In this week’s episode of From Vendorship to Partnership, Ross talks to Gil Allouche, the founder of Metadata!
As a software engineer turned data-driven B2B marketer, Gil’s technical background fueled his idea of using AI and data to laser-target marketing. After sharing the concept with a group of CMOs who then all wanted to work with him, Gil knew he was onto something. He officially changed his LinkedIn title to “Founder” and Metadata was born!
Watch the full episode to learn:
- The importance of building & selling in tandem
- Why founders should sell
- Metadata’s growth & what comes next
Listen on your favorite podcast platforms: Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.
3 Key Takeaways from Gil Allouche, Founder of Metadata
1. Don’t wait for perfect: share & test your ideas immediately
It can be tempting to wait for your product to be the best version of itself before you put it out in the world. But for most startups (unless you’re building a rocketship), Gil says it’s critical to build and sell in tandem, following the Lean Startup methodology.
“You should build something that you’re kind of embarrassed about and immediately try to sell it,” he says. “See what people like, what they don’t like, where their jaw drops – and use that as your feedback loop on the product.”
So when you have a concept and have your MVP built, share it with anyone you think is relevant. Make a hypothesis, test it, and use the feedback to guide your product’s direction.
2. Make sure you’re selling to the right people, and say no when you have to
When Gil first started Metadata, he had no idea what product-market fit meant. He was excited to sell Metadata to anyone who wanted to buy, and get feedback from them.
But after a while, his team started thinking more about the 80/20 rule and who they were selling to, and began to see where Metadata fit in the market.
And a hard but critical part of finding that product-market fit, Gil says, is to learn to say no to customers or contracts that aren’t a good fit for your business’ long-term future.
3. Reverse engineer from where you’d like to be
There are countless potential things to focus on for startup founders and teams. Knowing where you want to be next (for example, raising a Series A) is a key starting point for narrowing all those possibilities down to the 3-5 things you need to focus on to get there.
“Every stage has a different KPI and goal,” says Gil. “Understand what the market is looking for, and you’ll find where you need to optimize your time – there’s no need to run among a million different things.”
We release new episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe to From Vendorship to Partnership for the latest podcast episodes and other startup & sales insights!
About Gil:
Gil Allouche is the founder of Metadata - the first demand generation platform that launches paid campaign experiments and self-optimizes to revenue. Gil is a software engineer turned data-driven marketer, with a history of running marketing at BI/Data startups. He shares his knowledge and experience with other leaders in the space through his Category Creators podcast. Beginning his marketing career as a product strategist at SAP, his journey then took off as he developed and executed GTM plans and ran marketing at Karmasphere (Acquired by FICO) and Spotfire Saas. Prior to creating Metadata, Gil was the VP Marketing at Qubole.
