#040 Customer-Driven Products: How Brett Kopf built “Slack for Schools” and launched Omella

Smart Friends - A podcast by Eric Jorgenson

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Topics:   (7:11) - Brett’s earliest memories of his strengths   (9:58) - Understanding different skills and abilities   (13:36) - Brett’s early career   (18:08) - What was the moment of conception for Remind?   (26:03) - What were some pivotal moments early on?   (30:08) - How much did Twilio aid your growth?   (31:18) - What role did investor selection play into the success of Remind?   (35:00) - Transitioning into Omella   (44:18) - How many customers did you talk to before building the product?   (45:11) - What’s the process of building conviction in your product?   (50:38) - How much wider is the purview of Omella than Remind in terms of the market it helps?   (55:11) - Thoughts on distribution, engagement and retention   (1:01:15) - How has the founder experience compared with your second company vs. the first?   (1:03:38) - How does leverage fit into structuring Omella?   (1:08:23) - What are the most common mental models you use to make decisions?   (1:12:50) - Do you find people to be overthinking while building a product?   (1:14:13) - Where would you like Omella to be in the next 5-10 years?   (1:15:09) - How do you ensure you can keep a small high-performance team rather than solve problems via headcount?   (1:16:16) - How often do customers that you interact with become evangelists for Omella?     Links: BrettKopf.com Brett Kopf on Twitter and LinkedIn   Omella   Remind   Acton academy   The Theory of Constraints   To support this costs of producing this podcast:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners  >> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa  >> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson >> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.