Solo Entrepreneur Bootstraps First, Raises Money Later in Utah: GuideCX CEO Peter Ord (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Who was going to build the product? You are not a technical person, right?

Peter Ord: I sent my resignation to my boss when I was on vacation. Part of the reason was, I had gotten a number of calls from car dealers who were upset with the implementation during my vacation. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. My wife was still frustrated that I went downstairs, got white paper from the business office, and I just stayed upstairs in the hotel room the whole day just mocking out what the system should look like.

I came back with all those mockups. I hired a designer. We sat together and I paid him hourly. He got a working model. It was something that could enable me to go out and demo the product. I identified 76 companies on LinkedIn. I searched implementation managers and I only called second-level contacts.

Sramana Mitra: Implementation managers of what kind of products?

Peter Ord: I was targeting SaaS companies. I asked all those companies the same 16 questions about how they deliver. If I got interest, I showed them the mockup and asked if they wanted to sign up for my pilot program. The pilot program would be ready by March 9, 2018. I set a date. I got 14 out of the 76 to commit.

When I knew there was enough need, I greenlighted it. I was bootstrapping at that time. She and I worked together. One of my mentors was the former CTO of DealerSocket. I ended up finding some individuals who can help me build the product.

Sramana Mitra: In Utah?

Peter Ord: Yes. I was willing to spend 5 to 10x more to develop the product here in Utah because that guaranteed me being close to it. I had a really good experience with the designer I was working with. I wanted to replicate that to the development effort. I got a product off the ground on March 9th. I was the first client of a new dev shop. Their office became my office.

I was a single employee all the way to July 2018. The pilot agreement said that they can use my product for free, but I will tell you how much it’ll cost on June 1st. You have 30 days to decide whether you want to stay with me or go in another direction. Nine customers ended up signing on.

Sramana Mitra: How much did you charge?

Peter Ord: Our average ACV is $1,500 ARR. Today, that average is $18,000. I was elated that someone would pay me anything back then.

Sramana Mitra: As long as someone’s paying something, that means you have a business.

Peter Ord: Right. I read three books throughout that process. One was The Mom Test. The premise of that was all about not asking feedback from people that are like or close to you as your mom. That’s why I searched for second-level contacts. I wanted customers who didn’t know me. The second book was The User Method. Don’t rely 100% on feedback. Use your intuition. Then the third book is Lean Startup. If you’re not embarrassed by your MVP, you’ve launched too late. Those books help me until today. I hired my first employee in July 2018.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Solo Entrepreneur Bootstraps First, Raises Money Later in Utah: GuideCX CEO Peter Ord
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