Find your Niche and Focus

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In this episode, James is joined by Chris Federspiel, CEO and Founder of Blackthorn.io. Chris shares his journey in the Salesforce ecosystem and the challenges he faced as a bootstrapped startup. He discusses the focus on events and payments, the process of killing unsuccessful products, and the importance of finding product-market fit. Chris also talks about creating accountability without a board, effective marketing strategies, and the role of system integrators in their business. He shares insights on release management, customer support, and the future of the Salesforce AppExchange. His advice for startup founders is to persevere through the challenges and stay focused on their goals.
Chapters

00:00
Introduction and Origin Story

01:19
Focus on Events and Payments

04:22
Challenges of Bootstrapping

06:22
Creating Accountability without a Board

09:41
Marketing Strategies and Targeting SIs

11:27
Finding Product-Market Fit

14:16
Training and Enablement for SIs

16:07
Unexpected Hurdles and Lessons Learned

23:14
The Future of the Salesforce AppExchange

27:26
Advice for Startup Founders

If you are a Salesforce ISV founder with an interesting story to tell, we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email to [email protected] and we'll be in touch.