#363 - Sunil Patel, CEO of Tekmetric on ignoring customer wishlists to kill industry dinosaurs

A story about turning repair shop headaches into gold by solving real problems, not copying competitors

This podcast interview reveals why the best software breaks all the rules. My guest is Sunil Patel, CEO of Tekmetric.

Before building software, Sunil owned and operated multiple auto repair shops, giving him a rare insider's perspective on the industry's real problems. He's a practical entrepreneur who's obsessed with simplicity and hates wasted effort. When in 2016, eight years after iPhones hit the market, shop owners still couldn't leverage that technology to run their business, Sunil decided to be the one to change that.

And this inspired me to invite Sunil to my podcast. We explore how breaking industry norms and staying true to first principles creates remarkable companies. Sunil shares hard truths about why they turned down big clients, cut all marketing spending to zero, and raised the least funding in the industry - yet still became the market leader and only profitable one. You'll discover the counterintuitive decision that shocked his competitors but doubled customer loyalty overnight.

Here's one of Sunil's quotes that captures his business philosophy:

"We used first principles thinking. Everybody in our space wants to copy features from one another. Their sales team says 'we can't win against Tekmetric because they have these features' and they try to emulate what we've built. I don't approach development that way. I want to figure out what we're trying to solve."

By listening to this podcast you'll learn:

• Why maintaining the right departmental hierarchy prevents overselling and product gaps
• What approach led Sunil to solve in one click what competitors needed 60-80 clicks for
• When saying "no" to customers with big wallets and long wishlists makes you more money
• Why hiring the right people trumps everything else in scaling a business

For more information about the guest from this week:

Guest: Sunil Patel

Website: https://www.tekmetric.com/