A big shoutout to all product leaders. Welcome to the Product Leaders Podcast by Fireart with your hosts, Dima Venglinski and Tolik Nguyen. Every episode is a deep dive into different aspects of product leadership to enhance the end-user experience. 

In this episode, Tolik is joined by Vivek Bhaskaran, Founder and CEO at QuestionPro, a leading provider of online survey software. The platform offers tools for creating, polling, distributing, analyzing surveys, and data visualization. Vivek shares his insights across a broad spectrum of topics, including bootstrapping, prioritizing product development, always be selling, and the secret behind success and longevity.

Topics we discuss: 

Vivek mentions that bootstrapping, if anything, has gotten simpler now. He recalls how he started eighteen years ago by writing code and building his server by himself. Today, software development is a much simpler and quicker process. For founders wishing to go the bootstrapping route, there are many more opportunities today. He also mentions that the constant across the eighteen-year timeline is that the real challenge is getting the software in the hands of the first thousand users.

How you handle customer feedback-based product modifications depends on your growth phase. In the initial stages, when you’re still trying to optimize product market fit, you must resolve the customer problem in totality. In effect, you’re customizing your product for the user. When you’re further down the growth path, you first generalize the customer issue and apply minor tweaks to the product. Customers who still want specific issues to be addressed are an opportunity to open a revenue pipeline through customization.

 Always be Selling

Many people have issues with selling, yet we have all been in a situation where we need to do the selling. The key is to look at selling as solving a problem. You have something to offer that a specific group of people need; all you need to do is find the buyer-seller match. Another fear linked to selling is the fear of rejection. The way around this is to stop personalizing the rejection. If someone says no, keep moving on till someone says yes. 

Viveks pegs his longevity as a founder to motivation. He stays motivated by taking regular breaks and not the vacation types. He took a break from QuestionPro from 2010 to 2015 and trusted the management team to run the company successfully. He started new ventures and learned new skills. When he returned to QuestionPro, his role changed from the day-to-day operation to a more strategic vision of taking the company to 100 million dollars in sales. Listen to the podcast to get insights on how to stay motivated and prevent burnout.

“Taking a company from one to ten million is very different from taking it from ten to thirty and on to 100”  

Vivek Bhaskaran describes himself as a computer engineer driven by two things every day; motorcycles and client success. He is the Founder and CEO of QuestionPro, and he has bootstrapped his way to a thirty-million-dollar company.  

Dima Venglinski: Dima is the CEO of Fireart Studio, a boutique design and software development company committed to innovation and technology. His client portfolio ranges from startups to established global brands like Rolls Royce, Google, and Atlassian. 

Connect with Dima on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website

Tolik Nguyen: Tolik is the CSO and Partner at Fireart Studio and leads the strategy team while solving the company’s end-user issues from an early idea stage. 

Connect with Tolik on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website