EP 151 : Bootstrapping to Acquisition - Aman Goel (Co-founder, Cogno AI) | SaaS | Conversational AI

Aman is the co-founder of Cogno AI, an AI powered cloud communication platform. Aman started Cogno right out college and recently got acquired by Exotel. In this episode he spoke about Weighing the opportunity cost of starting up, the nuances of selling to large enterprises, dealing with funded competitors and more in his conversation with Roshan Cariappa.

Topics:

01:15 Founding story of Cogno AI

03:28 Weighing the opportunity cost of starting up

05:47 Transitioning from services to products

08:30 Shift in mindset from services to product

10:13 Nuances of selling to large enterprises

14:13 Cogno's Distribution strategy 

18:45 Aligning stakeholder's priorities

21:10 Building with the enterprise v/s innovating

23:35 Advantages of Bootstrapping  

26:45 Dealing with funded competitors

29:48 Choice of verticalizing

32:13 Cogno's acquisition by Exotel

38:37 The journey ahead 

41:04 Persisting through problems

43:53 The most difficult thing to learn in this journey

46:19 Common mistakes founders should avoid

48:53 Books and Podcasts Recommendations

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Connect with Aman :

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/goel-aman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amangoeliitb

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Connect with Us: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator

​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​

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