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Ep. 47: From Users to Customers in 3 months & Startup to the Inc 5000 in 3 years: An Interview with Cirrus Insight Co-Founder Brandon Bruce.

 

 

Welcome to another episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, in today’s episode we have Brandon Bruce the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Cirrus Insight.

Since founding the company in 2011, Cirrus Insight has been listed in the Inc 5000 ranking for three years in a row… A list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

Cirrus Insight is an all-in-one sales productivity platform with world-class Salesforce integration. 250,000 people use Cirrus Insight and its sister products Attach.io and Assistant.to to work faster and smarter from the inbox and calendar. It allows you to Track emails, schedule meetings, set follow-ups and more, right from your inbox…

In my conversation with Brandon, we covered a lot of the early days at Cirrus Insight. We focused on how Brandon and his Co-Founder, Ryan Huff, built the company from 0 to +250,000 users…

Some of the topics that we covered are:

  • Getting their first users.
  • Converting them into paying customers.
  • Pricing in the early days Vs Pricing now.
  • Making their first sales hire.
  • The bottom-up sales strategy.
  • Creating your product roadmap based on feedback.
  • Using partners to sell your product.

Brandon grew up in Los Olivos, a small California town of 800 people and had only one classmate in grade school.

He loves endurance sports and raced his bicycle 508 miles across Death Valley in 2002 as part of the Furnace Creek 508 (https://www.the508.net/). He finished in 35 hours and 7 minutes. He also enjoys hiking, camping, and building with Legos. Brandon lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife, Tricia, and their two children, Sonoma and Carson.

Brandon’s advice for Entrepreneurs and Founders:

“Stay curious.” & “Have the ability to make decisions.”

Where to find Brandon on the Interwebs:

 

Get a FREE copy of my book: “Startup Selling: How To Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”

 

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Finding Customers At Conferences

You need not attend.

Simply go to the event website and find the speaker and attendee list.

These people are inherently biased towards buying your new product.

Why?

Because they care enough about their jobs and professions to travel and interact to develop and share new ideas. (Not always the case, but more times than not.)

Use that as a call list.

You can even say, “Hi Bill, I saw you’re speaking at the Blah Blah Enterprise Software for the Cloud conference next month. Because I won’t be attending, I’d like to share a few ideas with you either before or after the event related to your talk. Are you available on Tuesday for a call?”

Bingo.

Now, you’re in a sales process with this person/company.

As a start-up, you need early adopters, plus these types of people are out circulating in the industry, which means you can use them as case studies and for references down the road when you hit the fat part of the market.

-Scott

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Want to get a copy of my book?

Get it here: www.startupselling.co

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How Swimming Across Lake Tahoe Parallels Startup Selling #4

You need a team.

And unequivocal support from your loved ones.

The more I prepared for this swim, the more I learned how much it required a complete team – a boat captain, a second captain, a kayaker, a feeder, and of course babysitter for my then 4-year-old son.

The boat captain sets the course, gives directions and watches for hazards.

The second captain helps because each of these tasks individually require full concentration.

The kayaker is the beacon. The feeder keeps you fueled. The babysitter stays in the hotel with your son when you leave at 1:45 am to head to the marina to start the adventure.

Most of all, none of this was possible without my wife.

Not only did she morally support the whole expedition, she volunteered to be my feeder.

In fact, she couldn’t wait for the adventure.

Her job for 6+ hours?

Fill water bottles with drink mix, shake them up, hand them to Kathy, then get them back, and repeat. Every 30 minutes.

You can’t do this alone.

Find your team.

-Scott

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Want to get a copy of my book?

Get it here: www.startupselling.co