This content was created by Tim Draper. This content was uploaded by Tim Draper. This is a YouTube video titled "Know Your Market | CEO of Handson.tv Rodrigo Barros" (uploaded 2015-06-15). The excerpt is a first-person account by Rodrigo Barros describing a recent merger of his video-production company into a digital agency (Puro Digital), the company’s repositioning to provide storytelling and branded-content-powered technology solutions, and his go-to-market tactics (visiting ~15 companies/week, targeting mid-market B2B clients rather than large global accounts). He references concrete outcomes (a >1 million reais franchise contract, three contracts closed in ~45 days), contrasts B2B service models with scalable B2C startups, and also summarizes decisions from his restaurant investments (closing underperforming locations and expanding from 21→19→33). Rodrigo asks at the end about lessons learned from Tim Draper, but Tim Draper is not a speaker in this excerpt.
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I didn't start a new company right now because we kind of merged together with— so there was this digital agency that they were building like web and mobile. And I had my own company on the video market. So we were a video production company focusing on branded content and storytelling. Okay. So we kind of merged this company with this company. We merged them. But we decided to go for a new market. Why? Because this company was going and, you know, the big agencies in Brazil, they are very profitable because they make 20% of everything the clients spend on advertisement. So imagine they have a big client that spends like R$100 million per year. they make as a profitability $20 million just because they choose to put the money here. It's like stupid, right? Yeah. But that's the way it works. So this agency used to work for these big agencies, okay? So it was, let's say, a production house of technology, okay? So they used to work for these agencies. Right now we position ourselves to be a digital agency and solve our clients' problems with technology. Okay, so it's a different story now. And we have the strength of storytelling and we have the strength of branded content because what I taught from you about giving value as a person is what I tell— is what I tell the companies. You know, as a company, you should give value before you ask people to buy your product. Okay, so you give value first, you ask them to buy later. Okay, that's, you know, look how many Mac Airs are here. Okay, because they give value first. But now not only you give value as a product, you give value as a content. And that's what we're doing. Okay. So what I did was 60 days ago after we merged, because I sold the company like 90 days ago and I merged with this new company 60 days ago, okay? So it's very new. I got really deep into it. So I, I talked with my, my colleagues, my partners in the other companies, even with the people that are working with me on Hands On TV, and I told them, hey, listen, I'm going to, you know, go deep into Puro Digital. So I went deep to Puro Digital. It was one week of, you know, thinking about our vision, thinking about how we're going to position And then the other weeks I went to clients. So I start visiting people, visiting people. So I visit, I decided to visit in like per week at least 15 companies. And that's what I did, 15 companies. But different companies. Why? Because I wanted to see which market and what kind of the companies I should approach first. And then after I grow I can approach like the 500 Fortune. But before, I might not approach only of them. So I approach like HP in Brazil, I approach SAP in Brazil, I approach— but I also approach it, which by the way I close a big contract, like more than a million reais contract, with a company that is like a franchisee company. Okay? So I approach that company, I approach SAP, I didn't close deal with SAP, HP, or Oracle, or blah blah blah. Because they have like worldwide agencies and stuff. So I understood that I could not go for that market right now. I'm not gonna spend my fucking energy on that right now, right? I wanna have their accounts because they have big money, but first of all, I understood that I need to accomplish this other market. So now that I understand that, now that we close in like 45 days, we close 3 contracts. Okay? It's not bad at all. Okay? 3 new contracts. Okay? So they have the monthly fee and then if we do something else we also receive the money. Okay? We start having these companies. Now what we do, we go for other companies like them. And then I grow. But it's as a service. It's B2B. So we work as a service. Okay? It's not something that has a scale agenda like the startups for B2C. Okay? But that's what I did in these special companies. For the restaurants, when I became part of the restaurant, we already had— I invested in the restaurant and became part of it. We already had 21 restaurants. We closed 2. Why? Because for me now, it's like, what we stop doing right now? So usually for me, like, where are you losing money? Why are you losing money there? Shall we close this restaurant and open three others in places that will, you know, have our fit or not? So we saw 21 restaurants, and those two were in regions that have an audience different from the others. So we we even have bad restaurants in places that have good good audiences. But then the problem was different, so we kept them. But we closed those 2 and then we closed 2, so 21 to 19 and now we have 33. Okay? So when you think about growth, I think you need to understand what really fits, how your product really fits into the market and go for that. So it's very different, like one is B2B, I just like, I call people every day, I go visit people and the traffic in São Paulo is horrible. So I go there, I close deals, I make money, and then I grow because then I have tested my market. And the same thing is the same, like, let's say, thought, but operates in a different way. What is the most important thing you learned from Tim Draper?
