Qobra · B2B · sales commission software
Message a CEO who wrote about your problem on LinkedIn
He and his CFO backed the pre-seed and became the first customer
Workedoutbound-salesfinancing
What they did
Before the product existed (then called Sales Crew), the founder found an article on sales compensation written by the co-founder/CEO of French company Partoo and reached out on LinkedIn. Over the weekend the CEO and his CFO wireframed their own sales-comp app; on Monday they met and offered to be first investors and first customers. Qobra raised a tiny $100K pre-seed (7 angels) and Partoo became customer #1.
What happened
First investors and first paying customer from one LinkedIn message
- Stage
- Pre-launch (Pre-launch, 2020)
“And I saw like the co-founder and CEO of Partoo, French, French company, uh, who wrote an article on sales compensation. So I reached out to him on LinkedIn”
“so if you want, we could be your first investors and your first customers." Uh, so I said, "Yeah, let's go."”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Qobra: Announce your launch on LinkedIn before there is much to demoA stranger asked for a demo and signed quickly; one early customer
- Qobra: Cold call prospects yourself to win the first customersMain early channel per founder; no numbers
- Qobra: Charge your first 10 customers half what US rivals charge$10K/year early; average now ~$30K/year per customer
- Qobra: Charge per sales rep paid, and give admin seats away free
- Qobra: Get a small SaaStr booth and loop your ads on its screenFounder says it builds connections; no numbers
- Qobra: Run meme ads for a B2B product on LinkedIn and YouTubeOne meme ad led to an $80K/year deal; $200-300K/year spend
- Qobra: Collect lots of G2 reviews so Google and AI chatbots recommend youFounder says it drives lots of traffic via search and AI answers; no numbers
- Qobra: Build glossary pages for your industry's terms to rank on GoogleSlow at first, then kicked in; host says it's the main traffic source
- Qobra: Borrow $2M from banks right after your Series ARaised $2M from HSBC and two other banks; no outcome reported
- Qobra: Build AI agents that set up commission plans in minutes, not weeks
- Qobra: Move the CEO to New York to break into the USSignificant share of revenue already from the US; no numbers