The New Frontier: The AI, ecommerce and Answer Engine Optimization podcast How to Start, Scale and Sell a Software Business with Rael Cline
In the 50th episode of The New Frontier, we welcome, Rael Cline, a seasoned entrepreneur who transitioned from private equity to building and selling multiple companies, including Nozzle. Rael shares his journey from founding Nozzle, reflecting on the challenges and lessons learned along the way. The conversation touches on the importance of customer discovery, strategic hiring, and the evolving role of AI in software businesses.
Rael dives deep into the ideation process behind Nozzle, explaining how he identified a gap in Amazon's data ecosystem and built a solution to provide brands with customer lifetime value (LTV) insights. He discusses the early struggles of convincing brands to adopt new metrics, the power of proprietary data for retention and marketing, and the shift from direct-to-consumer brands to larger enterprise clients. The episode also explores the challenges of raising venture capital, managing platform dependencies on Amazon, and scaling a SaaS business in a rapidly evolving market. Rael also reflects on Nozzle’s acquisition by Optimizon and the integration process within a larger agency.
At the end of the episode Rael and Max reflect on why now is the best time ever to build a software start up thanks to AI.
This podcast is brought to you by Ecomtent and Amazing Wave.
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