Jyoti Bansal is the co-founder and CEO of Harness, the software delivery platform used by thousands of engineering teams, and previously founded AppDynamics, which he led from inception to a multibillion-dollar acquisition by Cisco. In this episode, Jyoti unpacks what it really takes to move from mid-market to enterprise, why he thinks in terms of “product-market-sales fit,” and how he structures Harness as a collection of “startups within a startup” to launch multiple “best-of-breed” products.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
• Why companies get stuck in the mid-market and struggle to move up into enterprise
• Why Jyoti deliberately lost Netflix as their customer
• The difference between product-market-sales fit, and product-market-fit
• How to build a scalable, capacity-driven go-to-market machine (instead of chasing deals)
• Diagnosing whether you have a product problem or a distribution problem
• How to hire and evaluate your first head of sales and top sales leaders
• Why Jyoti sold AppDynamics three days before IPO
• The “binary differentiator” rule for launching new products into crowded markets
• Why Harness runs 16 product lines under one roof
Timestamps:
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01:48) Why do companies get stuck in the mid-market?
(
05:09) Designing a product for enterprise and mid-market
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07:19) Why Jyoti lost Netflix as a customer - on purpose
(
10:18) Becoming a scalable GTM organization
(
12:32) The real signs of product-market fit
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14:04) Have you delivered the value?
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15:46) How to hire your first sales team
(
19:59) The four signs of excellent sales leaders
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23:16) How to interview a sales leader
(
27:51) Where Jyoti developed his commercial taste
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29:37) Why early founders need to learn sales
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32:02) How AppDynamics began
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36:36) Why Jyoti sold three days pre-IPO
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41:55) What does a healthy board look like?
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44:23) How Jyoti perceives competition
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46:18) Why you need a binary differentiator
(
49:53) How to launch multiple products
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52:00) “We need to be best of breed”
(
57:38) Why PMs are like mini-entrepreneurs
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1:00:20) The startup within a startup
(
1:02:45) A culture of continuous improvement
