Product-Market Fit: From Edtech Vitamin to $100M Painkiller copertina

Product-Market Fit: From Edtech Vitamin to $100M Painkiller

Product-Market Fit: From Edtech Vitamin to $100M Painkiller

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 Seven years selling a nice-to-have. Then 1,000 customers in year one. Adam Markowitz spent nearly a decade grinding in edtech before finding product-market fit at Drata. In this episode, founders will learn how to tell the difference between a vitamin and a painkiller - and why that distinction changes everything. Adam shares how experiencing a compliance pain at his first startup became the foundation for Drata, why he refused to sell until his team used their own product to get SOC 2 compliant, and how a "give before you take" approach to AWS made Drata a top 5 ISV on Marketplace in under two years. Drata has over 8,000 customers across 60 countries, more than 600 employees, and crossed $100 million in ARR before its fourth birthday. The company has raised over $300 million. This episode is brought to you by: 🌎 ThreatLocker → Book a demo 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Product-market fit shows in buyer urgency, not just signups: Drata signed 100 customers in 6 weeks and 1,000 in year one - a stark contrast to Adam's edtech company where the first 5 university customers took years to close. 🛠️ Dogfood your product before selling it: Drata refused to accept customers until they used their own tool to get SOC 2 compliant, giving them instant credibility and proving the product worked under real conditions. 🔍 Validate by talking to every stakeholder, not just buyers: Adam spoke with dozens of companies and auditors before writing code, discovering identical pain patterns that made the initial product scope obvious. 🤝 Give before you take with strategic partners: Drata brought thousands of first-time customers to AWS Marketplace before asking for anything in return, becoming a top 5 global ISV in under two years. 📉 Selling a vitamin versus a painkiller changes everything: Seven years in edtech taught Adam what product-market fit feels like when you don't have it. At Drata, customers lined up because compliance wasn't optional. 🚀 Reassemble a proven team to compress execution time: Adam brought back the same co-founders, engineers, and go-to-market team from Portfolium. The muscle memory from working together for 7 years accelerated every phase of Drata's launch. 🏢 Keep partners independent to build a distribution moat: Drata's Auditor Alliance kept audit firms independent rather than competing with them. Two-thirds of Drata's pipeline is now sourced or influenced through partner channels. Chapters Introduction What Drata does and the trust problem it solves Revenue, customers, and team size From astronaut dreams to NASA's Space Shuttle program Building Portfolium after NASA retired the shuttle Teaching himself to code and finding a CTO Selling Portfolium for $43 million The long road to product-market fit in edtech The university sales cycle that changed everything How the Portfolium pain led to founding Drata Validating the problem before writing code Getting the band back together Using Drata to get their own SOC 2 before selling Signing 100 customers in six weeks How Drata differentiated in a crowded market What broke at 1,000 customers Building the Auditor Alliance partner program The AWS Marketplace strategy and give-before-you-take Why aggressive sales culture was intentional AI tailwinds for compliance and trust Lightning round Closing thoughts 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: https://saasclub.io/accelerate Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/471 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe
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