Salespeople have a problem: they only spend 21% of their time actually selling to customers 🤝
@mutinycorp CEO Jaleh Rezaei (@jalehr) thought she'd found a way to fix it. She worked with customers like Snowflake and Uber. Revenue reached 8-figures 📈
Which makes what happened next all the more shocking: she burned it all down 🔥
On The Upstarts Podcast, Jaleh shares why she took the tough decision to fire her customers, slash headcount and re-found her startup around an AI agent.
We go into AI's disruption of SaaS; her favorite advice from @fin's @destraynor on pivoting and from @ycombinator's @garrytan on showing the chart you don't want people to see; how to get over "Claude Spookies," and why speed is (mostly) all you need.
This season of the show is presented by @Rippling 🫡
CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 2:41 An AI agent for sales 7:04 Why an AI ‘blank canvas’ doesn’t work 10:38 Jaleh’s founder journey and Gusto lessons 17:01 Mutiny’s early software success 22:51 Jaleh’s Upstart Moment: tearing it down 24:42 Why you can’t rebuild a business halfway 27:15 Intercom’s founders share valuable advice 30:44 Focus on the business, not the optics 34:53 ‘Speed is the only thing that matters’ 37:40 ‘Claude spookies’ in the AI app layer 43:59 Second-time founder advantage
Thanks for watching!
