Sramana Mitra: I just talked to an entrepreneur in Romania. 30% of his business is tying in with another e-commerce platform called Wix. I can tell you that if you talk to that guy, he’s going to give you a completely different point of view than the one that you are pushing which is people
Sramana Mitra: From a strategic planning point of view, you have to look at where you are, where your market is, where the competition is, and figure out the priorities and market drivers. It’s true that everything works and everything doesn’t; but you have to make choices and decisions, and those other factors drive decision
David Barrett: When it comes to the platforms, I’d be curious to see if a major value of one the platforms is reaching existing customers. One of the major ways of starting a new business is to reach new customers that are currently underserved. Can you use the Salesforce platform to go after a market
Sramana Mitra: I work with formation-stage companies all the time. Two guys or one person and an outsourced team of developers build these formation stage companies where they would want to spend their resources. The best place to spend your resources is what is differentiated. Going in and competing against AWS is not a differentiated
Sramana Mitra: Let me address the points that you have made. The first point is that one of the most successful ecosystems where 30% of the apps revenue has gone to the company and has immensely added to the company’s success is Apple. It’s a platform ecosystem. David Barrett: I completely agree with you if you
Sramana Mitra: What has changed in the market in the last six years? What are the big trends that are affecting your business? David Barrett: I would say the collapse of the conference industry. For a while, there were accounting conferences where everyone would show up and pitch, but all that fell apart.
I first interviewed Dave in 2014. I suggest you read that interview first before reading this one. This discussion is a terrific back and forth on a wide-ranging set of topics, including FinTech. Very, very interesting!
David Barrett, Founder and CEO of Expensify, has a terrific back and forth with me on a wide-ranging set of topics, including FinTech. Very, very interesting conversation.