of adoption right so what's happened
[00:09:59] Facebook Messenger was overtaking even Facebook usage now as a whole and there was a shift was happening in the behavior pattern of people right whereas actually if you take before 2015 we were doing most of our communications
[00:10:17] via email phone everything but around 2015 is actually there was a change where is actually people were communicating in workplaces people were communicating informally is actually via Slack this was a tool is actually which people use as actually for internal communication and it was all becoming chatty it was
[00:10:35] all conversational kind of experience right and there was this company called Intercom which was actually really moving very fast whereas actually like chat based customer support was becoming one in customer support scenario right again on a regular life is actually that point people wanted
[00:10:53] to do is actually everything via WhatsApp not via making call and then asking kind of thing right so this was a shift in people behavior right that was the time I was thinking why can't we do even feedback collection
[00:11:08] why has actually lot more in duty will in an engaging manner where can it make it a lot more conversational can it make it is a lot more chatty that was the whole thought process behind service pyro and I really wanted
[00:11:22] to use this actually to get the domain called survey pirate from Indian mythology where the pirate is speaking into human right so it's more lot more conversational but unfortunately I didn't get that domain then the
[00:11:38] nearest bird was which is well known was a spiral and that's how actually we came to the name of service pyro I registered the domain back then itself and I came back and I pitched the idea into few friends and everybody was
[00:11:52] getting excited the whole idea was service space the feedback collection was at 15% and generally the response rate across the platforms like be it a survey monkey be it is called tricks be it is Google form average response
[00:12:08] rate of the industry was at 10 to 15% while when we brought in this chatty conversational interface we started with an idea of such how do we get move this 15% into a 40% completion rate and we have seen is actually our
[00:12:27] initial early adopters started seeing a response average response rate of 40 to 50% right and we have seen is actually I was really like in a journey of building a product is when the customers will give you is actually a real
[00:12:42] feedback right one of the customer came and told us actually I got 93% completion rate that was the moment of wow is actually in building the product because when we realize people can get that kind of completion rates
[00:12:56] and response rate is actually we really understood is actually the mission we are in converting is actually a complicated old way of filling a form towards is actually lot more in-duty conversational chatty interface that was converting is actually this completion rate from 10 to 15%
[00:13:15] to 40% is that's what is actually is like we went in and that's where is actually is like we started seeing this adoptions and we got our first 1000 customers in 50 days right and that's when is actually we realize
[00:13:30] as well there is a huge market is there for this one and we realize that on everyone all the early adopters really loves is actually the new interface which we brought in and we became world's first chat service software in 2017 and is actually when we launched our
[00:13:46] beta right and the concept is very interesting right the chat based service but what were some of the unexpected challenges you faced after launching service one of the thing is actually in a business journey you will see is actually lot of early adopters which will be mostly
[00:14:02] around mostly early adopters like freelancers, consultants who wanted to try every new technology which is coming right and but most of the time they may not have a huge budget right so when we launched is actually we got lot of good feedbacks people were really
[00:14:20] is actually talking about great about wow this is amazing right this is actually giving us is actually 3x the response rate this is great but at the same time many of them we realized over the period was the their the ability to pay for them
[00:14:36] was on a lower side right so in order to give you is actually little idea people were okay to pay $9 people were okay to pay $9 but at the same time in order to sustain the business is actually that is that price point was not really helpful
[00:14:49] right and then we started going up the market right where is actually most of when you really go up the market what I mean by 100 employee company 500 employee company 1000 employee company you need to build a lot more than just survey
[00:15:03] form and then end to end things that's when we realized we need to have is actually lot more bells and whistles we need to build it like for example is actually you need to be ISO complaint if you want to get into a mid market company
[00:15:15] right if you want to be is actually getting into a healthcare company you need to be HIPAA complaint right so those kind of thing which needs is actually a lot of logging in right so you need to have logs you need to have is
[00:15:26] actually is like a password policies you need to have a lot of such bells and whistles you need to add to the platform right we didn't stop building we kept building it and then obviously we started getting customers from US HIPAA customers or healthcare
[00:15:42] customers we started getting we started getting a kind of SMB and mid market obviously with a higher price point right so that's how we overcome is actually the challenge which we face that point. So what was the impact that you know service paro was
[00:15:55] trying to make when it launched was it you know saving the world from dry Google forms the objective yes obviously that was the whole idea the whole idea is actually it was very dry it was like a huge mundane forms
[00:16:07] which is being is actually people doesn't want to feel instead is actually wanted to make it a lot more engaging lot more conversational so that is actually people will because at the end is actually when you are going for feedback right there is no
[00:16:19] incentive for the customer to fill this one right because you're not paying them right but why don't at least you make their experience of giving feedback is actually much better right so if you're giving a very nice interface if you're giving a lot
[00:16:31] more interesting way of doing it right a lot more conversational right it feels like the person who's taking wow this is nice okay let me try this right when that's happening and not with a lot of questions probably is actually five to ten questions because
[00:16:45] at the end is actually he's trying to help you by giving you feedback right you cannot go is actually hundred questions and then is actually keep him in in in a place where it's actually it's taking a lot of time right so you don't want to put
[00:17:00] people in that space right so that's where we bring we we try to bridge that gap and definitely I think is actually the customer feedback really customers is actually we have a case where is actually I'll tell you one of I mean I can tell is actually
[00:17:14] Godrej is actually vice chairman directly used do you during covid times during covid time is actually many of this consumer facing businesses where actually very slow right especially is actually they don't know is actually what they want to do right because this was one of the
[00:17:29] uncertainties actually the entire world was facing so what the directly is actually the vice chairman's office what they did is with they took is actually service paro and they collected feedback is actually how do we promote or what are the new business ideas which we can do it
[00:17:45] using our factories around the world and many people came up the feedback of is actually building is actually because they do have a line I mean basically they have a distribution line is there they suddenly started creating is actually is all this what is the sanitary things they
[00:18:04] started building is actually mask gloves then is actually like those kind of things which is needed for that moment is actually started building immediately in the factories right and again is actually we have seen cases where is actually kind of companies like the low light the low
[00:18:21] light creating in during the covid is actually which we never assumed right they created a chatbot out of by programming is actually when people went into the the the covid time everybody was working from work from home or remote we have seen is actually is like
[00:18:39] the Lloyd building a chatbot programmatically using our chat based surveys and people can talk to this boat when they feel is actually low right so basically one of the things including our own company I can tell you some numbers right so we have seen is actually during
[00:18:56] covid times 25 percentage of our employees taking help from from we do have a partnership with somebody called better life right where is actually they can get any if you have any you feel low in terms of is actually mental health or is actually any any because you're
[00:19:15] sitting at home a small room and the kind of problems you expect because you're not talking to anyone you're not sharing is actually your internal feelings to anyone right that point of time is actually what's happening is like they're getting into a room and they're
[00:19:29] getting into inside them they're not communicating with anyone and then the stress is increasing and that point we introduce something is actually a platform where is like okay they can talk to the doctor right inside our company just like that bigger companies talking to a
[00:19:44] doctor every day is actually for a larger audience may not be a an open option so what Deloitte kind of companies they created a chat board where is actually they can they can talk to this boat the boat will at the end is actually what
[00:19:59] will decide the the mental state of the employee and if it is really is actually at a difficult state they will they'll directly connect into the doctor they'll actually create an alarm and email is actually notification to the related parties including the doctor
[00:20:14] or is actually like HR team and they'll actually help the employees to get a counseling sessions right we have seen that kind of is actually use cases coming out which was never imagined by building the the product true and when it comes to surveys how does one
[00:20:29] distinguish between a bad one and a good one you cannot really is actually distinguished is actually bad or good but at the same time what you can do is actually today is actually survey as far as has gotten a builder right so basically if you say just is
[00:20:43] actually what is your requirement our AI will build the questions for you and is actually so it's all about questions right if it is too lengthy it is going to be boring for the customers but at the same time as actually if you are
[00:20:53] asking irrelevant question that also is going to be like so it's all about is actually relevant questions with the limited number of questions that is the key in having a better success in terms of building a good survey right say if the business is not
[00:21:08] using a tool like service paro what are the mistakes they are likely to make when they are building you know feedback forms on their own they can definitely use is actually on their own kind of thing but what what we can do the
[00:21:22] platforms like service paro is not just ending with just collection of the data we do have is actually analyze module which is actually can you can use is actually automatically will give the sentiment of the customers right so we do have a sentiment mechanism
[00:21:37] where is actually our a based is actually sentiment analysis will tell you what is the mode of the customer based on the words he used in giving you the feedback right and we analyze the feedback from customers and then we'll give you is actually very good
[00:21:51] dashboards which can be shared is actually to any management right again is actually when you think from perspective like closing the loop right so getting data is one part of the job right acting on it is actually another part of it so when
[00:22:05] you use a platform like service paro you can actually is like cover and end cases right when you don't use are just collecting feedback then you're sitting on top of it actually you're not making any improvement right so I I I am somebody who always believe in
[00:22:22] one of the theory is actually Kaiser right continuous improvement is actually something which is that which is the way is actually most of is actually east side of the world is actually we always make the wheel start somewhere will continue to make improvement rates if you want to
[00:22:38] make improvement in your brand right you need to have is actually not just collecting the feedback acting on it then again collecting on is actually should be feedback should be a loop right you should collect the feedback then take an action then again is
[00:22:51] actually you implement something then again you collected so those kind of is actually workflows when you are building including is actually is like and again collecting feedback at the right place for example is actually that your chance of getting a response once you for example you
[00:23:07] check out of your a resort or a hotel right if you do that one in the first three hours of you're checking out then it is actually the chances of you getting a better responses high and because that is fresh in the
[00:23:20] memory of the customer right so how do you do that on you cannot actually manually do any of these things right you should integrate your point of sale or is actually your checkout system into a player like service pyro then automatically the the feedback collection is happening
[00:23:35] either by a whatsapp or via is actually SMS or via email whichever is actually more the easiest mode of reaching out the customers and then you collect that feedback immediately and that is much more valuable than sending is actually after two months or is
[00:23:49] actually after a month or after 10 days is actually your manually sending it right so the use of a platform like service pyro is actually integrating with all those things so we do have a lot of customers who integrate with CRM like sales source or HubSport where is actually
[00:24:04] they're collecting the feedbacks when a point of sale is happening or a customer enquiry is closed right so it has to be like lot more is actually when to collect feedback also matters it is not about is actually just collecting the feedback right so those
[00:24:18] are the advantages probably I would say is actually when you use a platform like service pyro and you were talking about integration of AI like say everybody is alarmed about whether they will be replaced if the industry will be challenged and
[00:24:30] even say they are being said that you need just AI you don't even need to learn coding right so do you see AI being a challenge to the industry the feedback AI power tools or do you see it as a you know tool for growth
[00:24:44] with strategic integration so I see as an enabler AI will help all of us right so just like is actually today's actually most of our work is happening via computers right so just like that I will enable people to do well it is not
[00:25:01] replacing people it is not about replacing people but at the same time when you do things is actually lot more efficiency will come right so the my message to everyone is actually embrace AI and then make it a part of you if you try to fight
[00:25:16] with AI probably is actually over the period you might not realize it but over the period is actually you will be replaced but if you embrace it and you use is actually is like the AI especially today is actually a generating way has got a lot of
[00:25:31] tools which has already come which will help you to be a lot more smarter to do a lot more efficient right embrace those things and then is actually go ahead is actually would be actually my take on AI side right and this might be a weird
[00:25:44] question but do you ask your clients to fill a feedback form about your feedback forms you create for it definitely is actually we do we collect feedback is actually is like from for example we do rent quarterly NPS service we do we are
[00:25:58] actually is like whenever is actually sale is happening is like after that one we are ending when we are actually closing a ticket is actually we are getting the feedback right we actually run our NPS service is actually right within the product so that is actually we are
[00:26:12] getting very good feedback and we are acting on it we are not just collecting it is actually we have a method to act on that one as well right whenever is actually customer is not happy will create a ticket and people will act on it and can
[00:26:25] you briefly talk about how service paro is different from your competitors because there are other also platforms that does digital feedback so the biggest advantage is obviously is like a better response right just like I mentioned is actually lot more chatty lot more conversational and the end user
[00:26:41] form feels like it is a lot more easier to complete right that is the major differentiation with competition but at the same time is actually obviously we are going after the mid-market segment of the business and where is actually the customer feedback is not from me
[00:26:59] is actually people thing service paro is a lot more easy to use easy to set up and probably has got enough configurations right so that is the way today if you really see is actually we are the momentum leader at G2 G2 is actually is a
[00:27:13] rating platform across the world for SAS products so we are the number one momentum leader in the space is actually as of now obviously is actually we are not the number one across because there are incubants in the space which is actually like survey among your
[00:27:28] call tricks is actually being in the space for 20 years but if you really take as somebody who comes in the last five or six years is actually we are the number one right and how do you envision the future and growth of this company so we are
[00:27:42] actually we wanted to be actually the enterprise brain that's what is actually we wanted to be today is actually we are collecting feedback from multiple places right at the end is actually what we wanted to be is actually we are acting on it also
[00:27:54] but what if it's actually is like if it is becoming a system of intelligence right so you are collecting all the feedback from multiple places now is actually you have lot of data with you right which then with the new AI capabilities we should be able to
[00:28:10] predict the customer chain we should be able to tell you is actually every day is actually is like okay with that kind of data which we have we should be the brain of an company whereas actually it should automatically tell you okay this customer is going to
[00:28:24] change this employee is going to leave all those things is actually early warning signs we should be able to give it that's where is actually I'm seeing the platform in the company is actually as someone is actually who has got all the knowledge about
[00:28:35] is actually all the touch points and somebody can give you the kind of information by cringing the data by is actually using the AI learning algorithms right that's where I see is actually service where and to know you more a bit more personally let me ask some
[00:28:51] quick questions how do you describe your personal journey you know from so go to fresh works and finally service what are your most proud the proudest moments is actually if you ask me it is always the happiness in customer space right so whenever I mentioned
[00:29:04] is actually is like when a customer told is actually andy 3% is completion rate that was the moment right so I was always is actually someone who thinks from the customer shoes right and in the journey is like all these companies everything is great
[00:29:22] come is always a great company obviously fresh works was the reason who I am today right so in all these journeys it was always like obsessive customer side is actually that is what is actually is like I'm most proud about and every company is actually who is
[00:29:39] obsessive about their customers will become successful at the end right so that's that's that's the only thing is actually I'm proud of and I'm really proud that when we are a company is actually which which gives customers that that importance right and how do you ensure a
[00:29:54] good work life balance like do you find time to pursue your personal interest in hobbies yeah obviously is like okay it's like personally it is I do work a lot obviously even if you want weekends but at the same time if you really feel this
[00:30:12] is this is the reason you are this is your identity right you start enjoying every day it is not like you will not feel like a work or anything so it's a journey and it's it is something is actually which defines you
[00:30:27] right at the end right and it's your identity and when you do that one I don't think it's actually there is a term called work life balance it's it's just like you are living that life right so and I really enjoy it is actually all throughout is
[00:30:41] actually be it is over fresh works or service by row it's all about is actually I am passionate about products I am passionate about is actually building the best products for the customers and my happiness is actually seeing the happiness in customers face so I think I
[00:30:58] see is actually that way only I don't see is actually does it work right and launching a running and start you know a startup in Kuchee must come with its own set of advantages and disadvantages how do you think we can make Kuchee more startup friendly Kuchee is
[00:31:12] actually was really good for me in when 2018 2017 18 when we started right so we got is actually the space right from Kerala startup mission was really helpful right even is actually info park was really helpful in giving us a space is actually when though you are
[00:31:30] a very small startup with the five members and and they knew that when we are going to grow right and and also is actually is like in terms of talents we have lot of role talents in Kerala for example especially the kind of if you really take
[00:31:46] our history right so Kerala has been really good is actually in writing the content and that's the reason is actually companies like my mom or mother Bumi or any any news channels also is like you can see a lot of things that we kind of
[00:31:59] magazines right if you really take is actually is like the whole India also right most of the the journalist or writers or marketing and even design side of things actually you will see at the top end of the position will be a Malayali right
[00:32:15] so you can see that one is actually if you go to Bangalore if you go to Chennai everywhere is actually whoever heading the the media houses who are heading is actually design houses you will see a Malayali there right so that way is
[00:32:28] actually lot of role talents on those two aspects I have seen obviously is like we have good engineering colleges as well that way Kuchy was really helpful in in in getting those kind of talents which is needed for a SaaS company what do you think will take it
[00:32:43] to the level of H&I or Bangalore so lot more experienced talent is needed in Kuchy so that is the challenge is actually it is not easy to attract experienced talent here because most people across India obviously the first choice will be Bangalore
[00:33:01] and then is actually probably is like Gurgaon or Mumbai right so people will when you create lot more people there right so that is how an ecosystem will build for example today Chennai is has got a SaaS ecosystem because of multiple companies so a company like Zoho having
[00:33:19] 10,000 plus people right and a fresh works kind of company having 5000 to 7000 people working right and lot of other startups having is actually 500 2000 employees right that will create an ecosystem so Kuchy is actually still is like okay it's in essence stages of building that startup ecosystem
[00:33:39] whereas actually we have seen some early successes like for example, Vibhina is actually one of the success stories we have seen is actually entries another company is actually is coming out in attack side and we have a lot of is actually is like robotic
[00:33:54] startups which is coming out of Kuchy right so if we have is actually is like a little bit more is actually SaaS companies little bit more is actually attack side companies is actually coming out of it automatically it will take its own time right it's not
[00:34:08] like you can get in there is actually within a year kind of thing but as the time grows is actually more startups is coming more talent will start creating and then automatically that will start building it right so it's just like it will just create on
[00:34:24] its own right and if you ask me is actually is like the number of people or talents is actually today versus five years back obviously we are much better in shape and it's I think it's a matter of time is actually which you will become the next startup
[00:34:37] hub because on all other parameters like given is actually the government supports right for example case you have for example is actually case IDC earlier even today's actually guess IDC is there so all the enablers in the in the coachy and obviously in Kerala right they are there
[00:34:55] but now is actually how do we bring in more people here more experienced people here that is where the gap I think is actually that will automatically happen right as one or two because success is happening from here automatically like people will start creating around it right
[00:35:12] and what's the biggest lesson you have learned after launching a startup and what do you think makes it successful the most important aspect the most important aspect of any any any product company is actually it's all about product market feet right
[00:35:27] so if you build a product and if there are customers who can open their wallet for you that's the best way to define is actually is like okay the product market fit right you can create on my world's biggest idea you may have the
[00:35:45] the best idea you may have is actually is like most innovative things which you can build but at the end is actually the validation is customers if anybody is willing to open their wallet for you which is not your friends and family right and then that's
[00:36:02] the biggest validation of your business right and that's when really is actually the product market it happens I'd read that your dream was to make a customer led brand yes exactly so that's where is actually customers will be happy is actually like I have many cases
[00:36:18] where is actually scenarios where customers were willing to when we were going wrong they were coming in saying that one change this one okay so can you actually this is going to be much more so they will be if you are actually talking to customers
[00:36:33] they will give you lot more feedback which will help you to grow only thing is actually you should have years to listen to them then is actually if you see is actually multiple customers are saying the same thing that means is actually the that is there
[00:36:45] is something to be corrected here correct right so that is what you needed is actually well building is right and finally what advice would you give to you know budding entrepreneurs who want to build a survey platform I won't say a survey platform may be a SAS
[00:37:00] platform right because building same product is actually by 10 people will not make anyone successful but at the same time if you ask me is actually what it takes to build a SAS platform be customer specific find out is actually what customers need and
[00:37:18] then build based on that one and then at the end is actually you will see is actually n number of customers if you have 10 people who are coming into your website or is actually 100 people who are coming to website what rhyme 10 people you are actually is like
[00:37:32] trying your product then do you have is actually at least is actually 30% of them is converting into a paying customer right so this metric if you have is actually focus on is actually is like those basic metrics and make sure that one is actually
[00:37:48] you have a product which is winning on customer heart and then probably is actually from there obviously you can skate right so that's that's I'd read about your the theory for a minimum viable product versus a minimum usable product can you just define that and we can end
[00:38:05] the thing on that specific theory so most of the time is actually like everyone will address a minimum viable a minimum viable product is more of is actually is like what is your thought around the product right because you say that this is minimum
[00:38:19] viable product and this is what it is but at the end is actually it is not about you it is about the customer right a minimum usable product is actually the product which a customer can use to achieve something right customer doesn't care about is actually your
[00:38:35] product they care about their problem right if your product cannot solve their pain point then is actually like your product is absolutely useless that's the reality right and in in in that case is actually build something which solves the pain point of the customer
[00:38:56] and they can use in their everyday life right which is actually when is actually you will really make a dent right then that customer today is actually one customer is using or two customer is using now you need to identify the similar kind of customers who
[00:39:12] can use your product for the same pain point and they can they're happy to pay for it right that is the difference between a minimum usable product and a minimum viable it's a perspective change right so always build a minimum usable product which is actually validated by at
[00:39:30] least is actually few customers right never ever get carried away because of you know something it doesn't work that way right obviously there are people like Steve Jobs who believe that one is actually they can they know what market needs but not everybody is Steve Jobs right so
[00:39:50] so to listen to your customers know your customers and take feedback from right thank you thank you so much that brings us to the end of this episode thank you for listening and be sure to check out our next episode start a launcher podcast is
[00:40:10] produced by on Manorima with technical production by Idea Brew Studios subscribe to us wherever you get your podcast follow us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram for more interesting podcasts or news views and explainers visit onmanorima.com