Saakshi M

prev @BentoLabsAI YC (P26) | 3x founding GTM growth for B2B AI startups /

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

for yall, the questions:

1. how are you seeing adoption with agents within your own company?

2. are you building agents to solve internal work or have customer facing agents running that’s core to your product?

[Abhinav is building macserve.io @abnvx17]

@saashmm Lmao I was going to respond to your message on GoPMM, and this tweet showed up. small world.

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

case in point, this guy is doing it right ✨

https://t.co/iGbZJ63WOp

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

I am sitting in blue tokai in Whitefield and a VC is (rightfully so) absolutely grilling two founders who’ve not spoken to 100s of their customers yet and are giving very vague answers. He sounds like a VC who genuinely gives a shit.

Whether you go to YC or you don’t, talking to your ICP should be part of the daily grind and retention should be a priority from day zero.

[Sidd @SiddarthAhhaaa]

holy fuck i can ban claude from co-authoring EVERYTIME now 😭

@failproofai policies ftw

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@honeybadgerx100 this is exactly how it went down 😂

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

I am sitting in blue tokai in Whitefield and a VC is (rightfully so) absolutely grilling two founders who’ve not spoken to 100s of their customers yet and are giving very vague answers. He sounds like a VC who genuinely gives a shit.

Whether you go to YC or you don’t, talking to your ICP should be part of the daily grind and retention should be a priority from day zero.

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@SamakshDev hehe yes you can say that

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

when my maternal grandmother gifted me clay utensils expecting me to play house as a toddler and i set up shop selling those utensils as a way to play instead ....

yeah, been selling ever since

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@ArgusPlatformAI they were listening quite intently so i think they did take it well

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@TickenChikkka why does it have 81 saves is even more weird????

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@tr1ckastley eeeyep

[Vikram Pai @vikpai]

I’m urgently hiring for sales at @ReferRush

Your job is to set meetings with merchants and help them with basic queries.

Rs.40k/mo + remote + commissions

No experience needed. If you can speak well, are generally pleasant, organized, and would like to work from home - drop me a comment!

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@NtandoMaseko_Dr exactly

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@Shashankh5 👀 haha

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

A lot of people ask me how do you even talk to customers? How do you discover them? Where do I begin?

> Start by writing down what you currently believe. Who has the problem, how bad it is, and what they do today. Treat that as a guess you need to check, not a fact.

> Find people who already live with the problem. Former coworkers, people one intro away, LinkedIn, Reddit, Slack groups, industry events. Warm intros reply more. Strangers are often more honest. Skip friends who just want to be nice.Get on a call or meet in person.

> Open with: I’m trying to understand how people handle X. No right answers. Talk about their life, not your idea.

> Ask “walk me through the last time this happened” and “what did you do next?” Deep dive into specific past stories.

> Ask “would you use this?”

> Listen more than you talk.

> Note what they already spend time or money on to work around it. “I would totally use that” is weak. “I paid $200 last month for a dashboard view of this” is strong.

> Do this with 20–50 people before you build. One weekend of chats usually gives bad data. A few weeks of real conversations shows patterns. Keep going even after you launch.

> Start with one conversation a week. It stops you from drifting.

[Muskan is using Style BFF @muskanning]

@saashmm what do you suggest is the best way to connect to them? and how to learn what questions to ask?

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@ilavanyajain so happy to see your fitness journey, keep going Lav! 🥳

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

BLRs best are reading #thetokentimes by @failproofai

[Udayan Walvekar @udayan_w]

👀

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

this is why i was surprised how passionately this VC was pushing them to go out and talk to customers, he repeated that sentence 4-5 times and to not draw parallels from the get go because that can make them take decisions based on assumptions instead of data. the two founders were quite young, perhaps in their early 20s, listening intently. it was refreshing to witness that.

recently, its been 'too many swaggy founders and not too many fierce VCs', we need the dynamic to improve especially in India

[Udayan Walvekar @udayan_w]

@saashmm unfortunately - a lot of vcs stop giving this advice - not every founder takes feedback the right way.

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

VCs are everywhere, they hide in plain sight like chameleons, especially when dressed up like old school office managers

[Divy @__newts]

@saashmm I’m sorry. I thought Whitefield is a place 95% made of “office cities” people. What on earth VCs are doing there?

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

for customers with your Style bFF app >

> start with folks you meet offline, could be a community meet up or a woman's only lunch, most people would be happy to try out and give you live feedback

> getting customers starts with being curious about their lives, people who love getting ready but do not necessarily know styling could benefit from your product

> questions get formed as you learn more about their lives. what do they do? where do they work? is their workplace casual or formal friendly? what's their leisure dressing like? how important is is for them to look stylish? daily life, friends define A LOT of what we wear, sometimes more than trends

> be shameless but polite, ask people to try the app first, set up analytics to see when and where they stop using it then ask them why

> why this app? what is the story? best way to connect is why this app exist? why should someone care? people who care about their appearance but struggle to get it right, will be the first people to care. can they experience a change in their wardrobe and daily appearance because of your app? if yes, they will tell you what they want more. if not, something needs to change / become better

[Muskan is using Style BFF @muskanning]

@saashmm what do you suggest is the best way to connect to them? and how to learn what questions to ask?

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@SparklinGuy In India? almighty has left the chat

[Saakshi M @saashmm]

@abnvx17 please answer the message 🥺 I’d love to hear more insights on that question!