Running a startup is hard, and you need to be flexible and adapt to many changes.
First of all, your initial idea may not be the one you wind up building in the long term, and you need to be able to listen to what your customers tell you to build what they want.
Next, you need to focus, whether you have to just stop working on other projects, or just surround yourself with others who are just as focused as you need to be.
Then you need to understand how to sell your product and adjust your sales pitch to what resonates with your core audience.
Our guest for today’s episode, Patrick Costello, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Naytev, tells us his story about how he went through all of the above.
Patrick talks about how he pivoted to Naytev after listening to what his clients kept telling him.
He then praises startup accelerator Y Combinator for making him and his team super-focused on building what people wanted.
He also chats about how he practiced his sales pitch over and over again until he was able to concisely describe Naytev’s value proposition.
Patrick tells us much more about his journey and how he’s helping publishers optimize their content for social networks and driving more traffic to their sites.
In this episode, you’ll learn from Patrick:
- How simplifying the idea behind his donation platform startup ChangeCause led to the launch of Naytev.
- The process he and his team went through to decide on the pivot to Naytev.
- How simply listening to what your clients have to say can help you figure out what they want.
- The importance of A/B testing and how you can get started using it for your company.
- How going through startup accelerator Y Combinator helped Patrick and his team focus on what matters most – making things what people want.
- The importance of word of mouth in building trust with future clients.
- How selling to senior executives, instead of junior employees, helped accelerate sales and implementation of Naytev.
- The process he used to fine-tune Naytev’s messaging and sales pitch.
- The key metrics he tracks to determine Naytev’s success.
- Why focusing on revenue as early as possible is extremely important.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
And visit spark.naytev.com and use the promo code “DOUBLE_RAINBOW” to get 30% off your first month of any plan!
Answers to Quickfire Q&A:
- If you could chat with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
- A group of buddhist monks.
- Name a tool, app, or website that you can’t live without and why.
- Google Calendar / GMail
- Tell us something unique and interesting about you that not many may know.
- Patrick raced on his college ski team, and he aspires to ski and surf on the same day.
- What are the top three skills or characteristics that you look for in people you work with?
- Incessantly curious
- Ambitious and hungry
- Humble and down-to-earth
- What is something you believe, but few others agree with you?
- It’s OK to be dissatisfied with where you are in life, as long as you recognize that it’s your own journey.
Thanks for listening!
We appreciate you spending your valuable time with us!
If you enjoyed this episode, and we hope you did, please share it using the social media buttons to the left.
Also, please leave a rating and review on iTunes and Stitcher. It will help others like you discover the show more easily, and we’d be really grateful! If you’re not sure how to submit a rating and review on iTunes, check out this blog post for instructions.
You’ll never miss another episode if you subscribe to the Go and Grow Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or the podcast player of your choice, and sign up for our email list below. Just do it! 
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to post them in the Comments section below or email me.
Thanks again for listening and now go and grow your business!
Happy Thanksgiving!