YouSaid · the spoken record

Ara Mahdessian

lines on the record
58
first
2024-07-10
most recent
2024-07-10
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “I'm very flattered to hear that kind of feedback. Very grateful to be on the show. I hope I deserve it and I hope I can earn it. So thank you again.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “I call it the hands the wheel. This is the life we've chosen, and we're no stranger to adversity. We gravitate towards challenges and we do everything we can to scale those challenges and find new glory. We'll do that again and again.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “And like the founder's journey, it's your first starting out. Like I remember when I first started out, the milestone was like, I want to hit 100 million of ARR. And I thought, oh my God, how do you even get to 100 million? It's like impossible. On top of that, I realized early on. I'm like, look, if I get to 100 million, sure, that's great. But once I'm at 100 million, then the expectation is going to be I got to get to two and I got to, you know, keep doubling. I'm like, it's hard enough to get to 100. How do you grow beyond that? We did it and we continue to grow beyond that. But the expectation is always there. You got to grow more. And whatever my next target is, even if it was 10 billion, I bet you mentioned Jensen. When you got 10 billion, the expectation is you got to grow beyond that. And when he gets to 100, you got to grow beyond that.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Enneagram and every other variation of that on the achiever profile and what is the vulnerability that makes me want to achieve so much? And is it this idea of I need to feel worthy enough? Okay, but then my question is why do I have the need to feel worthy? And where does that come from? And whatever the answer to that is, where does that come from? And I just want to go like a million miles deep on this topic.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “The question that I ask a lot that almost nobody asks me is have you psychoanalyzed yourself figure out what really motivates you that I find to be one of the most fascinating topics is understanding why people do or behave the way they do or make the decisions they make.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “I wish I could ask questions like you. Wow, where'd you come up with these? If I could be even better at like assessing the real capability of a potential hire that is so hard to do during an interview process. And of course, we invest a lot of time and effort to get like some level of good percentage hit rate. But if I can magically be 100%.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Even if I did, it's so hard to even come close to that. I really like what I do because I like what I do. It's part of my work and it's a part of my life. It's just important that I'm also there for like my wife's and kids for the important moments. Yo, we make it work. It's hard, but it's not impossible.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “This to parenthood is also incredibly hard, but I had no idea it would be this rewarding. Very family oriented, and I always wanted to have kids and many kids, but even I couldn't imagine how rewarding it is to be able to cuddle with your kids and share the love, but also teach them about principles in life, teach them about friendship, teach them about, I don't know, math or science, teach them about football, and to see them learn and you get to do this every day. You get that feedback loop every day of like them developing and growing. And also you make an impact in their lives is the most rewarding thing I've ever done.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “How hard it would be. Wow. Although I take that back. I'm almost glad I didn't know how hard it would be because there's a good chance I may not have done it. And then I really regret it. It's all sunk cost. Now I don't mind. But if that was ahead of me, it's like getting your wisdom teeth pulled out every day.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “It has turned out to be way better than the scary tales that I had in my mind. Every firm that we partner with, they've been authentic, very much invest in our success, aligned with how we want to build a business that is both incredibly successful financially and the right way to build a business and so helpful in the journey.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “There's a lot of people who have lived this journey before two-week, Toby at Shopifier, Chris from Toast, who are so relevant to what we do in vertical SAS. But then people like Satya, who I could learn so much from.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Certainly, right now it's all the rage with Messi here. The stadiums are filled. Everybody's buying merchandise. But still, most real football fans here don't watch MLS. They watch European football. They watch their Premier League teams, their La Liga teams, their SEDIA teams. Real football community doesn't really watch. I don't watch MLS matches. None of my friends do the coaches I coach with don't. The players don't. But those that are kind of new to the sport, I suspect there's significant viewership. But it'll probably take a hit after messy.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Rotations to create overloads in certain parts of the pitch that is complete tactics to outnumber the opponent by doing those rotations. So I pursue football with similar philosophies I pursue business. Of course, I want to win the competitive part of me wants to win, but it's more than just winning. It's more than just being better than competitors. I want to improve all the time in business and football to get closer and closer to perfection. So when I coach the kids team, winning is nice, but for me, it's not the winning. I want them to play in the most beautiful way possible.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “There's a lot in common between how I think about Service Titan and how I think about, for example, football. I want to achieve extraordinary things. I want to make an extraordinary impact, both at Service Titan, as well as when I play football or when I coach my kids' football team. Football I see is like the most intellectually challenging sport there is. Most people just see the flashy dribbles and assume that is what makes a great player. And it turns out it's like the complete opposite of all that. Ball is very technical, but it is incredibly tactical. You have to be a student of the sport to appreciate the tactical beauty. More than half the runs you see are like dummy runs. The runs are just designed to drag a defender out of position to create space for a teammate to run into. At least the football that I teach. A lot about things like doing”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “As you said, you got to look like you gave them a chance, probably 100% of the time, you're going to end up having given too much time. If there is doubt, there's enough conviction.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “You get the feeling immediately, within weeks, the challenges acting and not hesitating always takes at least for me, took months. And that is where the damage is done. And so what I've learned from that is that in every case, I can recall now where there was doubt about an individual, that doubt has every single time proven to be justified. And it turned out that that person was the wrong character. It has never happened where given an extra six months, nine months, there's been some transformational turnaround where I've said, wow, I was really wrong about that person. And so now the philosophy is when there is doubt, there is enough conviction.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Costlier strategic mistake anytime you make a core leadership hire, it is very costly for the business because the impact scales not just down throughout the entire organization that person leads, but it also starts to creep in laterally to all the other organization and it can really threaten the functioning of a company. The lesson that we have learned from that is in the past where I've experience is very important, but in the past where we have fixated only on experience, we have run the risk of hiring people who may have lived in these footsteps, but like don't carry the same DNA of being the team player and not just operating from an ivory tower and being very involved in the trenches.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Great leadership is about generating great outcomes, extraordinary outcomes. Ultimately, that's what it comes down to. Now, in order to generate extraordinary outcomes, you most likely will make one, maybe two big decisions on where to play and that where to play could be we're going up market or we're going down market. It could be we're going roofing or we're going plumbing or it could be we're building a contact center product versus we're building the online scheduling product. So great leadership is about one thing to deliver extraordinary outcomes that typically involves one decision about where to play, successfully executing where to play involves hundreds of great decisions on execution.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “What their plan is for executing these priorities. And from time to time, I can offer them an opinion that turns out to be a really good insight for how to get better outcomes. That to me is at least my idea of what good leaders do. I do not believe in micromanagement where the leaders make all decisions, but I also don't believe in pass-through leadership.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “It depends on what qualifies as micromanager. For example, if micromanagement is, I as the CEO, make all the decisions, yeah, it's terrible. That means either I have an incredible team around me and I'm a complete idiot and have no idea how to give them the autonomy to make a whole bunch of great decisions because I can only make a finite number of decisions in any time period. Or it means the team around is not good. In which case I'm a terrible leader for hiring, building, and coaching a poor team. My job is to make sure I have a great team around me. So in both cases, I would have failed. But if by micromanager we mean I hire people who are much better experts than myself in their domains, yet I am engaged and I talk to them to understand what their priorities are to make sure their priorities are linked to the company priorities. And I understand”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “In the things that are important to me, yes, perfectionists about product, about metrics and driving the business. You mentioned the Laureana comment about fashion in certain ways, about soccer and how I coach the kids' soccer team. Yeah, the things that are really important to me, perfectionists.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Understand we want to launch on time and with great quality. If I just wanted to launch anything on time without regard for quality, I would have brought in the B team, the C team, maybe even the D team, anybody can launch anything on time without any regard to quality. I brought in the A team, right? This is the A team, right? And so then everybody, like the reaction was, smiles everywhere. Happiness everywhere, people rallying be like, you got it, you bet we're going to launch this on time. And it's going to be A plus quality, this product's going to kill it, et cetera, et cetera. So I think you can drive an even better effect and an even better outcome. And like you said, feel a whole lot better about yourself and the people around you feel a whole lot better about themselves if you demand excellence through inspiration over harsh words.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “So I'll give you an example from literally yesterday. I was on a meeting with one of my product teams working on a new product that we're launching. Amazing product. And we're going to launch it at our upcoming user conference. And so at the end of Great Meeting, I asked the team on Mike, so like we are ready to launch this at Pantheon, right? They're like, yep, absolutely. I'm like, it's going to be stellar quality, right? Like I want Apple level quality. And they're like, the quality is going to be great. But of course, the quality will get better over time. Then they said like, all right, you asked this to get this launched by Pantheon. And the prior version of me would have probably said something on the order of, hey, that's not good enough. We can't just launch on time. The quality has to be A plus. We're not going to sacrifice quality just to get something launched on time. And you must do better, et cetera, et cetera. And organically, what I found myself saying is like team, my...”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “There's a lot that I can do better. One of the things that has evolved a lot recently is like I tend to demand a lot of the people around me because I believe nobody knows the limits of our own potential. I believe that the people around me are so gifted and can drive such impact. I want to help them realize that manifestation of themselves. And previously, I would doing it the only way I knew which was just demanding as much as I could. What I've since realized, what is more effective is doing my best to inspire them to achieve greatness.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Expanding into new customer segment, like going up, market down market, going residential to commercial, going into a new trade. Most of those, I think we got the timing right. And when we're being pulled into those markets, it's a lot easier than trying to brute force into those markets. We got pulled into garage door by a customer. We got pulled into roofing. We got pulled into commercial. The timing was right on those. On the product front, payments we should have done earlier. payments we should have done earlier and one of the products we did too early, the contact center product. The new contact center product, this is the perfect time.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Yeah, I would say that was an example of us not seeing the opportunity to build a great payment solution. And we should have done it earlier. We had good product market fit. Now, the problem with our use case is that our product is so wide, so deep that 100% product market fit across the entire spectrum is very hard and takes a very long time to achieve. The vast majority of the product had great product marketing. We should have started the payments journey earlier. We absolutely should.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “None of these moments are like binary. Start with some level of investment in the second product. And then as you get traction, the investment level increases. And the same with your first product. So would I wait until I have product market fit on the first product? Go to market is like perfect implementation is perfect. Everything is perfect before starting to build the second product. I would risk being really late by doing that. I would rather once we have product markets it and for me, product market fit means the only way you can have”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “So as soon as the product you are currently building has great product market fit, you have a high degree of success with customers that buy your current product, then I think you should absolutely entertain the idea of building the next product. But the opportunity has to be there. Many companies have tried to be a multi-product company in either in the new category that they're thinking about, there's already a great competitor that is hard to choose.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Yes, it doesn't cost all that much. It's not like we're profligate in our spending or our investment in customer success. Maybe we invest a little bit more. Customer success, by the way, doesn't happen just from customer success teams. There's only so much a customer success manager can do if the product isn't good enough. How many workarounds is a CSM going to advise each customer on if the product doesn't solve the workflow needs? Or even if the product solves all the workflows, but those workflows are just workflows that don't have ROI associated with them, there's nothing the CSM could do to generate ROI. This idea of customer success, of course, is very significantly influenced by CSMs, but it is equally, if not much more significantly impacted by the product itself. You have to be in an industry where there's an opportunity to generate incredible levels of ROI and the product has to be built in a way to make that happen. If those two things aren't there, CSMs can't.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Their livelihood, and their name is on the door, their legacy is on the line, their families are on the line. Man, I will do anything to make sure I deliver on my word and my commitment and make them successful. There's always a small but still meaningful chance that something can go wrong. I don't care if it's my fault, my team's fault, the customer's fault because, you know, they weren't committed. They didn't prioritize it. It doesn't matter to us. There's a concept of extreme ownership. We have to make them successful. And so we will do everything it takes to make them successful. So that's like the personal reason why it's so important to me after having done this for now over a decade, what I have seen is that the financial rewards of doing this are so high. It is why we get so many inbound needs. It is why our close rates are so high. It is why you said 3x, whatever x, more expensive than competitors. Why do customers then trust us to buy pro products? Why do we get pulled into new markets as a result? It is.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Absolutely. There's a very significant impact on customer acquisition costs and the efficiency of good market motion, both in surfacing pipeline, getting a lot of inbound inquiries as a result, both through direct referrals and just so much word of mouth that ultimately when a contractor is thinking about software, they decide to take a look at Service Titan. But then, of course, in things like close rates. And then when there's high conviction in a product because you've heard so many good things, your close rates go up. But then also the willingness to pay the RPU goes up. And then the willingness to buy pro products goes up. People often ask me, you know, why is customer success so important? There are two reasons. The first has nothing to do with financials. It's this business is very personal to me. I like to think I'm a man of my word. And if I give my commitment to someone, I will move the world to honor it when these hardworking, salt-to-the-earth contractors who've built great companies.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “Mama, I made it. I'm on service Titan. It has become this thing to be on service Titan is an indicator of success, which brings me so much pride that we have earned that kind of validation from customers.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “I've spent quite some time thinking about branding in vertical software, especially, I think, in contracting. Brand is ultimately, it's the feeling that they have about your company based on all the interactions that they've had with your company. And those interactions can be by virtue of using your product, by virtue of calling technical support, by virtue of talking to their customer success manager, by virtue of interacting with your online materials, et cetera. I think what we did very organically, but very fortunately is because of our maniacal fixation on making sure contractors were successful in our product, brand that resulted, the feeling that resulted about service titan is that service titan represents success for contractors by using ServiceTiten, you'll be more successful. But coincidentally, like, there's a big community around ServiceTitan. There's an online group with like 10,000 contractors on it. And like I see the posts in there and I even see things like somebody posts.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “You can't just choose to be premium. You can become the premium product by delivering something that is incredibly valuable. We didn't choose to be premium. What we chose is we want to make this buying decision of buying service Titans such a no-brainer. And the way to do that is to make sure it imparts unconscionable amounts of ROI. And so when you build that much ROI into a product where it can make this life-changing difference in a contracting business, you then automatically earn the label of premium. But it has to be commensurate with the value. We're not a clothing brand that just by putting sourcing cheap materials, but putting a shiny logo on it, we can pretend we're premium. There has to be real quality in ROI behind everything we built to earn the premium tag.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Make the decisions, but you are able to add value in that conversation. And when you know a particular domain, you are able to hire much better leaders. When you're talking to 100 different CTO candidates, it's very hard to figure out who's like the best. But I do think because Wahhan are both engineers, it allows us to hire better people.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “What really helps is that Vah and I are both engineers. That really helps in a business because then as founders, you know roughly how long anything should take to get built. And so when you are contemplating what to build, there could be 10 different ways of solving any problem. And there could be 10 different problems you want to prioritize. You can quickly do the math. This problem will be high value, but incredibly hard to build. This other problem will be roughly the same amount of value, but much faster to solve. And then exploring the options for solving the problem, you can quickly figure out which one I guess relatively quick to build also is good enough as a long-term solution or which one is like the perfect long-term solution. And so you can do this math really quickly and decide. These are the problems we're going to solve versus the others. Here's how we're going to solve them. Now, of course, when you're small and you're making all the decisions, that works really well as you get bigger and then of course you have a leader under you and you have great teams.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “It's really hard to do. Very few software companies have successfully gone from down market to upmarket, and very few have gone from upmarket down market. So it is just very hard to do. You have to have very high product velocity to quickly build the incremental needs to go up market.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “In any product that we are building, we always envision the ROI case of roughly how much ROI do we think this can generate for the customer. And then depending on the confidence rate in that ROI, we will then determine what percentage of that ROI we think should be our fair share. And we're very transparent with customers about this. This is the ROI case behind the product we are pitching you and what you are signing up for. By the way, we are signing up for that ROI case because our only job is to make sure you see that ROI. And we tell them, if we make sure you see that ROI, you will renew, you will never cancel, you will refer customers to us, and it will give you conviction to buy all of our other products. And so this is all we're fixated on. We're going to help you get that ROI because then we're going to get all these financial benefits in return. And then we work with them to make sure they see that ROI.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “In our pitch, we lead with our founding story. There's a lot more credibility that it establishes following that. But the rest of the quote unquote pitch, the product demonstration, is all RY. It literally starts with something like, for example, Harry, how many technicians do you have grade 10? Okay. What is their close rate on their visits? What is their average ticket? Okay, you have a 50% close rate. Your average ticket, I'm going to make this up. Your average ticket is $1,000. Our other customers have a 60% close rate and a $1,400 average ticket. And so if you are making, for example, $4 million a year in revenue, if we could help you get from 50 to 60% and from $1,000 to $1,400, we'll help you turn that $3 million revenue to four and a half million in revenue. And that means you're going to take home an incremental $200,000 at the end of the year in profit. How does that sound to you? And then the customer, of course, says that's life-changing.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “Their marketing by 6% or improve their selling close rate by 8% or improve their average ticket by 4% or whatever these things are. And we build the necessary product and the capabilities to drive those improvements, to then drive the ROI.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “First would be doing anything new in a business, I believe, needs to be you need a maniac on a mission to lead the charge. The second I would say is anytime you're going into a new customer segment, in this case upmarket, you got to realize that there are new and different customer needs that need to be discovered really well and really quickly and solve for and all business buying decisions. It's ultimately all about ROI. The only reason a business spends any money on anything is because there is this expectation of I am going to get some very significant return in exchange for some significantly less but still meaningful investment. And so anything that we do with regards to building product, all of it, the whole thesis is that here is going to be the ROI case for the customer and that ROI is driven by the ability to improve.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “I doubt it. I highly doubt it. Anytime you're doing something new, going up market, going down market, building a new product, going into a new customer segment, going from residential to commercial, or you're going from, I don't know, plumbing to roofing. I think the person leading the charge needs to be a maniac on a mission. And most businesses that have successfully done that kind of entry, it has typically been founder led. Now, in some businesses, they have extraordinary talent and there's some extraordinary star that has helped make that entry. But in most businesses that I've heard of, it's been founder-led and the feedback loops are much faster. The agility is much faster. And when the CO or the founder themselves build that kind of conviction in a market, in a product, of course, the organization is able to invest much more aggressively in getting it done.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “Probably six months. Vaha and I didn't sleep to build enough where we could successfully take them live. And he goes live on our software. It runs his whole business, right? Everything, marketing, scheduling, dispatching, inventory, payroll, integration with financial systems like everyone in his business uses service titan and almost exclusively service titan to do everything in the business. This is a very mission critical stuff. And every day Vi and I wake up at 5 a.m. We drive over to John's office. We fix all the problems that are being discovered real time. And this continues for another six months every day, keeping our fingers crossed, hoping that John doesn't just like bust in through the door and say, you two, take your crappy software and get the heck out of here. Thankfully, he never did that. He had the patience and the courage to stick with it. In the end, we fixed all the issues.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “No, every success story looks like an overnight success story. Everybody's talking about NVIDIA today, and VIDIA was founded 30 years ago. And for us, it was similar. The overnight success story, that overnight piece was like over a decade long. So I still remember our very first customer, what I mentioned about the first yes, this individual John Awan, today has one of the most successful plumbing companies. We earned the opportunity to meet with them. We shared with him what we had built, but this was very early on. It was nowhere near ready. We very transparently shared with John, here is our vision. This is the solution we intend to build. This is the ROI that we think this solution will deliver for you. This is the small piece we've already built. The rest we have to build. Will you go on this journey with us? We were shocked that it was like, heck yeah. This is exactly what I need in this business. I believe in YouTube. Amen. And so he partnered with us. And that began this journey where for the next...”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “Early stage investor. He's an extraordinary human being. He's so aligned with your values. Help you build a great company and you will end up doing it the right way in a way you can be proud of. You got to partner with them. And I realized I'm like, Byron is probably the same DNA as us. And so I texted Byron. I'm like, Byron, I'm in. And then he texted me back. He's like, where are you at right now? I told him I'm at Sastor. He's like, I'm sending you an Uber. hop in. I hop in the Uber. takes me to his house there. you know, we celebrate hog handshake, et cetera, and he brings out the term sheet. And he's like, let's sign this now before you change your mind again. I'm like, look, Byron, I'm a man of my word. I said, I'm in. That means I'm in before I sign anything. I want you and your team to come do whatever conversations and diligence you want with my team. Make sure you're going in with your eyes wide open. There's no skeletons in the closet. And if at that point, you still want to move forward. I'll sign happily. That's how we partnered.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “That you otherwise might not want changed, and you guys don't need it. And so my mind was kind of set that I wasn't going to go into this partnership. And so at Saster, my friend and I got split off at one of the conferences. And then at lunch, I was talking to Byron's team because they were at the conference. And my friend happened to walk by and he said, hi to me, of course. And then it turns out he knew Byron's team. So he said hi to them too. And then he was like, wait, Aura. Why are you talking to Esmer? And then he put two and two together. He's like, hold on. Is it Byron that gave you that offer? I didn't divulge it, but he kind of figured out from the smile on my face. And then he just went completely red. He pulled me aside. He's like, all right, I feel like I've done the biggest disservice to you. One could do. If this is Byron Dieter, this is the one person you have to partner. He's the best B2B assassin.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “It was clear we both wanted to partner, yet Va and I were still very nervous and hesitant about what it means to take institutional capital. We're so focused on making sure our customers are successful. And we didn't want our mission or our values or anything like that to change. Months later, I was heading up to the Saster conference, Jason Lemkins conference. On the flight with me was another founder in LA. I asked this founder He had raised a lot of institutional capital from like a lot of the best names in the industry. And I asked him, I said, look, I have this opportunity. I have this offer from one of the best investors. I don't want to say who it is. But can you share with me your experience taking institutional capital? And, you know, would you recommend I do it too? And my good friend told me on that plane ride. He's like, look, I know a lot about your business. You built a great business. I think it's a special business. I would not take institutional capital. You risk a lot of things change.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “He's like, tell me, how does the go to market work in this industry? And so I explained to him how our go-to market works. And then I just went in, I'm like, Byron, please tell me, how does ProCourse work? And how is it different for their enterprise segment versus their mid-market versus their SMB? And how does that compare to Toast? Tell me, what's their model for customer success? And how do they comp these people? And how long is the implementation process? And tell me, when did they start building the next product to be multi-product company? When did they decide to move into the next customer segment? And I just peppered him with so many questions shortly thereafter. I think we were an hour and 30 minutes into this conversation. And Byron's like, guys, I don't know where all the time went, but I have a board meeting starting in two minutes. I got to hop off and I'd like to have another call so I can actually learn about your business this time. That kicked off this relationship where we found them to be so insightful and helpful. And so after a series of conversations.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Yeah, we were part of an accelerator in LA called Mucker Labs. Byron's team was present at our demo date. And at the time, we were not necessarily convinced that we would ultimately take institutional money. We didn't understand the venture capital world. We had some of the typical stereotypes in our minds that these guys might be sharks and they're after our business. And I mean, it's all completely unfounded. That was the illusion we were under. And so we participated in the demo day just to be able to show off what we were working on. Byron's team.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “Probably the first customer, yes, that I got was incredibly consequential. And then shortly after that, the first yes I got from an institutional investor was also incredibly consequential in my professional life.”

    2024-07-10 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier: How to Build a Dominant Vertical SaaS Business, How to Master Going Into Enterprise, When & How to Launch Second Products with Ara Mahdessian, Co-Founder @ServiceTitan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source