Cracking the Crowded Market : 30 Customers Within 6 Months of Launch with Our Genius GTM Strategy!

hello everyone.

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Welcome to the B2B SaaS podcast.

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I'm your host Bhupendra Verma and

today we have Gerald Sankey with us.

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Gerald here is the co founder and

CEO of a company called KickScale.

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Hey Gerald, welcome to the show.

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Gerald Zankl: Thanks a lot for

inviting me and a pleasure being here.

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Upendra Varma: Yeah.

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All right, so let's just

sort of understand, right.

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What KickScale does, right.

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And why customers typically pay you money.

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Gerald Zankl: Absolutely.

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And I'm more than happy to give you

here a brief overview of what we do.

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And the majority why people buy

our software and our platform is

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that they want to gain critical

insights into customer conversations.

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And we do that with artificial

intelligence in sales.

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Over the last couple of months,

couple of quarters, there have been

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so many great options to leverage

AI and sales and customer success

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is one part of that, where you can

leverage that really, really nicely.

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What does this mean?

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Actually, with looking into your sales

conversations, sales reps can optimize

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sales meetings, Because we provide

targeted coaching, what you can do

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better in those sales meetings, you

gain, as already mentioned, customer

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insights through sales intelligence.

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That means we look into what are really

the common needs, the common objections,

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what does the customer really want,

and you save time through automation,

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for example, to automatically sync

certain data to your CRM system back.

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Or also to automate the follow up

process, you get an automated email

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follow up after every conversation

that saves really, wraps a lot of

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time, at least 20 to 30 minutes per

meeting in follow up note taking.

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Upendra Varma: Yeah, that

makes a lot of sense.

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So I just want to get a sense of,

you know, who you're primarily

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sort of trying to sell this to.

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I know it's sales reps, right.

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But which companies do

these sales reps work for?

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Like, can you just help us understand

a bit about your customer base today?

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Gerald Zankl: Yeah, totally.

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I think where our platform is

perfectly used is companies

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who are selling products.

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That means companies who have products

typically between, I would say,

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5k in ARR, between 30 40k in ARR.

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Why?

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You have a quite standardized

sales process in that range.

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So if you are

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Upendra Varma: mean ARR or ACV?

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Is that like deal size or

ARR you're talking about?

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Gerald Zankl: I mean, the ACV, yeah, I

mean, the, I mean, the ACV, um, the annual

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contract value, um, between five to 30 K.

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Uh, and if you have that and a product

you are selling, then Kikskill is

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definitely the right solution for you.

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Upendra Varma: And okay, so let's,

let's understand a bit here, right?

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So just help me understand it's

how many customers, how many paying

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customers do you typically, do you

have as of today on your platform?

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Gerald Zankl: Yes.

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So as of today, we have 30 paying

B2B customers on the platform.

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Yeah.

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Uh, which.

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are in various industries.

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Most of them are really in the

software, software development space.

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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And how many, approximately how much

percentage of them are, you know, are

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selling software exactly in this case?

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Gerald Zankl: Can you repeat that

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Upendra Varma: among those 30

customers, so how many of them

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actually do sell a software product?

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Gerald Zankl: Oh, actually, uh, 29 of

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Upendra Varma: that's a lot.

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So

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Gerald Zankl: there, there, there

is, so literally everyone is selling

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a software product, but we see more

and more also others like, uh, we are

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going into the HR space, for example,

and so on, and see also people who are

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selling certain kinds of services and

so on and touch base on that as well.

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What all of them have in

common is that it's actually

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a quite fast paced sales cycle

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Upendra Varma: Uh, makes sense.

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Right.

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So, and, uh, what sort of deal

sizes are we talking about?

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Right.

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So how much do these

customers typically pay you?

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Is it a thousand dollar

deal at 10, 000 deal?

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Like just approximately the median value.

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Gerald Zankl: to be honest that really

worries Is is uh different from case

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to case so we talk about some customers

who have a couple of users Uh in our

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system, they are paying like a couple

of hundred euro every month And then we

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have also bigger customers, yeah, where

we go into the 1 2k deal size each month.

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So it really varies a lot on the

size of the company as well and the

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size of the sales team obviously.

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Upendra Varma: So you still

have like 20, 25, 000 deal deals

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at the top, at the top, top

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Gerald Zankl: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So

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Upendra Varma: the bottom.

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Yeah.

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Gerald Zankl: especially when you look

at bigger sales teams, like having

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a 10 20 sales reps in the area doing

a lot of meetings, yeah, then we

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get definitely in such a direction.

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Upendra Varma: And just help me understand

how you're growing today, right?

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So 12 months before today, right?

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So where were you in terms of number of

customers or revenue or whatever metric

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that you're compatible with us sharing?

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Gerald Zankl: So everything we achieved

12 months back then wasn't there.

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Yeah.

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So we started with all

of that, um, more or

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Upendra Varma: the first customer or

first revenue dollar that you got?

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When was it?

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Okay.

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Gerald Zankl: This was actually

in September, uh, last year,

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Upendra Varma: It's just been six months.

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Gerald Zankl: yeah, it's been six months.

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Yeah.

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So it's, it's going pretty nicely.

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The thing is we founded our company

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different business model back then.

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Yeah.

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We were building up e learning

content and e learning platforms.

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And this was different

than what we do today.

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Yeah.

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Because we.

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Saw that pure e learning for our

customer base wasn't as attractive.

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So we looked into what can we do

and what can we improve that we also

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get some insights to our customers,

what they actually need to improve.

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And that's where the idea came from

to record sales conversations, and

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then make sure to figure out what

can be improved in these sales

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Upendra Varma: have you hit that 100K

ARR, you know, projection so far?

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Gerald Zankl: Uh, no not yet,

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Upendra Varma: Yeah, but you're

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Gerald Zankl: but we are

very very close close on it.

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Yeah

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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So, so I know that you just

getting started, right?

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So it's been six months and

you've got like 30 odd customers.

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So just help us understand it.

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So where you're getting all of

these customers from, right?

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So, you know, you know, all

of them are, you know, I think

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B2B software companies, right?

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So just help us understand

how did you reach out to them?

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Right.

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And what was that journey

like so far at least

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Gerald Zankl: yeah, I think where we

got get a lot from as of today is also

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we are our inbound channels Yeah, we

do a lot of content on our website We

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give a lot of playbooks for free out

there sales leadership playbooks sales

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skills playbooks Yeah, we really our

aim is really to educate the market

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as well, right to give content out for

free You And people recognize that and

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people get back to us and see, okay,

what, how does this look like and in

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which direction are we going here?

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So yeah, this is, this is one

of our main strategies besides

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that traditional hunting, I would

say, yeah, getting out there.

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Uh,

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Upendra Varma: do you

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Gerald Zankl: outbound via LinkedIn and

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Upendra Varma: what, what, yeah.

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So what, what are your other channels?

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So in terms of Outpoint, what do you do?

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And like, just help us

quantify this as well.

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It's sort of the 30 customers

that you've caught so far, right?

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So which one of your efforts have

sort of driven most of the customers?

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Gerald Zankl: I would say LinkedIn is a

great source where we hunt for customers.

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Yeah.

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I'm personally also

very active on LinkedIn.

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The whole company is that's one source

where we got a lot of customers.

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I would say from as of today.

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But also when we look into, um,

others, yeah, and looking into, uh,

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content marketing efforts and so on.

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We see there are also some,

some nice, some nice growth.

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Upendra Varma: And talk

about the conversion, right?

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So like, what does it take to sort

of close a 10, 000 deal in your case?

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Right.

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So what does it involve?

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So what's

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Gerald Zankl: So it involves,

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Upendra Varma: and just, you

know, how does that look like?

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And just help us understand that

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Gerald Zankl: yeah.

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To be honest, I mean, when we

look into that, it luckily takes

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actually weeks, not months.

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Yeah.

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Where we are right now.

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Um, and, uh, from a conversion point

of view, once we get the people

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in the funnel, we really see that.

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Maybe 30 percent we can close

here really getting further

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once they are in our pipeline.

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So that's, that's, I think where we

are right now, uh, pretty good for us.

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And that's, that's how the conversion

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Upendra Varma: So what,

what happens, right?

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So in those, during those weeks, right?

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So when somebody starts discovering

your product through one of your

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LinkedIn posts, or maybe they're

following you out there, right?

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So how do you convert them?

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What do you do?

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Like, so do you get on a call?

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Is there any discovery call?

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How do you do that?

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Just walk us through the

entire process that you

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Gerald Zankl: So what

we actually do, right.

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And what I think, uh, a lot of

B2B companies these days do.

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We have a qualification meeting

and luckily we use our own product.

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Already in that qualification meeting.

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And so we have our first

qualification meeting.

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And after that meeting, we share

already what our product has

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been done for our prospects.

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And so after the first meeting,

they get already a sense what

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is possible with our product.

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Typically, we have a second meeting to

discuss that, what they think, how they

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would like to start an official trial.

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And then they do a trial typically

between two weeks and four weeks,

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depending on the company size.

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after that trial, uh, we decide

on when officially we start.

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Um, yeah, I think this is, so

we see really one to two months

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of deal cycles is possible.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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And, and what have you

observed so far, right?

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So are these customers switching from

an existing sort of product, like a gong

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or something like that, who's already

doing conversational intelligence?

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Or are these like, you know, you

know, customers who, who, who's

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not using any product so far?

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Like what, how, how's, like how's

your customer base, you know, been

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solving this problem before UK

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Gerald Zankl: Uh, I would say both.

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There are some, uh, companies

using already certain services.

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Yeah.

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Uh, haven't gotten yet from Gong,

so that's what we are working on.

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Yeah.

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Um, but the thing is, right, what

we see is that, uh, especially other

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software vendors in that field, some

of them have already a software, but

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also some, they don't have a software.

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Yeah.

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So, and they start from a plain field.

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They see the power of artificial

intelligence these days and work

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on that and really look into how we

can, how they can, solve and help

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their sales reps to perform better.

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And that's how we get them

started with our conversation.

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Upendra Varma: Makes sense.

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So general, like, have you

raised any external funding

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so far to build the company?

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Gerald Zankl: Yes, we have raised,

uh, nearly half a million in

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external funding in Austria.

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There is really a very, very

nice public grant system as well.

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And really kudos to the

Austrian government here for

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supporting startups in that way.

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So overall with public grants, with

business angel money, we have raised,

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uh, around 1 million, a little

bit below 1 million, uh, and yeah,

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looking now into further growth.

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Uh,

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Upendra Varma: So, so what's, what's

the, what's the gameplay here, right?

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I see like this could be, this is sort

of, you know, uh, a matured market.

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I think a lot of sales reps do understand

the value that you provide because,

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you know, a lot of big folks, right?

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Category creators have been

investing a lot of money and time

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into creating this category, right?

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It's, it's pretty

clouded out there, right?

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Everybody came to do a lot

of these things, right?

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Even CRM, sales engagement platforms,

even they are entering the space, right?

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So.

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So what's the, what's your vision here?

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That's how do you intend to

sort of, you know, grow your

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company in such a crowded space?

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Like what, like, what do you

think, what's, what's the vision?

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Gerald Zankl: The vision is really to

bring out the best in salespeople, right?

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Even looking into CRM systems

like HubSpot, Salesforce, and so

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on, yeah, they haven't been built

to really help the sales rep.

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Yeah.

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I mean, I don't know how often you work

with a CRM, but it's good to have an

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overview of the deals, of the leads.

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But in my opinion, then

it ends already, right?

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I've never met any sales rep in my career

who loved it to put some notes into

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the CRM or even the other way around

to check the CRM when they wanted to

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have some information about the deal.

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Some of them use like a traditional

notebook, yeah, where they

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write some things and some

others use their own systems.

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And that's the problem, right?

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Because as of today, we

have so many great ways.

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To leverage conversations with

conversational intelligence with AI.

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And this is really what we focus

on getting the best out of the

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sales reps, but making them also

at the same time more productive.

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And this is what we stand for.

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Yeah, and there is a lot of things going

on in that space as you know, also.

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And that's why it's pretty,

pretty awesome to be in that

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Upendra Varma: so what's, yeah,

like what's, what's the plan here?

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Right.

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So how do you intend to win and what

does winning mean for you in this space?

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Right.

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So how do you see all of this, you know,

how do you see this space evolving?

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Do you believe that this, uh, a

big market for a lot of players to,

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you know, grow their companies to

tens of millions of ARR or like.

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Like how's that gonna span out

eventually according to you?

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Gerald Zankl: So when you look at the

market, when I look into markets of sales,

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enablement, conversational intelligence,

and maybe a little bit of AI assistance,

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we talk about the market of more than

130 billion, uh, worldwide and growing

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with more than 15 percent year over year.

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Yeah.

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So I truly believe this market over

the next 10 years is super, super hot.

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Yeah.

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Um, obviously.

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You can get into your niche.

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Yeah, whatever this means.

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Yeah, you can get into regional

Countries into regional

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languages and so on and so forth.

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Yeah Uh, there is I think space

for a lot of players here.

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Yeah, it's a crowded market.

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Yeah, you are right There are definitely

a lot of players, but I think so for

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the best players there is still enough

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Upendra Varma: So so are you doing any

one of those that you mentioned like

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are you focusing on any particular

region or any particular industry like?

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Where where are your current

customer base come from?

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Do they come from in a

particular place in europe?

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Like how does that like do

you have anything in mind?

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Are you just you know?

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Just

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Gerald Zankl: So yes Yeah, we we

see that the german speaking markets

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are very nice markets for us.

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Yeah, obviously we come from there and

it's it's our first Battle, let's say it

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like this where we go into but this is

where a lot of our companies come from But

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also we have huge interest from the uk.

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For example, we see interest from us as

well India is also a huge part of it.

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Yeah, we got Lucky and got also some

viral LinkedIn posts in India, for

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example, and get there a lot of traction.

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So it's going really nicely these days.

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Yeah.

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But yeah, starting with

the dark region, Germany,

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Upendra Varma: so is the plan to always

sell those mid market enterprise deals?

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Or are you also looking

at any SMB play here?

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Gerald Zankl: mid market is the focus.

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So the thing is, Mid looking

into mid market, right?

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We are Imagine we are really leveraging

most sensitive data of any kind of

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business yeah, and you go really

the route through the organizations

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through the companies and Not so much

through the individual sales reps.

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Yeah, we have always the huge

interest from these people as well.

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Yeah, but then typically you need

to talk to the whole organization.

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Say, what is our strategy there?

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How can we onboard everyone?

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What's about data privacy

and all these topics?

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That's why mid market is our, our go

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Upendra Varma: So, so have you in

conflict, uh, are you, have you invested

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in compliance and certifications like

SOC2 and all of it so far, or are

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you still figuring that out because

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Gerald Zankl: Yeah.

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So that's, that's.

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That's definitely one of the

next items on our roadmap.

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SOC 2 is one of very important ISO

certifications and so on and so forth.

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Upendra Varma: are your

customers asking for it?

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SOC2 when you try to sort of

expand to us markets, is that

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what they're asking or where is

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Gerald Zankl: Yeah.

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We got, we got first request

for SOC 2, for example, yeah.

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On, on that site.

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I mean, it's a very important, very

important, uh, thing you need to have.

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Let's

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Upendra Varma: So, so yeah, I

mean, do you think it's, it's worth

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investing in it at this point of time?

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Because I mean, it's going to

cost you 30, 40 grand and a lot

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of developer time as well, right?

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So what's, what's your thoughts on that?

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Because I hear a lot of SaaS

founders say this, Hey, we've

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dragged a bunch of good market deals.

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There's a couple of deals

just on the line, right?

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They're asking for these certifications

and it's just a bunch of boring old stuff.

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Maybe it might take you four, six

months based on your expertise.

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And what's your take on it?

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I've seen a lot of people just throw

away deals because of that, right?

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So,

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Gerald Zankl: Yeah, so my take on it

is, yes, we have it, for example, on the

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horizon, yeah, but obviously data privacy,

all these things are very important to us.

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We have there a lot of measurements in

place to make sure this works properly.

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I think at a certain stage we will be SOC

2 compliant, yeah, but as you mentioned,

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uh, bigger customers need to ask for it

and then you get these things done, yeah,

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um, and, and move forward on that side.

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Upendra Varma: So Jalal,

talk about the team, right?

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So how big is your team

and like, what do they do?

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Gerald Zankl: So we are right

now, 10 people and with these 10

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people, the majority, obviously,

as you can imagine, is really

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focusing on the development side.

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Yeah, we have right now on the dev side,

six people, uh, who are really focusing on

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the front end on the backend full stack,

obviously, as well as one, I wouldn't

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call it department because we don't

have, we had departments on that side.

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Right.

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But as one expertise area,

yeah, everything on the front

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and everything on the platform.

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And then we have another team,

let's say like this, and we are

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focusing on the whole artificial

intelligence part, meaning like

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how can we optimize the prompts?

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Yeah.

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How can we tune open source, large

language models further, uh, to

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really get the best results out in

sales and customer conversations.

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Upendra Varma: Yes.

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And are you sort of passing on these

LLM calls to your customers or like,

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have your margins gone down after

using such, you know, high pricey API

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calls that you make to open AI calls?

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Like, what's your take on that?

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Gerald Zankl: Yeah.

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I think so.

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We are, we are in the, I

would say lucky situation.

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Uh, we are obviously onboarding customers

where we get also some margin as well.

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Yeah.

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Um, I know there's times also that

there were different times here where

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you onboard any kind of customers to

get someone, obviously we want to be

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here cost efficient from our side.

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Yeah.

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But also having an attractive

offer for our customers so that

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this is a win win for everyone.

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Upendra Varma: so one

last question here, right?

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So what's the vision for the company

right over the next two to three years?

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Where do you see your company going in

terms of revenue, in terms of, you know,

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growth or whatever that is, whatever

metrics that you're chasing, right?

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Just help us understand.

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Gerald Zankl: So I think that the first

thing, what we also say as a vision

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for us, for the team, what motivates

us, what keeps us going every day

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is really, we want to empower sales

reps and we want to help them get

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the best out of their daily work.

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That's really when you, everyone

who is doing sales, right?

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It's kind of a challenging role.

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It's, you know, it's getting busier.

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It's getting more crowded.

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Tech is coming.

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Uh, time is limited.

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So we want to give there something

back here with automating email

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follow ups, automating CRM

synchronization, but also to help them

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understand their customers better.

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I think this is on the one hand side,

and I come to the metrics part in

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a bit, yeah, uh, is, is one topic.

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But this is what.

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What we do on a daily basis, we

really would like to get the best

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out of the, of the sales reps.

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Yeah.

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And from a growth point of view,

I mean, obviously we are now in

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the, again, lucky situation that we

got the trust of business angels.

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We got public grants.

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So in the next 12 months,

it's all about growth.

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Yeah.

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Uh, and we are going to

hit the 1 million in ARR.

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By, uh, end of, uh, by next year.

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Yeah.

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Let's say like this, this

is, this is really the goal.

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Yeah.

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Ideally earlier.

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Yeah.

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Let's say it like this,

how, how things are going.

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But the plan is to hit that, uh,

by mid end of next year to really

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have such an ambitious goal,

but then scaling further, right.

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We are now really strong in the German

speaking markets, but our software

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supports also other languages for sure.

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Uh, being in that market first and

then expanding into further markets,

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growing the team, that's really the goal

of the next, yeah, one to two years.

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Upendra Varma: that, that

was a wonderful goal.

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Hope you get there as soon as possible.

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Right.

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It was wonderful talking to you.

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Hope you scale, kick scale to

much, much greater heights.

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Thank you for joining us.

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Gerald Zankl: Thank you a lot.

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It was a pleasure being with you and

thanks a lot for the great questions

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and yeah, looking forward to it.