AppOmni Blueprints: The Reality of Founder Selling at Early-Stage Startups

BuilderOps Blueprints is a newsletter on company building foundations for early-stage startups by?Costanoa Ventures, a VC firm that backs builders across data, dev, and fintech.?Throughout this series, Costanoa's BuilderOps team interviews founders and startup leaders, showcasing their superpowers and learnings on all things company building.

For our second edition of BuilderOps Blueprints, we interviewed? Brendan O'Connor , Co-Founder & CEO of AppOmni .

Quick overview on what AppOmni does for those who don't know.

SaaS has become the OS of business, and our mission is to keep that OS secure. AppOmni scans APIs, security controls, third party apps, and configuration settings along with providing threat detection so our customers can protect their SaaS ecosystems and data. Before co-founding AppOmni, I was a CISO and security leader for 20 years. I built the security tool I wished I had as a security practitioner.

What would you tell your first-time founder self that you didn’t know then?

Expect there to be lows. Expect there to be highs. And expect them to sometimes happen on the same day.

What is the hardest challenge that you overcame in the early stages of building your company?

Not listening to the “experts.” These are the people who’ve earned a positive reputation in your field or circle of influence but don’t believe in your market and the problem you’re solving. You’ll feel external and internal pressure to take their advice. These “experts” can extinguish great ideas and deflate driven founders, but only if you allow them to.

The fact is you don’t have to convince everyone. We have ideal customer profiles for a reason. Find people who believe in you and what you’re creating. Listen to them closely and keep finding better ways to solve their problems.?

As founder of the company, you prospected, managed, and closed some of the first deals. What did you learn about “founder sales” that every founder will need to master?? What mistakes did you make so founders know to avoid them?

Patience and persistence are crucial, especially when you can highlight a severe problem and the customer recognizes your solution will solve it … and that doesn’t equal a sale. This will likely happen more than once. The mechanics of getting a deal and PO are, unfortunately, more complex than the prospect has a problem, you have the solution, and you both would like to work together.?

Read The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz . When it feels like you’ve reached your lowest point, remember that it’s not a failure condition. It’s part of the journey. The one thing all successful startups share is that they didn’t give up.

You have built an amazing channel business, with the majority of deals being driven through the channel. What are some best practices you learned along the way for companies looking to build a channel program?

Partners deal with thousands of startups, and even more products, clamoring for their attention. Your team and product can be amazing, but so can everyone else's. The question becomes, How do you stand out in such a crowded field? That answer is different for every founder.? My advice is to remember that grit and excellence aren't enough to build a top-notch partner program.??

What is the biggest productivity hack that you still use today?

Understand what gives you the juice to keep going, and be ruthless about taking that time for yourself. Don’t apologize for it; it’s not a luxury.

For me, it’s seeing my kids off to school in the morning and reading them bedtime stories in the evening. That time with my children provides the fuel I need to stay productive and sustain myself.

What is the most essential tool that your team used at the early stages?

Having a great CRM from day one. I’m a proud Salesforce alum, and I wouldn’t have considered any other tool for managing customer relationships.??

What is something interesting that people wouldn’t know about you by looking at your LinkedIn profile?

The first thing you’ll learn about me if you glance at my LinkedIn profile is that social media is not my forte. But a fun fact is that I played ice hockey for 12 years, from grade school through my first year of college. An NHL career wasn’t in the cards, but I’d say everything has worked out.?

BuilderOps Blueprints is a newsletter created by the Costanoa?BuilderOps team. Stay tuned for monthly features!