Pricing too low will destroy your market! Alexandru Stan, Tekpon

Wilma Eriksson: [00:00:00] Hi, you have, uh, tuned in to Fail and Grow and opex Operational Excellence Podcast show. So fail and grow is for you wanna increase your revenue and become more profitable by listen, learning and off. Them laughing with the world class leaders within opex. So the people I invite, uh, and are lucky enough to, they say yes to become guests in failing Grove, they're not just full of knowledge, they're also humble and they share their fuck ups and what they learn from it.

And your host is NMA and one of the co-founders to vq, CQ stands for Configure Price quote. So if you ever thought about buying a car and you're going into the webpage and start to configure, that is what the CP Q2 does. Today I'm thrilled to say that I have a person I met last year at SIUs [00:01:00] who was approaching me in a very friendly way and really tried to help us out at UX q.

So it's a big honor to have such a nice person as a guest in this podcast. And I know that you also know a lot about many stuff. So you are, uh, the co-founder and the of the company tick pom. Who focus people instead of revenue. It sounds a bit cliche, but as I knowand I know it's true and it's the first and foremost place with honest reviews we gonna back to and well.

I'm very happy to have you here one. We welcome.

Alexandru Stan: Thank you so much for having me. Uh, you just put a lot of pressure. You present me as a kind person, good person. So I need to be kind with everyone from this moment. Doesn't matter what.

Wilma Eriksson: Well, in a ni in a world where it's a bit tricky, it's good to be nice, right?

My grandma told me

Alexandru Stan: 100%. I'm sure of that.

So with your own words, what do [00:02:00] for who

Alexandru Stan: their business. In the same time, people, um, also have some software. So we are helping software companies sell more, uh, generate more quality leads, marketing qualify leads and sales qualify leads.

That's very good. Uh, the sound of yours is a little bit, uh, tricky because it feels like it's sound from the backward.

Uh. Bag's coming up. It was

Alexandru Stan: just a small dog here. Okay. But right now the dog disappeared.

It's okay. The dog is allowed. Okay. That sounds very interesting. Could you also tell me a little bit about Techon Awards?

Alexandru Stan: Techon Awards? It's a gala without content. It is the only event in SaaS where we have only good food networking and the awards.

So we, I realize that. Uh, invite well-known people, founders with exits, I dunno, [00:03:00] 100 million exits and people stay on the phone and I really don't understand why, first of all. And um, yeah, the second thing it was, yeah, why not? Let's create an event that people will love for real. And yeah, we remove the part that people don't like.

Quality networking and the awards. Yes.

Can one, uh, maybe not apply to award, but could you recommend someone? How will that work? Or is it you guys that are the decision makers of who will win the prices and what prices is there?

Alexandru Stan: It's not us. We, we have, uh, we have 100 people. Mm-hmm. In the jury. Wow. So 100 people, well known people from the SaaS industry.

Uh, from different companies and different countries. They, uh, they receive a list with, uh, nominees and, uh, of course people are voting on techon. So people, when, when we receive, uh, more [00:04:00] reviews, positive reviews from a specific company, we put this company on the list and we sent to the, to the jury and.

Yeah, I don't think this company's, uh, doing so well is just the paid reviews or something, or, uh, yeah. I know someone from this company, they are legit. They are good. They are doing very good. And, uh, yeah, so we have a jury with 100, uh, people from the SaaS industry.

Okay. Exciting times ahead. And I think it's well needed with a big gala within actually, so it.

First, um, before we jump into the topic of the day, I'm curious to hear what kind of drink you prefer off the work, maybe when you're celebrating or just enjoying life.

Alexandru Stan: Okay. I'll tell you drink. I prefer tea. You prefer tea? Uh, I, uh, I, I don't drink alcohol. Only a small champagne or something when it's, uh, [00:05:00] at Tech Point Awards.

I will drink a little bit of champagne, a little bit of a sip. Yeah. But normally I, I drink, uh, tea.

Do you have any, uh, specialty that you prefer?

Alexandru Stan: Yes. Means tea.

Oh, good choice. Good choice.

Alexandru Stan: But fresh one. Fresh one. Mm,

of course. It's very tricky to find fresh mint in, uh, in the Nordics, I would say. I lived in Spain for a couple of months last year.

That was great. Here, it doesn't taste anything.

Alexandru Stan: I don't wanna, uh, look like an arrogant people, but I have in my garden a lot of meat here.

Wonderful. Where are you at right now when we are recording?

Alexandru Stan: Uh, close to Bucharest. I am, um, I'm very close to Bucharest. I live in Bucharest for 32 years, and I decided to move to the countryside for, you know, we work from home right now.

Yeah. And it's a, it's an opportunity.

I couldn't agree with you more. Okay. Moving on to your funniest work related fuck up that you dare or wanna share with us today.

Alexandru Stan: Okay.[00:06:00]

I scale from eight people to 170 people in six months, and it was a disaster. We closed the company after one year, so we lose $3 million in, uh, six months, let's say in eight months. Uh, because yeah, we, we, we spent some time at the office alone. My biggest, uh. It. I, I wrote a book about it.

Wilma Eriksson: You did?

Alexandru Stan: Yeah. It's, it's a, it's really impactful for, for an entrepreneur when you scale too fast.

It was so many positive emotions. Everybody and all the co big companies contact us. Wow, guys, you are doing so well. So great. But yeah, the, it wasn't, um, enough time for people to meet each other, to create, uh, yeah. We, we also had, [00:07:00] uh, happy customers. But it is not enough if you scale too fast. So a piece of advice if you scale too fast, be careful about your team, not just about your customers.

Yeah, couldn't agree more with that. And thank you for, thank you for sharing. What's the name of the book? I mean, I've already done so many mistakes, but I'm sure I can maybe avoid one or two. If I were to read your book.

Alexandru Stan: Uh, it.

Founders, including me at that time. I, right now, I fight with myself every single day to stay humble. But at that time I was, uh, you know, a rich, uh, entrepreneur, that very successful la la la and yeah, I was thinking I'm on top of the world. I realize when I lose everything that I'm not on top of the world.

But yeah, ego is the name of the book.

I'll check it out for sure. Uh, and I've just, uh, just a side note. Uh, so I [00:08:00] just realized, uh, if I one day gonna write a book because my friend calls me Circus Wilma, because it's always happening stuff, even though I'm not searching for, for craziness, they. The craziness like approaches me and my ex-boyfriend told me we are still friends, but he told me that you are like a rollercoaster on crack, like em emotional rollercoaster on crack.

And I was like laughing because I, I find that this is true. My fiance now says, well, well my, you're just always emotional, so I mean it's stable. I was like, this is my human, you know. And last day we had quite tricky call with one of our customers. Uh, we have, I, I must admit, we have fucked up in the delivery for them, but they are so kind and they also tell us like, we, we love you guys.

We know that you will accomplish this, but it takes too much time. You know, there is the, the situation and then this customer says to have this dialogue with you guys and [00:09:00] being a customer of yours at this moment is.

So my like the emotional rollercoaster. I think one day if I ever write a book, I think I should call it that

Alexandru Stan: rollercoaster. Yeah.

Yeah.

Tuning back into this podcast show. And today we are gonna talk about pricing asset strategy and your take on this. And since the podcast name is Fail and Grow, I would love to dig a bit deep into fails when it comes to pricing. And it doesn't have to be your your own, it's just, I mean, wrongs in pricing in general, from your point of view.

Alexandru Stan: Yes. I'll tell you also from my point of view and my experience, thank you. I'm not afraid to share this with the public, including with TechOne. Hmm.

Lovely. Thank you so much.

Alexandru Stan: You know, guys, this line on TechOne logo. It's uh, it's from discount. Ah, [00:10:00]

Wilma Eriksson: we were

Alexandru Stan: thinking at the beginning in 20, we were thinking people will come to buy software.

Yeah. Because they see a discount on TechOne is not the case. But we had so many, uh, successful projects before, so we were confident that the software industry need a, a coupon code platform. Now people are buying software. Uh. To improve their business. Yeah. To solve, to automate to, and, but you know, it's a trademark, so we will keep this line.

And the second thing, because we were so confident, overconfident, uh, we started with the pricing that people love. So, uh, we try to convince companies to pay, uh, $100,000 per year without having a contact before.

That's crazy.

Alexandru Stan: So if you sell more than 10 K, uh, [00:11:00] ticket size, you need to have a good connections with these people.

Yeah. They must know you. They must know your story, your company, what you can do for them. And if you are serious and if you are really legit on the market and you know, SAS in the streets. From my point of it's a small, uh, world. If you are well connected, you, you will see who are, who is legit, who is not who, what companies could, uh, bring value to you.

And, uh, today we change our, uh, pricing strategy and, uh, we. Prioritize, first of all, the, uh, revenue growth of our customers. So we, uh, remove everything that we know from the past, uh, successful, uh, companies that we had before. And we right now on, on, uh, we take point, we are focused to. Uh, find a win-win long-term par partnership with our clients.

So guys, from my point of view, the pricing must [00:12:00] be not the maximum you can charge. It's the price that make your clients happy and your company happy in the same time. Because this is the only way how you can build a long term successful relationship with your customers, only if you make profit for them.

Only if you make profit for your company. It's not easy to find this small, uh, line to stay in balance with the pricing. I, uh, I, I have, uh, complaints on Techon, not for Techon, but for our customers. But this company charge too much. Uh, it's because companies sometimes prioritize, um, revenue instead of prioritize their customer success.

And in SaaS, in software, doesn't matter if it's, uh, enterprise or not. In B2B sales SaaS, uh, you need to prioritize your company, your clients [00:13:00] first. Uh, and find this small line where you can, uh, charge enough to make profit, but not that much. So clients will. Go away. So you have a big churn.

Do you have a methodology for this?

How can one like balances, how, how did you yourself try it out? Did you ask other customers this too, sheep, is this too high of a price or how, what is the methodology behind this?

Alexandru Stan: Yeah, I probably, I am a, because I have 17 years experience as an entrepreneur, I, uh, use, uh, papers and, uh, pen. Yeah. I dunno who, how many of you.

Use these days. We, in 2024, then we have a lot of great software.

I think it's more people than who admit especially.

Alexandru Stan: Okay. Okay. And the second thing we ask directly. For feedback.

Feedback of price or feedback. The revenue [00:14:00]

Alexandru Stan: they generate with us, because we are selling leads and our churn. Right now, it's less than 1%, but how we do that less than 1%, how we do that, of course companies need.

Paying new paying customers. Yep. Right? Yep. So because we are selling with TechPoint, we are selling exactly paying customers at scale. Uh, companies are interested to work for a long period with us, but it's a bad here if we charge too much for a customer. They will find other channels. They go pay ads, pay ads.

They, they go on, uh, LinkedIn ads. Uh, they, they will do social selling. They will do, uh, other things. And yes, we, they talk directly with our, our customers. And, uh, we, uh, right now we have, after a period of time in the last 12 months, we. We talk with so many customers, so we, we know the, the best deal that a customer could have.[00:15:00]

But from time to time we renew this, uh, interviews with our customers because yeah, sometimes it is, uh, you know, with recession, the economy works different than without the recession.

Could agree on that. Okay. That's very interesting to hear. And, uh, since you obvious, uh, sell leads, do you have like affiliate program that you, you receive a kickback for lead sound that being signed customers?

Or how does your business model look like?

Alexandru Stan: Uh, on TechPoint? Yes. We have, um, also, uh, partner stack and other share sale and other, um. Uh, affiliate programs

mm-hmm.

Alexandru Stan: Uh, as a partner, but we prioritize companies that have a premium seller profile with us. A premium seller, it start from only $100 a month, uh, but only annual contract, 1000 to hundred.

Uh, dollars per year. And [00:16:00] once a customer, uh, become premium, we prioritize them to rank on Google for specific keywords that people are searching when they want to buy a similar solution like them. And we send all these customers to, to these companies. It's, uh, probably 50, 60 times cheaper than Google Ads, but it's the same thing.

People that are searching for a solution right now. We'll go to Techon from Google and from Techon to, uh, your software company.

I understand. Okay. So you call your customers, uh, and you see how much success they have achieved with Techon and then you price it thereafter, or No, correct me, where I went from.

Alexandru Stan: It's not exactly like that. When we have, um, follow up calls after we close the contract, uh, the our is not a real success team. Mm-hmm. It's the same team that, uh, make sales. They make, they take care of, uh, these interviews. Mm-hmm. And, uh, we, [00:17:00] uh, we, we are very interested to keep this, uh, less than 1% churn rate.

So if the pricing is too high for them or for the category, because some categories are different on, uh, conversion rate. Mm-hmm. On, uh. Uh, lifetime of value and so on. And, uh, because there are too many data, we need to, uh, be very careful, uh, with each customer, individual on, on the pricing strategy. But in big lines, I can tell you that it's almost the same.

Okay. If we, if we earn, I can share this public. If we earn, uh, 25% of the sales. Uh, our customers are happy. Yeah. If we charge more than 30%, they are not happy. If we charge less than 50%, we don't make profit.

Yeah. It's a tricky balance.

Alexandru Stan: Yeah. It's a, it's a tricky balance for, for real. Uh, but it works. The, the solution, it works for companies and, uh, yeah, we, the churn rate, the [00:18:00] only thing that you can look at when you.

Um, analyze your business to see if you really bring value to the market or for the long run or not. Churn rate.

Of course, it's, uh, a very clear, uh, KPI for sure. And what would you feel, I mean, you have been around an entrepreneur for many years as you told us. What's the biggest mistake in pricing that you personally have done to this day?

Okay. And you know, now you know more.

Alexandru Stan: Yeah. Okay. So in 2000 I. Too cheap everything. And, um, the, our competitors try to compete on pricing with us and we destroy the market. We had a few million unique visitors a month, and, uh, we had enough power to influence the market at that moment. Unfortunately, it's the [00:19:00] worst thing that you can do to fight with your competitors on pricing.

The price will go down. Uh, as a result, the quality of your service or software, or doesn't matter what, what you sell, it's for every industry. But we talk right now about SaaS. Uh, if you want to compete on pricing, you will lose again. If you want to compete on only on features, you will lose. You need to prioritize your customers.

To make them, uh, more successful with automation. It doesn't matter what your software does, if you can help them, uh, at scale and for the long run, or yeah, you can just, uh, help them with, uh, smaller automation. That will make a big difference for, for them into their company. So yeah, don't compete on the price.

I did it. We, we, we lose, uh, the business, uh, and also our competitors, uh, [00:20:00] uh, close their companies or, yeah, we destroy them.

How's your point of view on this in this market?

So much. So I was like, wow, is this really true? You know, so, so not to, uh, talk about any brand or a company name out there. Uh. Do you think this have changed during the last year's economy? The company do, uh, sell to ship or do discount more than we ever have seen before?

Alexandru Stan: I'll tell you, with TechPoint, we generate a lot of data and we analyze this data.

Mm-hmm. And based on the data we have the companies that have, uh, uh, how, how to say, uh, needed product. So. To their customers. They don't do this big discounts because they know their values. But the companies [00:21:00] that have a sas, like nice to have, I don't want to mention names of the companies don't do it, but, uh, yeah, there are, uh, nice to have software.

You just see some data that you, yeah. Wow. But you cannot use this data. Um. And yeah. Companies that have ni nice to have products, they discount a lot. Mm. But companies that really bring value, they don't discount. Okay. We offer some discounts on Tech Point, uh, but not that much. Uh, and we, because the market talk, people talk, we offer the same discount.

Uh, to everyone.

Okay. And for those who doesn't see you as I have the pleasure in doing, you have your logo on your t-shirt and, uh, between I would say, or over more or less, the POM. There's a, there's a, a line one could tell, right? So that is [00:22:00] that discounting that you thought you were going to have and that you have a continuing wearing, but it's really nice.

Yeah, I that.

Line straight through it. It's really good looking and okay, so you have the same discount possible because people talk to each other and you have talked a lot about, uh, ensuring the customer value. And I feel that set some kind of level on the ROI discussion both during the sell process and maybe also during the engagement period and, and hopefully up talk how.

How you measure the success of your customers? Do you have a methodology for that? Is this something you do? I mean, is it important?

Alexandru Stan: Yes, uh, we are, uh, in a good position, let's say like this because we are super affiliates and with Techon we send customers, but not directly. We send using First [00:23:00] Promoter or partner stack or, or get ready to, and, uh, we can track every click.

We can track every conversion rate. We can track every paying customers and also churn rate. So, uh, instead of, uh, more than, uh, charging a premium partner package, the package that I mentioned, it's $1,200 per year. We also ask for a revenue share deal and, um, this is. How we really track and we collect real data that we know how much money these companies earn with our clients.

Not, it is not our clients, it's the clients we send to them. It's their clients. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, we are using, uh, partner stack, get ready to share a sale, first promoter, this kind of tools to measure, um, how many clicks. Paying customers conversion rate, uh, churn rate and everything that it's related to [00:24:00] performance of the activity that we do.

Do you compare that to what the numbers they had beforehand, before starting with you or you just, uh, based it on your own data to be really No, no, no.

Alexandru Stan: We, we compare, um, some companies with other companies from the same category. We compare different periods Q1 for, we compare to Q4 last year. We compare, um, when we see a big churn rate, for example, we talk with them and we, we ask them, guys, you do something wrong.

It is not on us. We send you 13,000 clicks and, uh, 2000 paying customers. So, but you lose 1003. More than 50%. So you, what, what's wrong with your product? Because the quality of the customers, they are paying customers, so they, they, they really want to stay with you. Probably nobody pays $400 or $800 for something that they don't want.

[00:25:00] Uh, but when, yeah, when we see a big churn rate, uh, we ask them, guys, improve your product, change something. Do do something. We try to help us much as possible. Interesting.

Okay. So when it comes to pricing as a strategy, we have talked a bit about what you guys doing, some wrongs In general, what would you wish companies knew about pricing and.

Alexandru Stan: On your website. People love that. Not everyone admit that not everyone, uh, have this, but it's, uh, from my point of view, it's, uh, I was inspired by Alina Vanderberg from Chili Piper, CEO at Chili Piper. She built a $700 million company. So I am confident that she know what she's talking about, and she recommend [00:26:00] us public to be the first.

Marketplace with pricing page, and first of all, be transparent. The second thing, don't compete on pricing. I mentioned before, but I repeat, don't compete on pricing. The third one, focus on your customer, uh, satisfaction, your customer success. Focus on it and do your pricing based on, uh, not the maximum that you can earn, but based on, uh, think like this.

How I can create a win-win long-term partnership with our customers. And of course, the churn rate probably will not be like, uh, tech Point has less than 1%. Could be more is not a problem. But, uh, if you focus on this, uh, yeah, you will not have a big churn. And I, I think it's, uh, another, uh, another metric that I could, uh, add to the [00:27:00] discussion.

You need to have maximum three package because if you have less, uh, people don't have the feeling that they have opportunity to choose if you have more than three package. They dunno what to choose. It's

too many choices.

Alexandru Stan: So three package, it's enough. Um, and yeah, there are a lot of articles on the internet, how you can convince people to choose the package in the middle or something like that.

I don't really believe in this because you can convince someone to pay your, I don't know what you sell your software, but they will not stay if you don't bring value to them. So guys. Focus on your customer success, not on your, uh, pricing strategy. More than just like egocentric focus on your company. We want to sell more to generate more because you will lose these customers.

And at the end of the day, in two years, in three years, you will see the impact. You [00:28:00] will lose all the, all, all these customers, and you need to reinvent your company and to do a lot of stuff. You don't need to if you build something strong for your customers. Yeah, everybody will, uh, wanna work with you for the long run.

Uh, I'm very curious about how to apply this affiliate kickback model for other kinds of businesses than similar to yours when it's. Obvious. Very data driven. It's very clear. Like we can see here, we have sent all you these leads. These ones have converted. You can also tell who of them, who has churned.

Then you have that. Really. Yeah. I think that possibilities with the data, uh, because this is something I. I hope to apply to VQ as well in the beginning. So when we are talking about our pricing, when we founded a company, we were like, yeah, but I wanna have an affiliate possibility too. So we set up some criteria and depending on how we are, yeah, [00:29:00] succeeding with them, we will have a kickback strategy instead of just the typical per user.

But no one has dared to, I mean. Obvious the risk would be on our side is also quite tricky for us to do this measurement that you talk about, but do you have any idea several companies not sending leads as their business model to apply this?

Alexandru Stan: Yes. If you have a, for example, a. Doesn't matter what kind of SaaS you can have affiliate that will do a part of marketing for your company like Techon.

So if you are on the other side of the door. You want to track, for example, your affiliates? I have some, uh, ideas. First of all, try to find super affiliates, not affiliates, because 85, 90% of the traffic that you will get, it's from only a few, uh, companies like Techon. We have scalable ways to [00:30:00] generate customer paying customers for software companies.

The second thing, uh. From my point of view, it's easier to be on the other side of the boat that on the, uh, that, uh, you, uh, can use the same tools first, promoter, partner stack, share a sale. I cannot recommend one of this. Mm-hmm. Uh, we are working with all of them. Um, probably, uh, you need to test a few before you choose the right, uh, program.

But yeah, I recommend to companies to go, uh. Open a affiliate department, buy a software, create a team, or start with one person. Open this department, find super affiliates, and they will take care of your marketing instead of you guys. We have, uh, partners that partnership with media websites. We are ready to rank on Google, uh, more than what a software company [00:31:00] can do.

Because we are a marketplace. We take backlinks from all your competitors. You cannot go to your competitors. Guys. Give me a backlink. So like this, we rent very fast and we stay there on Google on page one with a thousand of keywords that it's exactly, uh, keywords that people are searching when they want to buy a similar solution like yours.

So try to. Uh, uh, the best software for your company. And yes, you can, you need to start. I, I came from other competitive, really competitive markets and SaaS industry. Don't, is not really mature on the affiliate, uh, world.

No,

Alexandru Stan: it's not. It's not, not yet. From my point of view because they don't know is not that competitive.

But I came, I was a super affiliate, not just me, but my comp, our company since 2014. Guys, affiliates can, uh, take a lot of your headaches when it comes to, uh, customer [00:32:00] acquisition at scale and also the cost of acquisition. Customer acquisition cost for, for example, you can, uh, probably you pay, I dunno, $100 per client, but with the super affiliate, you can pay $5.

And you can have the same quality of customers and you can have a scalable ways to generate customers.

I would still, uh, love to have this approach to my customers as well, so when they buy ku, they could, they could pay it as an affiliate. Version instead of the typical, you know, monthly fixed fee, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But I think that's maybe just too challenging because it's all also connected to the immaturity about affiliate within the SaaS industry. So, well, food for thought there. So you have given us one name. I think her name was she Pipe, Lina Ena,

Alexandru Stan: the CEO of Chili [00:33:00] Piper.

Sheila Piper, yeah. Is uh, she the one you get inspired on when it comes to pricing and these kind of methodologist, or do you have more names for us?

Alexandru Stan: Uh, yes, I have some names.

Wilma Eriksson: Yes. Pricing.

Alexandru Stan: I see. And I follow a bunch of people when in SaaS.

Mm-hmm.

Alexandru Stan: And, uh, one name, it's Alex Tema.

Mm-hmm.

Alexandru Stan: The founder of

mm-hmm.

Alexandru Stan: This guy is, uh, from my point of view, the best guy you can ask about pricing when we talk about SaaS industry. Uh, you can also. Ask about pricing. Uh, the guys from Thomas and Daniel?

Definite,

Alexandru Stan: uh, because I tell you why, because the event guys have a lot of information about the pricing more than the founders of software companies because [00:34:00] these guys talk with a lot of founders. And we talk, we, we share, we love to share, um, data and everything, insights with others. Um, but I. When we are too focused with our companies on a lot of operations, clients and so on, we sometimes, I dunno if you know this word, uh, sometimes we don't see the forest because of the trees.

Yeah. Talk with people that know very well the industry like Daniel, Thomas, Alex from, and uh, from, and ask them for. Uh, advising and I, I, I think they, they are the best people. They are not, uh, it's not a traditional, this is, uh, my out of the box thinking.

Mm-hmm.

Alexandru Stan: To go, uh, if you want to buy something, not go directly to the person that sell this.

Go to a different person to ask for advice first.

I love this because it's, as you say, [00:35:00] I mean, of course people talk to each other within an industry, but the ones approaching the industry will have a lot more information because they talk to anyone and everyone within so they can also have their own ideas.

Okay. That's similar. That's not that difference. Those do that. Uh, that's interesting. You know, so I love that outside in perspective. Thank.

Wilma Eriksson: Uh, material science. I'm co-founder of Sales Genomics, and I'm curious if you would choose one thing that businesses need to change within the coming two years, what's the single most important thing that you, that business in general need to change?

Alexandru Stan: Could be something that you heard many times, [00:36:00] but it's my philosophy and, uh, we do this and we have also a reminder for this and also our motto at Techon. It's, we rise by lifting others.

Wilma Eriksson: I love it.

Alexandru Stan: Instead of prioritizing what your company does. Uh, think your, uh, change your mindset and think like this, what the market need from us and we are here to deliver and to adapt our solution for, for, for them.

It is not a simple answer, but I, I will try to repeat, adapt your solutions to.

Not to create a successful business, you'll create a successful business as a result when you serve your customers at scale and they are happy with your services, with software, with your product, with what you have.

Yeah, I love it. Uh, and. I mean, if this isn't, uh, [00:37:00] a proof of that ego of yours, not really there anymore, that you are a true, humble person because this is like your instinct answer to this.

I mean, you haven't heard a question beforehand and this is your instinct answer, and I love it and I'm so happy that, uh. I listened to back and forth when I was traveling to the stable because I love to ride my horse and go out to the countryside, uh, when, when work and life, uh, is, um, when it's possible.

So I listened to Steve Schiffman, uh, on repeat and he says to help them do whatever they do better, and I just feel that, yeah. That that is the truth. That is like how you really deliver customer value, how you stay and yeah. Uh, create trust. So obvious that ego part of yours is not that present anymore, at least.

Alexandru Stan: But I'll tell you the truth. I still have the ego, but I do my best to fight with my ego every single day. This is [00:38:00] the only thing that we can do. I dunno if someone can kill for real, their ego. Because it's there. And when, when you, uh, really succeed with your company and you scale generate millions in profit, LA la, la, you receive hundreds and thousands of messages.

Congratulations, Alex, for the event, for everything. Doesn't matter. Yeah. You, you can have this feeling that you fly, but go. Your bathroom

Wilma Eriksson: like this? Yeah,

Alexandru Stan: earth. We're here to help each other. We are help here to serve others and this is the only way that you can have two things to be happy and to be successful.

You don't need to choose one. You can have both, but it's complete. You need to have to stay humble to fight with your ego, to stay humble and to have this mindset to help others in. Probably not in one day. You need to make these changes in. Step by [00:39:00] step easily. Yeah, take it easy. But yeah, for, for us it works.

I try to teach my guys, my people into the company with the same mindset. And we have this tech point. We rise by lifting gutters, so we rise by lifting gutters. It's a reminder every single day for us that, okay, so we rise only if we list lift others. Ah, okay. So we need to respect all our customers and partners and people and everything.

So good reminder. It's a very good reminder. Thank you, Matt for that. Uh, excellent question and thank you for your very transparent answer. So we, what's challenging?

Alexandru Stan: Uh, the biggest challenges that we have is to prioritize the opportunities we have. Because when you scale too fast, again, I am an entrepreneur with, uh, ambitions.

I dunno why, but I'm an entrepreneur with ambitions. I want to have a [00:40:00] positive impact, a big positive impact into the society. And, uh, because of that, the companies grow. And, uh, I have with me same people since 2014. They are exactly the same crazy people. Uh, like me and the most challenging thing is to prioritize the opportunities we have.

And when I talk about opportunities, I mean, uh, prioritize features that we need to develop, prioritize where we should go, what events we were to all the events, uh, in the world. Uh. We need to prioritize the best ones. We need to prioritize calls. We need to prioritize, uh, when we respond to the emails, we need to prioritize when we hire, which people we need to hire first.

And

I'm Shriver because I feel with you this. This prioritizing question, you know, [00:41:00] just haunting you every single day and minute and hour and shivering. Prioritize,

Alexandru Stan: prioritize, prioritize. This is, uh, you need to have a note on, on your desk. Prioritize, because it, it's, it's something that make a big difference.

It's a, it's a big difference. Uh. The, I would, your audience probably is more from, from Nordics, right?

Yeah. Both, yes or yes and no. I would say it's, uh, through partnership we actually receive, uh, the more, yeah. Almost all our, uh, signups and marketing qualified leads are from all over the globe, from Australia to Puerto Rico, to I, I mean, I'm amazed every time they like sign up on our webpage.

Okay. But otherwise our outreach is yes, pre Nordics.

Alexandru Stan: I wanna mention something. Society like Nordic countries, it's very stable and people don't have the feeling they could lose. In the rest of the Europe, in [00:42:00] Romania, Germany, Bulgaria, France, people including us, people have this feeling, oh, so I can lose In Denmark, Sweden, Finland.

The society will keep you on the level. To, to be Okay. So you have this in mind. That doesn't matter what I, if I fail with my company, it's fine. If I, uh, fail with this startup, it's fine for us guys. That's why, uh, so many, uh, successful companies came from, for example, from Romania, like UiPath. The Decacorn, they scale like crazy.

They have 1 billion annual recurring revenue over 1 billion amazing R amazing crazy Romanian guy that it was scared at the beginning. To not lose. And that, that, that, that, that was the, his fear, uh, was the, the fuel for his growth. Yeah. Is, is, is not, I don't really recommend this, I recommend [00:43:00] to any founder to create, uh, and build.

Uh, strong companies that help other not to scale like crazy because I mentioned before, we scale from few people to 170. We lose everything. So it, it is not a good idea to scale too fast,

but I, I agree with what you're saying. Yeah. I'm nodding here, but since people can't see me in the podcast, I'm nodding here and, uh, this is something.

Uh, and analyze. I just could support and agree with myself because we have, we are blessed that we have a society that do take care of us, but sometimes it's maybe also a curse because we are, I wouldn't say more satisfied, but maybe not. That eager to win. And is it important to win? And we come into a philoso question, but as you already told us, you can be both successful and lucky.

Right? But you have to stay humble. So, I mean, maybe that is another podcast show, I dunno.

Alexandru Stan: Yes. But I wanna to share something with your [00:44:00] audience guys. Uh, I was at SIUs. Last year and with Christian, my colleague, Christian Dina, probably out your audience, a few, few people from your audience knows. Christian, my colleague, my, my right hand side.

Yeah. And the poll, we go out from the, and the police stop us, I dunno. 200 meters in the train station.

Okay.

Alexandru Stan: Hey guys, where are you running? We said nowhere. We are just walking to the hotel. No, no, no. You are running, uh, because the society in Denmark, Sweden in Nordic countries, people are more, let's say relaxed in Europe.

Doesn't matter if you are a billionaire or a multimillionaire or a very successful, you have this, I dunno, you are not really Carl like, uh, the Nordic ones and, uh. After the, the police [00:45:00] guys, they, they realize we are legit entrepreneurs. We're good people. We love to help others.

Wilma Eriksson: Yeah.

Alexandru Stan: Uh, they, they, they let us alone and we laugh together with the police.

So I was thinking you run because of something. So guys, when, when you see me or Christian at SIUs, don't understand me wrong, this is how we work. We,

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for that. To hear, but I'm good that you could, uh, like, yeah, just do whatever it was with it and laugh about it and teach them about life, maybe guys. That's crazy.

Alexandru Stan: That's crazy. I try to humble as

I, yeah. Wow. I have to like, uh, smell as we say in Swedish, like melt, melt it down, and to have, have some thoughts about that.

But thank you for sharing and I'm, I'm simply curious to ask you, who would you [00:46:00] like me to invite, invite to this podcast? I really already got lots of great names there, but is there someone in particular.

Alexandru Stan: If you don't know yet, Alina Vanderberg, CEO at Chili Piper. She's very welcome. This is a, could you connect us?

Yes. The second you need to invite Sebastian from digital. I will make you the intros.

Thank you.

Alexandru Stan: And you need.

I have a few names I'll send you, uh, separate a few names and I'll make you also the intros to these people. Beautiful.

Thank you so much. And when we have this cup of tea with fresh mint within, we're celebrating. Maybe a great event this summer, the sauce, uh, take on awards and this song comes up and you become, become even more happier.[00:47:00]

What are we listening to them? So like your favorite of the work

Alexandru Stan: song? We'll, we, no, I'll not start singing right now. Yeah, do

it.

Alexandru Stan: My, uh, my favorite song is, uh, we Are the Champions.

I love it. Great song. No one actually choose it beforehand. Good contribution in every level. Thank you so much for guesting Failing Row.

It's about a true honor and I learned a lot, so thank you so much. Thank

Alexandru Stan: you so [00:48:00] much.

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