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Excerpt
Our guest for today is Mr. Sam Kamani. He is the CEO and co-founder of Product Done.
Product Done builds software for really early-stage startups for entrepreneurs and founders. A lot of the founders who come to them are non-tech founders and they have amazing ideas such as an SAS product or a mobile app. We just have them bring their ideas to life.
How much do you charge for, let’s say a simple software as a service product or for a company who wants to digitize their inventory ERP?
For software, it goes anywhere from USD5,000 to USD30,000 maximum. That being said, we have even helped some entrepreneurs build small concepts and clickable prototypes that they can present to their investors for funding. We have all sorts of stages and all sorts of budgets. Product Done has been running for the last year and a half. Before this, however, Sam has had two others exist in different areas.
Tell us about these two exits. What are your first and second companies? Please let us know.
The first company Sam joined in 2007 dealt with herbal supplements and nutraceuticals. These were very similar to pharmaceutical products. At the time, everything was done offline. Their processes used catalogs, call centers, and other offline channels.
Sam, with his expertise in eCommerce, digital marketing, and growth hacking, managed to help the company grow nearly 500% in a span of a few years. This allowed him to buy in the company.
The next exit was with an esport company. Sam was once again head of growth. His stint in the position managed to improve the company from having 60,000 monthly users to 300,00 monthly users in only eight months.
This achievement and his other contributions led to him becoming the chief operating officer or the COO of the company. This exit was acquired towards the middle of 2018.
What led to your decision to join an esports company after being so successful with a nutraceutical company?
With esports, Sam and his team were able to do some very interesting things. The best part was that people from all around the world can tune in on streaming platforms such as Twitch, Youtube, and Facebook. It’s very easy to go from 1000 users to 2 million. it won’t take that long when compared to physical pharmaceuticals which might take years and years to achieve the same thing.
The feeling of scaling was what brought Sam back into tech.
When you exited the pharmaceutical industry, was it just you, or did all of the shareholders exit as well?
There was only one shareholder besides Sam at the time and they both exited. It is vital to have an agreement with your co-founder or the person you’re running your business with. You should have the same vision in pretty much everything you do. Otherwise, it will be hard for you to get anywhere.
Now, Sam’s previous co-founder has already written 12 books, six of which are fiction. She is very satisfied with her life right now because she’s doing what she always wanted to do.
You also have a book of your own. Did your previous co-founder inspire you to write it?
Sam’s previous co-founder is probably in her early seventies now, but she has never stopped learning. She has this amazing discipline.
Because of this, he wanted to share all the stories that he has accumulated within the years, particularly how to grow and scale your startup. Sam’s book is called the 30-Day Startup
What do you want people to learn from your book?
Sam’s book talks about the methodology of developing a minimum viable product and promoting it incredibly fast. It talks about how people that have an idea shouldn’t just sit on it for years. They should go out and do it.
Sam likens it to driving a car without power steering. It is very hard to turn a car that is not moving. But it’s easy to turn a car that is. The book encourages people to go out and build something. Stop waiting and start building fast.
The main advantage that startups have is their speed and agility that is lacking in large corporations. Be it alone or with a co-founder, you should go out there and build something. Start promoting and get real feedback.
Sam’s book has been heavily influenced by Eric Rice.
