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Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech’s most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Shariq Siddiqui, co-founder and CEO of Veeve, a shopper engagement platform that has raised over $10 million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
By critically examining Amazon Go's approach, Shariq identified scalability challenges and devised a more flexible, cost-effective alternative. Founders should scrutinize industry leaders' strategies to spot gaps and potential improvements they can exploit to differentiate their offerings.
Veeve's shift from a ground-up smart cart to a modular add-on dramatically reduced costs and opened up new retail segments. Founders should continuously assess their product architecture and explore variations that can unlock additional customer segments without compromising core functionality.
Shariq positions Veeve as a "retail operating system" that can integrate multiple data streams and enable future IoT deployments. By painting a broader vision for their technology, founders can elevate their value proposition beyond a narrow point solution and increase stickiness with customers.
To overcome hurdles in enterprise sales, Veeve created a simplified offering that minimized integration requirements and enabled faster piloting. Founders selling to large organizations should devise a "wedge" product that delivers standalone value and greases the skids for broader adoption.
Shariq purposefully sought out VCs with retail portfolios and connections to shorten his sales cycle. Founders should view investors as not just sources of capital, but as strategic partners who can provide warm intros and lend credibility to their ventures.