Ep 56: Raised $900M after 1st startup sold for $100M (aka Problem Hunting) — Product Market Fit podcast (startups | tech | AI | growth)

My guest today is Brian Long, Co-founder of Attentive, the mobile messaging platform that has raised almost $900M and powers the vast majority of ecommerce companies. Brian previously co-founded TapCommerce which sold to Twitter for $100M; and he recently published, Problem Hunting: The Tech Startup Textbook.  I absolutely loved my conversation with Brian as he shared his perspective on product market fit, how they found it at Attentive, and lessons learned across both companies. We dive into trends in ecommerce and mobile commerce; and get really tactical about early-stage B2B sales and growth tactics. !! Also make sure to stay to the end, for my new 'Founder Notes' segment where I’ll provide the latest updates and learnings from my startup journey.  Chapters: (01:55) Brian's definition of Product Market Fit (06:53) Hiring inside-sales early (11:16) Early-stage growth tactics (20:18) Thinking about competition (22:42) Leveraging generative AI (23:37) The future of ecommerce (30:05) Why sell TapCommerce so early? (33:49) Venture capital vs. bootstrapping (38:27) Mistakes made along the way (42:06) Lightning round (48:20) NEW SEGMENT: 'Founder Notes' Guest Contact Info: Brian: twitter.com/BrianCLong⁠ Company: attentive.com Get the book: a.co/d/cLgGYbV Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠grwth.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠grwth.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Get in touch with Mosheh: ⁠⁠linkedin.com/in/moshehp twitter.com/Moshehp⁠⁠⁠⁠ [email protected] pmfpod.com