Staying connected to customers as you scale

I often think back to the early days at Thinknear and Sense360, when I was on every call with prospects and customers. It was my direct line to understanding what they were trying to solve and how we could build a product they would value.

But as we scaled, that line started to stretch, and suddenly, I couldn't be on every call. At first, it was jarring. It felt strange not to have a personal connection with every customer. Overtime, I realized that the bigger issue is that the distance between customers and myself was making it harder for me to truly understand them.

I knew that scaling meant hiring great people and trusting them, but I also felt that my ability to run the company depended on me having a really tight, direct line into what customers needed and wanted.

There was no perfect solution, but what worked for me was to join as many calls as I could, not just to solve problems, but to listen and learn.

I also made it a point to get to know customers and open a direct channel for them to reach me.

And within our team, we built systems and processes to create a feedback loop.

This journeys taught me that scaling requires building layers between founders and their customers. This can lead to serious issues and it is critical for founders to do everything they can to stay as connected with their customers as possible.