Finding the Niche
Interview with Zach Errant, Co-Founder at Curate
Did you know that until a few years ago, the floral and event industry had no software to automate operations? Most vendors tracked everything manually. Traditional options like QuickBooks didn’t get the job done. Then came Curate, joining the SaaS revolution.
SaaS (Software as a Service) companies have grown popular targeting niches where standard processes are tedious.
What makes them successful?
SaaS companies embed solutions, usually with a software product, for unique industries where ample automation hasn’t arrived yet. To this day, small business owners juggle taxing and mundane tasks to survive. To juggle less, owners hire more employees which increases overhead costs and eats into profits. A SaaS that automates these tasks helps small business owners reduce overhead costs, frees up more of their time, and helps them scale easier.
When the Curate founders discovered no product existed in the florist and event planner market, they made one. Curate is a SaaS solution that makes it easier for florists to create proposals and track inventories and costs. It also makes it simple for businesses to order, send, and gather items with automated checklists. By creating a unique product in a niche industry, the Curate team established a strong product-market fit which is what SaaS companies need to succeed. (Product-Market fit article coming soon.)
If you find an opportunity, how do you start? Would you need funding to start?
Curate was actually bootstrapped before it raised $500,000 in its first funding round. Raising money wasn’t at the top of the team’s list. Curate’s founding team initially worked out of a home office and outsourced development. They honed-in on creating a product that produced immediate value, focused on solving core competencies, and prioritized growing the company organically. When its founders pitched to VC’s (venture capital firms), Curate had already proven its product worked. The goal in pitching for funds was to gain the mentorship and VC specific resources to take the company to the next level.
What are some principles and philosophies that make Curate successful?
The founders continue to wear multiple hats as the company scales while hiring employees for a “tour of duty” or a specific function as quoted by Reid Hoffman in his book, The Alliance. Curate’s fifteen employees all share the same values and individually represent their culture. “You can’t build a great product that solves real problems without a great team. It’s the cornerstone of building a business.”
What are some things Curate does to create a great customer relationship?
Curate hosted an event in Saint Louis where it brought event florists and influencers from around the country together. The event was mutually beneficial. Curate had its customers face-to-face providing feedback about the product and interacting with the team. The customers had industry leaders and the Curate team to educate them on how to use the software and industry resources to take their brands to the next level.
What are some metrics or indicators Curate uses to track progress?
Every day, processes and operations are reviewed to maximize efficiency. Curate tracks marketing, sales pipelines and funnels, new ARR, churn rates, and other product metrics/parameters to keep the business in high growth mode. All decisions are data-driven in order to further improve processes.
What are some challenges that aren’t measurable by a metric?
Some of the challenges Curate faces are the organizational politics involved as it scales. When the team was smaller, it was easier to test variables and run with ideas since the initial customers and team members were able to communicate directly with each other. As Curate scales, it wants to maintain a similar experience while focusing on its core business competencies. The Saint Louis influencer event is just one way Curate addresses this. By having the principle of putting the customer first, Curate has created one of the best customer service and on-boarding experiences in the industry.
What’s next for Curate?
While seeking to improve the event market, its goal is to assist other event planning professionals like caterers, rental companies, and entertainers who manage their own events. These industries have outdated solutions and Curate wants to disrupt it.
Curate often uses interviews to learn about the industry and to “pick the customer’s brain on what features work and how to improve the product.” Based on the feedback the team collects, it runs it through a formula that brings new solutions through the door. “Once you start selling and on-boarding new customers at a rapid rate, it can be a whole different ball-game. You need to be able to react quickly to hundreds of different situations as you grow.”
The team’s long term goal is to create an agnostic suite of solutions for the event industry. The product doesn’t need every single feature requested to make customers happy. It has to solve their major pain points. Who knew “keep it simple stupid” would actually apply to startups? If customers care about tracking proposals and inquiry processes but not necessarily their inventory, then only make the prior an option. Curate does this with its ‘a la carte’ purchasing options, a unique offering in the industry and market.
Releasing product updates as soon as possible is valuable. If it needs changes, you can quickly iterate on new features. As long as the customer sees value in the product — they’ll stay loyal to your brand.
How does this apply to me? How can I build a SaaS company from scratch if I didn’t come up with the idea?
Before joining Curate, Zach had prior startup experience in two high-growth companies. He initially saw a listing and sent Ryan a message. It ended up being a good match on a lot of areas — culture fit, previous experience, and a fast-paced-growth mindset.
Zach showed he was a doer and a hustler; those are the qualities needed to join a ship embarking in new waters.
Original article: https://phintech.substack.com/p/finding-the-niche
To learn more about Curate and their founding team take a peek at their website or the following articles:
https://eqstl.com/finding-another-entrepreneur-to-ask-advice/
https://eqstl.com/the-first-step-in-making-your-startups-first-hire/
