Noyan, a Turkish startup founder, talks about his journey from product manager to building a SaaS company. He covers hiring strategies, what makes startups succeed, and how to think about funding as you grow.
Of my college years I tried to build two startups but I failed. But I learned lots of things. And you know, in entrepreneurship environment we say we don't lose, right? We earn or learn. Most important thing. Startups should focus on real problems. I mean I see that there are many startups out there and they're just building products, but it doesn't solve anything. Yeah, I mean building team is so important because if you don't have strong team, then even if you have really great ideas for problems, then you can create your product.
Hey guys, this is Avi Arya, father of two girls, six dogs, husband to a superwoman, a streetcar racer turned hotelier, now social media marketer and founder of Internet Moguls. Welcome to my channel. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we're bringing to you another Internet mogul from a different part of the world. Somebody who's got great success and he's going to share our story with us. No. 1, I'm going to start with my story and I'm going to ask you to share your story with us.
Okay, sure. It is Noyan from Turkey. Actually I started this startup journey in my college years. At the beginning of my college years I tried to build two startups but I failed. But I learned lots of things. And you know, in entrepreneurship environment we say we don't lose, right? We earn or learn. I learned lots of things. And then before I graduated from college I started to work as a product manager at a company. And the aim of the company was to produce ideas inside the company, create MVP and make its first investments to build this mep. And then after building the product, go to market and test it with early customers and see that are there any traction, are there any interest and if yes, then create a spin off company for this product. And actually Decktopus is one of these companies. Exactly. The process was like that. We created Techtop site in that company, then we built mvp. We tested in the market and we saw that there are interactions. They are paying for the ectopus to use it. And then we created a spinoff company and right now still we are growing and managing the Octopus.
Excellent. Tell us a little bit about what do you think of three things that every startup needs?
Okay, first of all, I think the most important thing, the startups should focus on real problems. I mean I see that there are many startups out there and they're just building products but it doesn't solve anything. Yeah, I mean not real problems I can say. So focusing on problem is very important. First find problem, then Create a solution for this problem. This is important. I think second one, building team is so important because if you don't have strong team, then even if you have really great ideas for problems, then you can't create the product or solution. So I think having a good product, I mean, sorry, team is really important. And last one, I think looking forward is important. I mean being visionary, I can say so right now, today we can make things small things to solve problems. But I think we always think that in the future the company will become like this. I'll do that. So thinking big, I think it is really important. It also affects the culture of the company. Because if you are thinking big, then your team also will be affected by your vision. And then these three things will produce a good startup, I think.
Awesome. So tell me. Yeah, we all talk about hiring the right teams, but how do you hire the right people? You take like 20, 30 interviews. What do you look for? How do you get the right interviews done for hiring the right people?
Okay, hiring process is really important I think. And to me the great employee doesn't have to have great skills, lots of experience, etc. The most important thing is to have a culture fit. You know, when we are building company, actually we are building culture and everyone join this company, support the culture and shape the culture. So I look for, I actually talk and trying to see how his lifestyle, I mean, what he likes, what he doesn't like. And actually I look for culture fit. So then we of course ask what do you want to do? Okay, you applied for our sales job, but what do you want to do really? So you may work on different areas in the company. So culture fit and also really desires. We're looking for.
Tell me how is it that when you hire people, I mean as a SaaS company, how do you scale? Can you scale without funding? Because these small products, you need hundreds of thousands of. You need lots of customers to break even. So how does the business model work?
Okay, actually as I said at the beginning, we founded actually Decktop is a spin off company. So actually we had our first investments. So we created this, the MVP and the first product with this investment. And so we used actually this investment to go to market. And right now Dectopus has of course subscription business model. And we have two plans and just we are using organic search studies. I mean we are creating blog posts, we are trying to produce YouTube videos. And also we are using Google Ads and social ads to attract users. Our business model. Subscription business model.
Yeah. Okay, and so what is your, what Is your advice to people who want to get into SaaS products.
To start SaaS or to use to start as a company? Okay, first of all it is really hard. Of course every. Every business is hard to build, of course. But SaaS especially is a really competitive market. Even if you are solving really unique problem, there are tons of different companies out there and they are trying to solve the same problem most of time. So it is hard I think knowing that at the beginning it is important first know that everyone is struggling. But I would say don't give up because most of time even the famous companies when they start, they don't start with their initial idea or initial mvp. They are not continue with their initial product. It is pivoting always because environment also changing. If at the beginning the MVP let's say works well, but environment is changing, people is changing. So pivoting is important. So I would say that start with small, focus on small problems first. Focus on niche, build your mep. But always try to improve and optimize your product according to problems. I would say that don't try to perfect your products. Don't wait forever to go to market. Just build something that solves the problem at very basic level. Then go to market and test with the customers and see that are they using it or are they just ignoring the product. Then you can spend your time and money on different things. Right? So I would say that start, start whenever your product is ready to serve smallest can serve smallest things. So I would say that go and don't give up because it is challenging but you'll find the right way. I can say.
Okay, I've got two more very important questions.
Okay.
How do you. Should you choose your passion for your business or separate from your passion?
Okay, great question. Actually and I actually I started with my first company was related to sales. I mean it was a platform for companies and salespeople. They were meeting on that platform. Then I created another startup and it was micro influencer platform. And then I played guitar at cafe at night and I played chess. I like to read books. And right now I am doing presentation platform. And the point is I'm trying to say the life is surprising and we always say some opportunities. I think the answer should be like this. If you can build a product or SaaS based on your passion, it would be great. But if you can't do it then just focus on some problems and try to enjoy with this product. So I'm sure that nobody start with okay. I love this industry. Of course there might be some Exceptions but most of time I believe that people see some problems and they just focus on this problem and produce a product. So I think that when first Spotify is out there, the owner didn't say that I love music so much so I must do something for music industry, etc. No, he solved the problem and he built something and now there Spotify. Of course as I said there might be some exceptions and I see so many startups also start with service business. They're not SaaS, they are just serving some service. Then convert this service into a SaaS startup then it might be the case the service might be the passion of the owner. But I see most of time we just see problems and create product for this problems I can say okay, my.
Last question Noyan is when should you decide to take funding?
I think in SAS forecasting is so important. You know your growth rate, you know your mrr. When you look at feature you see what is your cost, what will you get and what you need to go certain points. So I think the startups should be looking for funds way before they need to it. Because also I'm joining lots of investor sessions and I have opportunity to listen others when you need immediately a fund investors just looking for and saying that okay, you need some investment right now, okay then there might be some problems right why you need right now and what will happen if you don't get this fund etc. So this might be a negative sign. So I think if you are, if you think that you want to grow your business then you should calculate your when is the breaking point, what's your goal and what you want to target. So then you decide how much money you need and way before start to meet investors and just start talking so investor then will value you more than the previous situation.
Got it. Perfect. Thank you very much. We had eight questions but you had all the questions ready. So ladies and gentlemen, I did not give him the questions beforehand. This is the first time I asked the questions but he had all the amazing answers. Nayan, thank you very much for your time. For our audience who are going to be listening, where can they find you?
Actually as we said we are building Dectopus and Dectopus is an online interactive presentation tool. So you can go decktops.com it is deck like startupish deck and topus techtops.com and you can find us and also you can find me on LinkedIn noyan idin you can find and if you have any questions I would like to answer and if you just want to meet, then I can. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for having me, abhi.
Thank you, my friend. Thank you so much for all your help. And sorry for the late rescheduling. But really appreciate this.
No problem. Thank you for having me. Goodbye. Take care.
