BeyondSaaS Transcript
Jason Niedle
Today we’re talking with Franco Mansalvo, co-founder and CTO of Revolt Digital about how strategy and design together deliver growth.
Franco Monsalvo
Hey, Jason.
Jason Niedle
All right, and we’ll jump into this one. OK, intros. Welcome to Beyond SaaS. I’m Jason Nidale, founder of Tethos. We’re a growth agency, and we’ve been accelerating tech company growth through strategy, branding, lead generation, and conversion with a 20-year record of success. If you’re looking to grow, check out tethos.com slash podcast for our paper on strategies compiled from interviews, like with Franco here. Easier yet, just drop the word growth in the comments, and I will DM you.
So I’m super excited to be talking about tech company growth with Franco Monsalvo. He is down in Argentina today. Thank you for calling in. Co-founder and CTO of Revolt Digital. And Revolt helps companies launch new digital projects that… See? Take two. And Revolt helps companies launch new digital products that actually make sense so that they can help their clients thrive using technology. And they do that through using a mix of strategic clarity and award-winning design.
Franco Monsalvo
No worry.
Jason Niedle
with the ability to execute. I love that combination, right? That you have the thought process and figuring out what you’re doing. You communicate that through design and then you have to also be able to execute. And it’s a lot of different parts of the brain, which I think is really interesting. Revolt was just named one of Clutch’s top 100 fastest growing companies. So congratulations. And I hear from his coworkers that he is a great mix of people and technical skills, which I love. So welcome, Franco.
Franco Monsalvo
Hey Jason, thank you for having me.
Jason Niedle
I’m excited. I’d to offer listeners some sort of a quick tip. Do you have a golden nugget for them today?
Franco Monsalvo
Yeah, sure. I’m reading or rereading Playing to Win from A.G. Lafley and Robert Modding and I think it’s a very interesting book about how to do a strategy and how to do, you know, a strategy process that helps you launch products in the right market that help you, you know, grow and also, which I think is very interesting, it’s we’re not to play, right, if you want to win.
Jason Niedle
Mmm.
Where not to play.
Franco Monsalvo
Right.
Jason Niedle
So it’s called playing to win, but an important part is where not to play.
Franco Monsalvo
Right, I mean, if you want to win, you need to figure out where you can win before actually playing, right? So it’s as important to know where to play as where not to play, right? And I think a lot of companies don’t think about that, right? It’s kind of like they want to go after every single customer in every single market, right? Without even thinking if that’s the right idea.
I think something that’s very unique, you know, from these guys, which actually, you know, Laughly was the CEO of Procter and Gamble. So he knows a thing or two, right? So one of the things.
Jason Niedle
wow. Which is ironic
because it seems like Procter & Gamble plays everywhere.
Franco Monsalvo
Right, but they don’t. So they only play in the markets and with the products that they know how to make a win and decide not to actually execute a ton of other strategies because they know that they kind of win in those games. So I think it’s very interesting when you think about it because as you said, you don’t even notice that they are doing that. You think they are going everywhere. They’re playing every single market they can, but actually they are not.
Jason Niedle
You just gave me a good idea by the way. That book sounds great and I feel like I’m behind by two or three books that guests have recommended. I need to make a reading list. I need to stick that on our website and we need to have the cool books that you’re recommending and others are recommending. So playing to win, okay? That’s adding to my reading list.
Franco Monsalvo
It’s pretty, it’s not a new book, right? I mean, I think the first time I read it was kind of like 10 years ago, right? And I just had it on my bookcase and I saw it and I said, yeah, I should read it.
Jason Niedle
But a lot of times the fundamentals are the fundamentals, you Yeah. So tell us a little bit about Revolt Digital.
Franco Monsalvo
yeah, totally.
Yeah, perfect. So as you said, we are a product agency. help companies launch products. It could be a SaaS product or it could be something else. And we think about it in these three pillars that we have, right? About strategy, about design, and about technology. And when you think about, again, where to play and where not to play, I think that having a strategic vision
about a product and about a market, about your target audience has been fundamental for us to launch successful products. So if you’re thinking about, know, hey, I’m just gonna be building this and you know, if I build it, they’re gonna come. We’re gonna say no, that’s not how it’s done, right? I mean, if you want to actually launch a product that’s going to make sense, that it’s going to grow, that it’s gonna be, know, attract an audience.
Let’s think about it. Let’s see where we can play, where we cannot play, who’s, you know, the leader right now in the market. How can we, play against them? So it’s a technology company, right? I mean, we build technology. But I always think that, you know, before that comes a strategy and before that comes design. Right. I mean, if you have a good strategy and you have good technology, but you have, you know, you don’t have a good design, you don’t have a…
attractive product that you know, it’s not gonna it’s not gonna be you know a successful idea so I think combining the three of them is key to Launch and grow right? It’s not just launch right? It’s once you launch the product then it comes You know the real thing about how can I make this grow and design strategy becomes you know as relevant as and and beginning right so
Yeah, that’s what we’ve done. We’ve helped several startups launch products and we have several SaaS companies launch the product or rethink the product, you know, when it comes to a place where there’s no growth anymore, right? Or things are not going the way you think it was going to be. We also help companies at that stage to stop for a minute, think about what’s going on and then, you know…
use what we learn to launch or relaunch a product that is going to be successful.
Jason Niedle
Now to clarify, when you say product, you’re speaking, it’s revolt digital. So you’re talking digital products, right? You’re not doing any physical.
Franco Monsalvo
I mean, we’ve did some design for physical products, but no, mainly we focus on soft.
Jason Niedle
Got it. So I want to challenge you just for conversation sake. I have had plenty of clients come to me and say, my product, my technology is brilliant, my product’s brilliant. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. Like, why does it matter what it looks like?
Franco Monsalvo
So I think that the first impression counts, right? I mean, in a sea full of products that do something similar, right? mean, sometimes it’s hard to find what differentiates a product to the other. And usability and design could be that leverage, right? It’s kind of like, hey, yeah, I mean, there’s a ton of notes up, right? But there’s a couple of them that actually do or have a very wonderful UX and a very good UI.
And those are the ones that people is going to be using, right? So I would say that, you know, the looks matter, the usability matters, you know, a ton of products that we’ve seen. Yeah, great technology, great market is growing. And then you go and the product, it’s not working very well, right? It’s kind of like full of functionality. It’s full of, you know, features that no one wants. It’s hard to use, complex to understand. And they have a huge customer support, you know, team.
Making users actually use the product or understand what they’re right? So when you see someone saying that, you usually see a product that has not been well designed or has these issues that I’m telling you.
Jason Niedle
I mean, I’m kind of a max knob and I would say that was Windows, but Windows became this great big giant product, right? And by the way, I agree with you. I’m just looking to find the core of the argument.
Franco Monsalvo
Right, but everyone hates it, right? mean…
See, I mean, how did Windows grow, right? I mean, it was coming with your computer, right? So if you bought an IBM computer, you were having DOS or Windows, right? So eventually you got it because there was no option, right? When the Mac came, everyone loved the Mac because it was easier to use, it was nicer, it was beautiful. And the people that could make a choice, they would go and back the Mac.
Jason Niedle
Mm-hmm.
Franco Monsalvo
But the
people that were not making any choice, they were still using Windows. And even Microsoft tried to do a lot of design on top of Windows. Never successfully, but they did.
Jason Niedle
Well, and I guess the ultimate argument is that what we all carry around everywhere is an Apple device in our pockets, most, like 90 % of us or whatever, right? And so, which became more important than the computer ultimately, right? So there’s another argument for design.
Franco Monsalvo
Yeah.
Totally, yeah, you got it right.
Jason Niedle
Your title is CTO, Chief Technical Officer. What do you consider at the heart of that role?
Franco Monsalvo
Yes.
So I think a CTO has to mix business, strategy and technology. And what I think it needs to have as a key component, it’s understanding that technology is a vehicle. It’s a tool that you’re gonna use to get your business objectives. So I think that one of the most complex things for someone going into the CTO role.
It’s actually understanding that all the tech is good, but it’s not what’s most important, right? mean, we tech guys, we get in love with technology. We want to use the latest and greatest technology. And when you become a CTO, you need to stop thinking about that for a minute. you know, making sense and making sure that what you’re doing is going to, you know, obtain the business objectives and not costing a ton of money.
Jason Niedle
Hmm.
Franco Monsalvo
I think that having that balancing act of, okay, I know technology, I love technology, I know the business, I know the market, and how can we use technology to actually uplift the business? I think that’s the most important thing that a CTO has to do.
Jason Niedle
So I love that, because a lot of technical officers would argue with me that the technology is the thing, right? And you’re saying, no, it’s a tool. It has to be balanced out with everything else. And it has to really support the rest of the business entity.
Franco Monsalvo
Thank
Right. And of course, technology is great, right? mean, a lot of businesses would not exist. mean, my business would not exist if technology was not around, right? But again, if we turn every conversation into discussion about technology, we’re missing the point. We are, you know, building a business. We are building something that is much greater than technology. Technology is enabling that. It may be a core of that business, right?
But anyway, business comes first, right? And using technology, understanding how technology works is very important, but a CTO needs to balance that and understand where are we going? What’s the strategy here? And what piece of technology is gonna get me there in a way that it’s relevant, that it’s efficient, that it’s going to be useful for the company. And it’s not gonna be super expensive, right? Because now you’re a CTO, you’re a chief officer.
You need to think about the business objectives and you need to think about how can I reach that spending as less as possible.
Jason Niedle
Now many CTOs are looking mostly at their own internal use of technology, you, in what you guys do, you’re facilitating others using their technology. Like how much of your CTO role is on the internal, like what we’re using here as our team versus your clients’ technology and how they implement that.
Franco Monsalvo
That’s a good question. And I would say probably 50-50. I I spend a ton of time thinking about our processes, about the technologies, about the tools that we can use to be more efficient, to be more productive, to be more creative. But at the same time, a lot of the things, a lot of the technology that we build is not going to be ours, right? It’s someone else’s. So we need to be very careful about…
what we choose as a technology, right? Because one day we won’t be there, right? Every time I talk with my clients, we tend to have lasting relationship with them. But every time I talk with them, it’s kind of like, one day we won’t be here. You need a team to run this. Because at one moment you’re going to need that, right? So we need to think about that when we do it. We need to think about, hey, what’s going to happen in the market? Which technology we can…
you know, implement here that is going to be easy to support, is easy to maintain, is easy to extend. And you know, which market are we playing? What’s going on around it? So a ton of the things that I’m saying about, you know, a CTO having to look into the business is because we have to do that. We have to look after every single client that we work with because at one point that piece of technology is not going to be ours anymore. And that’s, that’s…
complex you to think about, And it’s important. You have a responsibility with your customer to build something that is going to last, that’s going to be flexible. But at the same point, it’s not going to, you know, cost a ton of money.
Jason Niedle
Mm-hmm. So then if we’re talking about technology and implementing technology, there’s no avoiding AI. You know, it’s every topic of every conversation we have here. What should, you know, so many companies are looking out there to implement AI into their existing strategy and call themselves an AI company or have called themselves an AI company and they’re modifying their SaaS to have some AI element to it. What should they know? What do those people need to know about AI and the business model and the business
world ahead.
Franco Monsalvo
So I think the first thing that I would like to say to them is that we need to separate the hype from the technology. And we need to analyze what people are saying based on their needs or what they want to do. Probably you’ve heard Microsoft CEO saying that all the SaaS companies are going to disappear because AI agents are going to replace them.
And while some of them may, I don’t think all of them is going to be impacted. mean, we need to think about AI as a very wonderful tool. It’s going to change a lot of what we do when we’re still in the hype phase, right? And we need to be smart enough to separate again, what’s the content, what’s the actual thing and what is everyone saying, right? When you hear someone talking about AI,
You need to think about who is the person, what they’re trying to do, and how is AI impacting their work, right? Because sometimes you hear them talking and it’s like, okay, the world is not gonna need work anymore, right? We won’t need any worker because AI is gonna replace that. And you look at that and the guy is, he has an AI company. So what’s he gonna say, right? So when you think about that, you need to first stop.
Jason Niedle
Hmm
Franco Monsalvo
right, and figure out a lot of things are going to change. think a lot of SaaS companies will need to add AI to their tools. I think AI is going to help when it makes sense. But at the same time, know, people is doing Studio Ghibli images with AI. I mean, there’s not a lot of value there, right? So, again, AI is still, you know, growing. It’s going very fast.
I think it’s evolving at a very rapid pace, which is good. But we need to shake it a little bit and see what sticks, right? I mean, if you think about it, it’s been what, two years? Something like that since ChatGBT came, right, to the mass public. AI has been, you know, in the making or as a niche. It has been more than 10, 15, 30 years, right? I mean, it’s not something new.
Jason Niedle
Mm-hmm.
Franco Monsalvo
What is new is this LLM type of agents that allow you to create an output from an input. So, again, let’s stop. Let’s see what’s going on. It’s good to adapt AI. You can adapt AI in so many different technologies or so many different aspects. Machine learning, these LLMs, computer vision, stuff like that.
And I think that the SaaS companies that know how to leverage that correctly, right? In a way that makes sense. They’re gonna be very well positioned in the future. The ones that just add AI, as you said, because the label needs to be there and it’s not actually adding any value. And those are not gonna do so well after the hype stops.
Jason Niedle
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, we had somebody call that the Franken-Sass, right? Like a Frankenstein, but with sass, you know? Where you just keep bolting components on there.
Franco Monsalvo
Right. mean, it’s
same company that, you know, were migrating everything to the blockchain three or four years ago, right? I mean, it’s going, everything’s going to be web three, everything’s going to be on the blockchain and we need to do it. then, I mean, that disappeared, right? I mean, there’s still some web three companies, but overall as a mainstream trend, it’s not there anymore, right? So…
Jason Niedle
Right?
Franco Monsalvo
I’m not saying AI is going to be like that. Okay. AI has a more strong fundamental than the blockchain and it’s more pervasive in a sense. But we’re still figuring out, you know, what can we do with it? Where it makes sense to actually use it. And again, if you think about that and you have a strategy around that and the SaaS company that you have is going to be better to the users because of that.
start implementing it as soon as possible. If it’s just because of the label, don’t waste your time, don’t waste your money.
Jason Niedle
figure out a true product strategy.
Franco Monsalvo
It’s as you said, mean, the fundamentals, you know, are always the same. It’s not, it’s not something new. You can go read Playing to Win and it’s going to resonate today. Even if the book is, I don’t know, 10, 15 years old. And if you go even back, you have no processes, fundamentals, product strategy. That doesn’t change because of the AI. You still need that.
The good thing is that AI is gonna help you shape a lot of that product strategy more efficiently.
Jason Niedle
for sure. What stage would you say Revolt Digital is in? Startup, mid-stage, beyond? Like how big are you guys?
Franco Monsalvo
So we are mid-stage. We have been bootstrapped. So, you know, we are not a typical startup. We are a service company. So again, that usually a little bit different. You know, the rules are different to the product startups. We’re at the growth stage. We are looking to continue growing. As you said, we were named one of the fastest growing company by Clutch, which was very nice.
We’re looking to actually speed up this year. It’s looking very well. So I think that I’m pretty positive we’re going to make it to the list next year as well.
Jason Niedle
So when you say speed up, like what percentage are you looking at for growth?
Franco Monsalvo
So we are actually probably 75%, 100 % growth this year. We come from some pretty bad years, 2023, 2024 were not amazing years for technology with the rates going up, know, startups drying up, don’t having, you know, a lot of funding. So 2023 was not a very good year. So we are looking to…
Jason Niedle
Mm-hmm.
Franco Monsalvo
go back in the velocity that we had. So this year it’s looking good. I think there’s a lot of optimism around startups, around sales companies, of course around AI and everyone is looking to invest. There’s still some, you know, cautious in the market. But as you know, I’ve been in a couple of events for the last month. I was kind of like in a road show in the US.
And I saw optimism and I was in the US last year and it was not catching that. you know, it may be not very rational or very hard, but I’m seeing optimism. There are seeing some interesting dynamics going on. So I think this is going to be a very interesting year.
Jason Niedle
It’s interesting because we’re based in Orange County, California, USA, obviously. And so I feel on one hand, very pessimistic. I don’t think any of the trade wars are helpful. I don’t think a lot of the things that are happening governmentally are helpful. But on the other hand, I look at all the technology and see that we’re in the middle of a revolution, technologically speaking. so I see, so I feel this tension between, you know, what’s happening economically and what’s happening in the country here.
and then what’s happening technologically and I see hope there.
Franco Monsalvo
Yeah, I agree with you. know, some of the decisions that government is making, those are the ones, you know, making people cautious, right? And kind of like a wait and see. But at the same time, coming from, you know, a year and a half, two years where things were a little bit slow, you know, people need to pick up. And I’m seeing that optimism. As you said, technology looks optimistic to me.
There’s of course, at a global context, so many moving parts, so many not very good decisions, so many, you know, the global context is still a bit shaky. But you know, technologies, we are optimistic. We have always been. And with the AI, I think that, you know, that energy is coming, you know, coming back and people is looking at that in a way that I haven’t seen that before. I mean, I haven’t seen
such optimism in the last couple of years. And I’m seeing that now. And that’s why it makes me say, it looks like this is going to be a very good year. I hope I’m not wrong because I think if everyone’s optimistic, if technology continues on the trend that it used to have a couple of years ago, I think we can do so many good things. So yeah, I hope I’m not wrong about this.
Jason Niedle
I hope you’re not wrong too. So you’re looking to potentially, in best case scenario, double this year. What is your sales and marketing team doing to make that happen?
Franco Monsalvo
So we are doing a ton of experiments, right? mean, to me, marketing is about experimenting and figuring out which ones stick and when to stop doing something, you know, which is going to be a waste of time and money, which is hard to do. I mean, a lot of times you end up doing things that don’t make sense and you end up, know, little bit hanging because you think it’s going to happen. So…
So what we’re doing is a lot of content. We’re doing, of course, working with directories. We’re looking also to some interesting partnerships. The service industry has been changing a lot from dog eats dog to something that is a lot more collaborative. And we’re doing some partnerships in the US. We’re doing some partnerships also here in Latin America. Latin America is also in a
very interesting positions are growing. So we’re growing our business here, which we were not doing before. So looking to grow in Latin America is something that we’re doing this year. Marketing-wise, LinkedIn is still very strong. That’s something that we continue to do, at least for the service type of companies, LinkedIn has to be there, making connections, making content, becoming a thought leader.
The other thing we’re doing, it’s a lot of events, conferences. After COVID, I think that in-person time has gained a ton more value than before. Because we are social animals and we like to meet people and communicate face to face. So we’re that a lot, growing the sales team in the US, again, because of these same…
principle of face-to-face communication, person-to-person relationship, and not just, you know, posting and LinkedIn and being a viral sensation, Then we’re a lot of, we’re doing outbound, we’re doing some out inbound as well. I’ve heard a ton of people saying that it’s dead. I don’t think so, right? I mean, it has never been amazing, right? I mean, the…
Jason Niedle
that people
are saying inbound is dead.
Franco Monsalvo
Everyone is saying that, know, at one point or another, Algon or Invo, they are dying because the open rate is lower than before. Sure, yeah. I mean, there’s a ton of people doing that and there’s a ton of spamming, right? And you need to be creative. You need to understand who you’re talking to and give value in the communication, right? So I always say that in marketing, there’s stuff that you need to do even if they don’t seem to give you a lot of value.
Because if you don’t do it, it’s worse, right? So better to do it, it’s not going to cost you a ton of money, it’s not going to cost you a ton of time, may not be the best strategy, but if you don’t do it, it’s worse because a lot of people is doing that and they may get the clients that you want to. But again, think person to person communication and meeting new potential clients, potential partners in face, I think…
Jason Niedle
Mm.
Franco Monsalvo
it’s something that is the best alternative to all of them.
Jason Niedle
Yeah. So what’s the biggest bottleneck or constraint that will prevent you from hitting your growth goal?
Franco Monsalvo
Global context probably. But other than that, mean, yeah, investment is going to be key, at least for us as a service company, having people and companies that are willing to invest in growth. had a couple of conversations with some prospects where they understood that what we were trying to do was going to open.
new markets is going to be a new revenue stream is going to help them grow the company but they didn’t want to move forward because investment was high so again still a little bit of caution there people want to stay liquid just in case but the ones that are actually investing are in a better place to win the market so I think the biggest bottlenecks
is still the caution people have. And a ton of other situations where we had that, hey, this is the way we work and it’s going pretty well. I don’t need to change. So we had a couple of those too, which also are a problem because, hey, if you’re having this conversation, it’s because something is wrong. But you’re telling me that.
Jason Niedle
Hmm
Franco Monsalvo
Everything you’re saying, you know, it got me here and it’s working. So, yeah, the appetite for investment is going to be could be a big bottleneck. I don’t think a couple of years ago, the problem to growth was talent, right? Finding the right talent was complicated because everyone, you know, the whole market was growing and everyone was, you know, hiring and finding the right time was complicated. Today, I think that after
Jason Niedle
Nothing’s wrong.
Franco Monsalvo
a of layoff, ton of all those not so good years. Talent is around. Of course, finding the right talent in AI is still complicated because it’s a new technology. It’s a new everything, right? So finding people that has the expertise to do that is going to be a problem as more and more companies focus on AI.
Jason Niedle
Hmm.
It’s new and high demand.
Franco Monsalvo
That’s going to be an interesting bottleneck and we need to figure out how we’re to repurpose some of the talent into AI engineering. But yeah, I think that overall the biggest bottleneck that we may face, it’s a change in this optimism I was talking before.
Jason Niedle
How would you counter that? How do you counter that?
Franco Monsalvo
That’s complicated. You need to be creative and start looking into other ways of other markets, to get the growth, right? There’s other markets that may not be impacted. Our main market is the US here at Revolt, right? But there’s, know, other.
places that we can go and diversify. And that’s also why we’re looking at Latin America as a market that we invest a little bit more than before, because we’re seeing a little growth there and diversifying that could be good. AI is not going to stop. I think I said AI so many times right now, but the AI market.
Jason Niedle
It’s not just
you.
Franco Monsalvo
Yeah, I know everyone, but I tried not to do it, but I kind of avoided. The AI market is still very, very interesting. I don’t think it’s going to stop. Even if the other, you know, the SaaS or the other type of companies stop investing, AI still has room to grow. So focusing on that could be also a way to continue growing when the other ones are not investing, which again, I think it’s…
Not a good strategy. If you have companies that are growing, that are investing in AI and you are not because of the global context, when the context changes and becomes better, you’re going to be way behind. I think overall the tech market needs and will go up. So I’m counting on that. And also because I want these companies to
to continue to grow. this is, you know, there are moments to stop and remain liquid. And there are moments that you have to push on even if the context is not good. And I think this is that type of moment.
Jason Niedle
Yeah, well, you made a light bulb come on in my head. In California, we grow up, you know, learning about the gold rush here and how important the gold rush was and how the gold rush made the state and how many of our the monuments and the things that you say are because of that moment in time. And I just realized that like it is the gold rush right now and that people have to stake their claim and grab their territory. Except in that gold rush, there actually wasn’t that much gold. And in this gold rush, it’s kind of the future of the
of the world, technologically speaking, in many ways. Like many, many things will change in the next five or 10 years. And you’re right, like you can’t just sit by the sidelines and think, well, I’ll wait till the government or chaos is done, or I’ll wait till any of turbulence of our economy is done, and then I’ll go do it. You’re too late at that point.
Franco Monsalvo
Yeah, totally. Again, here, as you said, I love the analogy, right? Because there’s a big pot of gold here that you need to go and there’s a ton of people going after that. And if you don’t go because the roads are not there, I don’t feel like it because government is not making the right decisions. When you get there, there’s not going to be much gold left. Everyone’s going to be rich.
Jason Niedle
Very.
Right, the roads are rough,
you still gotta go.
Franco Monsalvo
I mean, you will have to go eventually because everyone’s going there and not because of just the hype as we were talking before, right? There’s a solid fundamental to AI. It’s not just the hype that you need to go because everyone is going there. It’s because it’s going to change a lot of things and a lot of… Right, it’s going to solve a ton of problems. It’s going to change how we do a lot of businesses. It’s going to change how we communicate. And right, you need to go now.
Jason Niedle
solves problems.
Franco Monsalvo
Don’t wait because if you go after just because and again context is never perfect Never it has never been good and and you can even say that when the context is not Right. It’s it’s it’s in this trouble That’s the best time to actually invest and make you know very interesting decisions, right and Yeah, think we need to think about that
We got a little bit comfortable in the last 10 years because everything seemed to be so easy. Right. Everyone was getting investment very easily because the rates were very low. was, know, was companies looking for 10 million were getting 50 and life was so nice and simple. Right. And we got a little bit comfortable and we need to
Jason Niedle
Mm-hmm.
Franco Monsalvo
realize and think that it has not always been like this. And it’s a very interesting moment in time because as you said, AI is going to change. I don’t want to say everything because I hate saying that, but it’s to change a lot. So if you’re around and you know what’s going on, you’re going to be able to grab some of that gold. But if you wait, there’s nothing there for you.
Jason Niedle
Absolutely.
Right? In terms of growth strategies, is there anything lately that surprised you, like growth strategies that used to work and they’re failing now, or growth strategies that someone said would never work and all of a sudden it’s working? Is there anything that’s kind of surprising?
Franco Monsalvo
Let’s see. There’s things that I’ve seen people doing that I know wouldn’t work and they don’t work and they continue doing that, which surprised me after all these years because, you know, I’ve seen people or companies making, not having a very good product strategy.
I feel that, know, that drum has been banged so many times, right? Of the product, the product, you know, lead growth and going with a good product, listening to the users, understanding, having a strategy behind that and actually building the product that you know, it’s gonna, it’s gonna solve a very deep pain. And I still find companies ignoring all of that.
Jason Niedle
and they still keep doing it.
Franco Monsalvo
learning all of that common sense learning that we had. And just running around, gathering user feedback, implementing user feedback as it comes without even thinking about how that’s gonna impact the product. And then finding that churn is high because the platform is complex or hard to use, full of a ton of unused features that are just laying around.
without proper usability and then finding out, hey, this is not working out. This is not growing. I mean, I’m getting as many users as I can, but I’m turning so much that I’m always at the same spot and I feel like I’m running circles and I don’t know why. it’s like…
Jason Niedle
And they’re somehow surprised by that.
Franco Monsalvo
They are surprised at that and they call you and it’s kind of, I need help with this. I don’t know what’s going on. And you know, it’s kind of like, hey, what’s the product strategy? Where are we going? What’s the core value that we have? And there’s none. There’s no strategy. It’s about, oh, I’m giving the user what they asked me to have. And it’s like, okay, but that’s not what you’re supposed to do. mean, listening to the users, it’s fine and very useful, but you don’t have a strategy.
And it’s not like, hey, I implemented 20 new features last week. Right? Because I had that type of conversation. It’s like, okay, and who cares about those 20 new features? Is the product actually giving value to the users? Is the product actually making their life easier?
Jason Niedle
Mmm.
Right.
Right, what’s
the core problem you’re solving and did those 20 features address that? In a way that your user cares about. Yeah.
Franco Monsalvo
Right. Maybe not. Probably not.
Right. mean, yeah, one customer asked for something, the other one asked for something else and 20 different customers asked for something else. And that’s, you know, that’s not how you actually build a product that’s going to grow. A couple of things that I think also were interesting at the moment, and I don’t see them having the traction that it used to have. Things like product hunt, crowdfunding.
I think they, I haven’t seen them being as strong as they used to be. And we actually run a couple of campaigns. Some of the clients that we work with, we implement some validation of the idea before actually going for it, right? And we did a couple of product hunt campaigns. We did a couple of crowdfunding campaigns. And it’s not that, hey, it failed because the product was not interesting because we…
We get that, I mean, it’s part of the process, right? But the traction that they were making was not as it used to be before. So I think it’s kind of like everyone can stop using that, which I thought it was a very good tool for validating a product, right? I mean, it used to actually help a lot of companies launch very amazing products.
Jason Niedle
Mm-hmm.
Franco Monsalvo
And I think that now it’s mostly around hardware products. It’s about physical products that may be good in those areas and not software products anymore. So that’s something that I would expect to continue working as before, but I haven’t seen that happening.
Jason Niedle
Well, so you were looking at products all day long and digital products all day long. Our audience is trying to grow their company. The world, America at least, seems turbulent. What’s ahead? What trends do you see ahead that can help our tech leader audience grow?
Franco Monsalvo
So I think there’s a couple of things. Personalization is still very strong. I think it’s going to be way stronger, you know, with AI. it’s going to, people is going to expect for that a lot. I think that being able to connect with other companies and solve flows using the best of each world is going to be also
very interesting and people is gonna ask for that. We have seen a ton of products very in the niche, very, you know, solve one specific problem very, very well. But you end up in a flow with several of those products, connecting them, right? Because, hey, yes, this one solves this X problem very well and this one solves the other one, but I need the both of them for my flow.
I think with AI and the agents and the MCPs and stuff like that, it’s starting to connect those worlds in a way that think about how I’m going to solve my flow of work better. I think that’s also going to be very strong. What comes, it’s hard to tell. As you said, times are turbulent, not only on global politics.
context but also in the tech world. In the tech world, we’re still figuring out what’s going to happen, where we’re going to be, people talking about general AI in five years, one other saying no. And in middle of that is people running businesses and trying to add value to the users. And again, as we said before, just…
product strategy, just, you know, simple old common sense and solving product in a very creative and simple way is still gonna be relevant today, tomorrow and in the next hundred years to come.
Jason Niedle
I know I need to let you go, but I have to ask one last question. What, we keep talking about product strategy, like what are the core components of that that they really need to understand?
Franco Monsalvo
So I think what is important to understand here is that as a company, as a product, where are you playing? As I said, right? What is the context for your playing? Who are your users? What are you trying to solve for them? And how are you going to do it? And understanding that and not deviating too much from that.
It’s important. What I think it’s usually a problem, it’s starting with a vision, right? And then either being too stuck in it and not being flexible enough, right? To understand if the vision is correct and, you know, changing a little bit of course if needed. But the other one I see a lot is, hey, I have a vision, but I have another hundred if needed.
You know, just doing everything that’s possible to actually get the customers, right? And a strategy in the end, just a set of decisions that you make around a business that you’re trying to launch. And that is, it’s key, right? It’s about a vision, it’s about a product, it’s about a company. It’s not about the money, right? It’s not about if I’m going to make, you know…
Jason Niedle
Hmm hmm hmm.
Franco Monsalvo
more money doing this or that, it’s about, hey, what are the competencies that I have? What are the possibilities that are here? What’s the problem I’m trying to solve? Is that problem actually relevant to my target users? Are there enough users to solve that problem and not go bankrupt? And then based on all of those questions that you have to ask,
make a decision about the road that you’re gonna walk and walk that road, see what’s going on, listen to your customers, and just change the way as needed, but not too much.
Jason Niedle
So if I’m gonna summarize that, you have to start with a vision and then you have to know where you’re playing and where you’re not playing, who your users are, what you’re solving, how you’re solving that, and then that has to also come into play with your competencies and what you’re good at as well as a business model. Sounds simple. And this is what you do.
Franco Monsalvo
Yeah.
That’s what we do every single day, which makes our life very fun because we get to see different industries. We get to see different business models. We get to see different founders. We get to see so many problems and so many creative solutions and some of them work and some of them won’t work. Right. I mean, there’s no way of
having a 100 % success guarantee. But seeing all of that and then mixing and cross-pollinating ideas and visions and views and the creative of all the different industries, it’s a complex world, but it’s a fun one.
Jason Niedle
Well, this conversation has been fun. So thank you very much. Where can our audience find you?
Franco Monsalvo
So mainly LinkedIn, you can find me there on our website. It’s the other place that you can see and look at what we do, how we do it, learn about us, learn about the product process that we follow. yeah, reading a book. You can find me reading a book anywhere.
Jason Niedle
Mm-hmm
And for our listeners, that’s Franco Mansolvo. said on LinkedIn. And it’s Revolt Digital, which is Revolt, as in revolution, R-E-V-O-L-T dot digital. Revolt dot digital is the website. Franco, thank you so much for being on Beyond Sass. For leaders in mid-stage tech looking to grow, we drop episodes twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And you can find me, Jason Nidale, at tethos.com. That’s T-E-T-H-O-S dot com.
Or can also grab our free report on how to grow your tech company. That’s at tethos.com slash podcast. And of course, we love questions, comments, following, all that kind of fun stuff. So that helps us a lot. Until next time, this is Beyond Sass.
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