Founder10x - Sell Before You Build - Dominique Levin, 2X CEO & Investor with over $1B in exits

Dominique Levin is a 2x CEO, a go-to-market architect, and a wildly successful investor with over a billion dollars in exits. She’s seen it all, and she has a playbook for a lot of challenges founders face while building their companies.

⭐ Sponsored by Podcast10x - Podcasting agency for VCs - https://podcast10x.com

Links-

Dominique Levin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominiquelevin

Book that Dominique Levin:

1. Survival to Thrival: She mentioned this is a two-book series written by Bob Tinker and Tae Hea Nahm.

* Book 1: Survival to Thrival: Building the Enterprise Startup (The Company Journey)

* Book 2: Survival to Thrival: Change or Be Changed (The People Journey)

2. The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production by James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos.

🎙️ Hosted by Prashant Choubey

Follow Prashant on X - https://x.com/ChoubeySahab

Follow Prashant on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/choubeysahab

In this episode, we talk about -

- Why founders should sell before they build

- The "SAFER" Note: A radical new funding model for founders who want to avoid the VC treadmill.

- The secret behind her success as a VC with over $1 Billion in exits

- Why the future isn't about work-life balance, but building a company that lets your team lead multiple lives

- Remote work, how should leaders think about it, and how it promotes inclusivity

& lots more

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:38) First discussion on go-to-market strategy

(02:57) Common mistakes founders make in go-to-market strategy

- Worrying about go-to-market too soon

- Having multiple go-to-market motions

- Mismatch between go-to-market motion and product/contract value

(05:33) Definition of product-market fit

- Solving a "hair-on-fire" problem

- Validating by selling before building

- Customers willing to pay for a solution

(07:18) Approaching product development

- Think big but act small

- Solve a specialized, unaddressed problem

- Be 10X or infinitely better than existing solutions

(08:53) Fundraising advice for early-stage founders

- Focus on customers first

- Have at least three paying customers

- Traction is the most important thing for investors

(10:26) Building repeatable and scalable revenue processes

- Treat sales as a process or "revenue factory"

- Align marketing, sales, and customer success

- Use AI to optimize go-to-market motion

(13:11) AI applications in go-to-market strategies

- SEO/LLM content creation

- Lead generation

- Prospecting research

- Sales engineering support

(15:57) Investing approach and philosophy

- Looking for unfair competitive advantage

- Leveraging unique relationships and information

(19:15) Balancing product development with sales and customer success

- Sell first, build later

- Minimum effort to prove solving a critical problem

(20:15) Building high-performance teams

- Outward mindset- Focus on customer impact

- Clear mission and vision

(23:10) Transitioning from startup to scale-up

- Different leadership styles at different stages

- Adapting to company growth

(25:31) AI and automation in SaaS

- Becoming AI-native

- Potential for customer-funded businesses

- Alternative funding models

(27:42) One-and-done funding model- SAFE-R (Simple Agreement for Future Equity with Repayment)

- Aligning investor and founder interests

(30:40) Building and managing remote companies

- Challenges of hybrid work

- Importance of in-person interactions

- Maintaining team productivity

(37:31) Flexibility in remote work

- Project-based roles

- Portfolio careers

- Accommodating personal life and work

(43:00) Work-life balance and parental leave

- Personal experiences with parental leave

- Challenges for working parents

(47:35) Rapid-fire round about investing

- Sectors, stages, and investment approach

For sponsorship or guest appearance requests, write to prashantchoubey3@gmail.com

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