Building a Global ERP Company from Estonia: Katana CEO Kristjan Vilosius (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: That gap was obvious when you decided to position into the Shopify ecosystem. You’d already found that gap, right? Kristjan Vilosius: Yes. Well, we’d found that when we founded the company. By the time we had finished our basic prototype, we realized that the opportunity is there. Sramana Mitra: How much was the

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Building a Global ERP Company from Estonia: Katana CEO Kristjan Vilosius (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Okay. Now, during these two years, tell me about the pricing model and the revenue. What was happening? What was the market accepting as your pricing model? What were you able to sell at and how was that adding up to your ARR, MRR?

Building a Global ERP Company from Estonia: Katana CEO Kristjan Vilosius (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: When you first started getting into the Shopify ecosystem, was Shopify’s marketplace effective in getting you in there? Were you able to put in an app in the Shopify app store to get into that market? Kristjan Vilosius: We did put up an app in the Shopify App Store. That is how we

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Building a Global ERP Company from Estonia: Katana CEO Kristjan Vilosius (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: The entrenched competitors are heavy duty. So that’s my next question. What did you do positioning-wise and go-to-market strategy-wise? So that’s where we’re going to spend most of our time now, on what you are doing, on how did you break in and what was the positioning? How did you navigate the market?

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Building a Global ERP Company from Estonia: Katana CEO Kristjan Vilosius (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Talk about thewe. You said you were three co-founders. Tell me how you guys came together, how you met, how you decided to get together? And secondly, what was the idea around which you came together originally? What happened then? What was the state of the union? What was the state of the

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Building a Global ERP Company from Estonia: Katana CEO Kristjan Vilosius (Part 1)

ERP is an entrenched category full of incumbents. Katana is a wonderful story of excellent positioning and strategy work to find market foothold. Sramana Mitra: All right, Kristjan, let’s start with your personal background. Where are you from, where were you born, raised, what kind of circumstances? Kristjan Vilosius: Firstly, thank you for having me

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Bringing a Generative AI Product to Market: RJ Talyor, Founder CEO, Backstroke and Pattern89 (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Now, what did you decide this time around in enterprise versus SME? Where did you position? And did you start with a good, solid positioning and commitment? RJ Talyor: We’re going right after the mid-market. We’re looking at businesses or retailers, specifically with 100-1,000 employees. We’re looking for people who send two to three emails

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Bringing a Generative AI Product to Market: RJ Talyor, Founder CEO, Backstroke and Pattern89 (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Can you double-click down and talk about your validation process in this company, given what you experienced in the previous RJ Talyor: One thing that I’ve done is structure contracts. I found that everybody loves to be cheerleaders for startups, but ultimately, startups are measured by revenue. We have structured all of our engagements with

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