It sounds like you've been involved in document management from the beginning.

Yes, I've been around since documents were actually something you'd write on. If you saw my gray hair and wrinkles, you'd know I've been around for a while.

Today, we want to discuss bringing a SAS product to market. We'd love to learn more about it from your experience. One of the first questions we have is, how do you identify a good ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) early on?

Identifying the right ICP starts with understanding the target audience's pain points, needs, and expectations. You need to do market research, examine industry trends, and talk to potential customers to refine your ICP. Often, it comes from gut feelings. Entrepreneurs have a gut feeling about an idea or experience, thinking they can do it better Follow our Channel and use our Marketplace. What other tips would you have for maybe some of the earlier stage entrepreneurs for bringing their product to Market successfully?

Well, I think first off, you're going to have a passion and a gut feeling on what you want to bring to Market. You can never do enough research, but you have to do initial research to make sure that there is a good product-market fit. I think communication from your ideas to the R&D team and then understanding the product value to the customer base and communicating that to your marketing team, while leveraging all aspects of digital marketing to find potential customers, is key. If I was to really summarize, have achievable milestones in the early stages and make sure you have early indicators that you are reaching those milestones. Pick a specific customer or a specific beachhead and go after it with all the gusto you can. Ensure that what you thought you were developing, these particular beachheads or customers, agree with you, buy into it, become early adopters, and give you the feedback that you need to improve the product based on end users' experience. Don't be afraid to fail because that's when you really learn. Adjust and don't make the same mistakes twice. Some of the questions of an early SaaS are: What can I do on my own? What's the best way to raise money? What's the best way to raise money and keep as much equity as I possibly can? It's a stair step, and I don't know if I'm answering your question specifically, but I think you hit on a couple of important points there. Yeah, I think it's just that you have to be all in. Most entrepreneurs are all in. If you are and then you build a team that comes all in with you, I think that's the best start you could possibly have.

What would you define as the moment of product-market fit? Is there a signal that an entrepreneur could look for that would just tell them that yes, we have something here, and this thing's ready to scale? Like when people start buying it?

Yeah, and the word of mouth kicks in. You start generating the revenue that you expected in order to eventually get a positive cash flow and then scale off that. It's most... I mean, there are people that have created products in which this entire greenfield, Foxit in our case, we created a product that competed against a behemoth like Adobe that invented PDF. So our approach to finding that right product-market fit was, in a couple of ways, someone looking for a better return on investment from a spend standpoint, maybe diversifying the amount of software companies that they do business with, so they don't have so much risk. When we started off, we did what Adobe did. We had a free reader and a paid-for editor product. We had to find the right people in the right places that were looking for an alternative. In the early days when we were smaller, it was a little bit easier. As we get bigger and realize that we have to penetrate into the Enterprise, it becomes more of a challenge. You have to pivot.

What do you see as the new opportunities over the next few years for software? That's obviously a big buzzword now.

Yeah, I think when you look at that question, it is AI, machine learning. I believe that's something that I would see as a great opportunity to leverage AI or machine learning technology specifically to help knowledge workers be more productive. When you look at AI, you could say, 'Well, we're going to remove knowledge workers,' that's the biggest threat. But if I was a knowledge worker, I would think I would embrace that technology in order One suggestion I have is to leverage the experience and knowledge of others who have already overcome similar obstacles. Many technology groups offer mentorship and gatherings where you can ask questions and learn from those who have achieved what you're aiming for. It's essential to be humble and recognize that you may not have all the answers since you haven't been in the same situations as others. Gathering information from experienced individuals is crucial for your success.

Learning from other people's failures is also valuable. By listening to the right people, you can understand where they went wrong and what they would do differently if given the chance. It's better to learn from others' experiences than to go through the same hardships yourself. As the saying goes, "I wish I knew then what I know now."

Speaking of failures, let me share an example. A couple of years ago, we acquired the Nissan company to expand into the e-signature market. We thought it would be easy to introduce the technology to our existing customer base, but it turned out to be more challenging than expected. We didn't meet our goals in the first year because we didn't have a good understanding of our customers. We lacked a proper customer data platform. However, this failure led us to invest in improving our understanding of customers and their needs. As a result, things have been going much better now.

On the other hand, I can also share a product success story. Back in the early 2000s, we faced the challenge of providing technical mapping data to non-technical field technicians efficiently. Leveraging PDF technology, we made our PDF files location-aware, enabling technicians to access vital information about facilities. This innovation made our product stand out and was well-received by our customers. By leveraging PDF and its ease of use, we successfully delivered technical information to non-technical users in various industries, including the military, intelligence community, telecommunications, and utilities.

Understanding our customers' needs and developing a solution that was easy to use played a significant role in the success of this product. Our customers were able to grasp the functionality within half an hour of training, and the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. By capitalizing on the power of PDF as a means of communication between computers and humans, we created a solution that met a crucial demand in the market.

Looking ahead, our goal at Foxit is to become a global leader in digital document solutions. We're excited about the potential of AI features and plan to expand our product suite to incorporate AI capabilities. We aim to continue innovating and providing cutting-edge solutions to meet the evolving needs of our customers in the digital age. AI-driven innovation is a key focus for us, and we are actively seeking strategic partnerships to expand our global market reach. We have recently gone public, providing us with the capital needed for internal and external expansion. Our goal is to leverage PDF technology and apply it to specific use cases, taking a deep dive approach rather than a broad horizontal one. We have a well-defined strategy that we are committed to executing and achieving great success. Our aim is to continue improving and broadening our offerings in the coming years.

Thank you for your kind words, and I do plan to stick around for a few more years. It has been a pleasure being here today, and for those interested in Foxit's software, you can find several products available on the Nacho Nacho Marketplace. And yes, there is a 10% discount available. Our products are built by knowledgeable experts who understand the industry. We offer an e-sign reader, a comprehensive PDF tool that covers all aspects of PDF, and a scalable e-sign solution that supports various workflows for electronic signatures. Additionally, we provide an SDK that allows users to enhance and build their own PDF solutions. It's worth mentioning that Google's PDF technology and Kindle are driven by Foxit's SDK, and Amazon was an early investor in our company. Our focus is on delivering easy-to-use solutions, and our customer service representatives are readily available to assist you.

We are excited about the upcoming features we will be rolling out, and we look forward to a long-lasting partnership. Remember to visit the Nacho Nacho Marketplace, the top destination for managing, discovering, and saving on SaaS products. Once again, thank you for your time, and we are eager to collaborate with you well into the future. Have a great day!