Building in Public: How REPOWR Used Customer Feedback to Shape Their Product Roadmap

When 75% of your industry’s assets sit idle, you might assume the solution is obvious. But for REPOWR, the path to solving trailer utilization wasn’t about building what seemed obvious – it was about letting customers show them what to build. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, co-founder Patrick Visintainer revealed how customer collaboration shaped their product development journey.

Starting With Problems, Not Solutions

Instead of leading with technology, REPOWR began by understanding customer challenges. “We never started REPOWR to just say here’s our technology. Here’s how you can use it. But instead we spent early and every month time with our customers,” Patrick explains. This approach helped them identify problems they might have otherwise missed.

The logistics industry’s fragmentation created unique challenges. “92% of the trucking companies that operate in this industry are small fleets, six or fewer power units,” Patrick notes. Yet “97% of the trailers in the market are owned by just 3% of the fleets in the market.” Understanding these dynamics proved crucial to their product development.

Evolving Through Customer Dialogue

REPOWR’s sales process doubled as product research. Rather than pitching solutions, they focused on discovery: “We’re not selling just hey. Here’s what we’re doing at REPOWR. But we get the opportunity to ask questions to our customers and say what problem are you trying to solve today?”

This consultative approach helped them identify new opportunities. When market conditions changed, they maintained growth by staying close to customer needs: “We’re spending a lot of time with our customers. We’re asking them questions, how can we better? What do you need from us? And we’re kind of building our product around their businesses.”

Adapting to Market Feedback

The company’s ability to pivot based on market feedback proved crucial during COVID-19. “Coming out of Covid-19 everything was dead. And then in 2021, the economy went crazy,” Patrick recalls. By staying close to customers, they could quickly adapt their platform to help companies rebalance trailer pools when traditional solutions fell short.

Their marketplace evolved to handle market volatility: “Marketplaces and just supply chain is very volatile. It flips one quarter, we’ll be looking for more supply the next quarter, more demand.” This flexibility, built from customer feedback, helped them maintain growth through changing conditions.

Building for the Future

Today, REPOWR’s customer-driven approach has led to significant growth, working with “18 of the top 25 largest asset based fleets” and over “10,000 carriers on our platform.” Their vision remains focused on customer needs: “At the end of the day, we’re a product and a technology, and we want to continue to build a product that’s easy to use. It’s an API first approach that’s built on collaboration and connecting people to feel like they’re in a community.”

For B2B founders, REPOWR’s journey offers valuable lessons about product development:

• Start with customer problems, not predetermined solutions
• Use sales conversations as product research opportunities
• Build flexibility into your product to handle market changes
• Maintain ongoing dialogue with customers even after finding success

The company’s 200% year-over-year GMV growth demonstrates how letting customers drive product development can lead to sustainable success in B2B markets. As Patrick puts it, they’re still “exploring new things and just continue to enhance our product overall and be customer focused and just keep working hard.”