GE 223: How OutSystems Went from Racking Up Sales by Going Door-to-Door to Hitting $100M in Sales (podcast)

Hey, everyone! In today’s episode I share the mic with Paulo Rosado, CEO of OutSystems, a low-code platform that lets you develop applications.

Tune in to discover how Paulo helped grow a struggling business into a company with 800 enterprise customers in 43 countries, what the big break was that increased their sales by 60% last year, and the strategies that have placed this enterprise player firmly on the path of high growth.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How OutSystems Went from Racking Up Sales by Going Door-to-Door to Doing $100M in Sales Last Year TRANSCRIPT

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:33 – Please leave us a review and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast
• 00:52 – Eric introduces Paulo Rosado
• 01:18 – OutSystems started as a cloud-based, development platform to address the issues of speed, productivity and software change
  • 01:53 – Compress by 4x the time it takes to provide apps; subsequently, reduces size of teams by 3-4x
• 02:19 – Analyzing the various use cases and benefits
  • 2:19 – Logitech uses OutSystems for their portal, to manage their supply chain and for their dashboard
  • 3:12 – Vopak, a Dutch company managing 80+ oil and gas terminals, also uses OutSystems
• 3:26 – A typical system that runs on Java or .Net would take 3 to 4 years; using OutSystems compresses this time to just 7 months
• 03:52 – Pricing and savings
  • 3:52 – Makes money by renting the platform on cloud; non-premise offer for bigger companies who want to deploy their own cloud
  • 04:10 – Pricing depends on the number of applications and the size of applications
  • 04:41 – Pricing starts at $25K per year and can go up to $1 million per year; millions of dollars in savings due to implementation of larger systems
• 05:04 – Has 800 enterprise customers spread across 43 countries
• 05:16 – Sales grew 60% last year; hit $100 million in sales!
• 05:40 – Paulo talks about their long struggle before they gained traction
  • 05:40 – Selling to enterprise clients is more complex; the fact that they were 11-13 years ahead of the market made the initial years more painful
  • 06:15 – Initially, prospects believed that their product was “too good to be true”; had to water down productivity numbers
  • 06:34 – Started in Europe and then moved to the U.S.; it was a mistake to concentrate on multiple regions in its initial years
  • 07:19 – Racked up sales in the initial years by going door-to-door
  • 07:33 – Introduced the concept of Devops (Development and Operations) in 2001; this concept has become popular only in the last 7 or 8 years
  • 08:20 – Has gained traction since the last 3 years; took 13 long years to get there
  • 08:46 – Paulo attributes their success to their patient European investor—European investors are typically more patient than American investors
• 09:18 – Since they started in 2001, just before the burst of the economic bubble, they had to sell web applications since people were not in the mood to switch to a cloud-based solution
• 09:41 – Rode the mobile wave that gripped enterprise clients; digital transformation entailed that all portals had to work on smartphones and tablets
  • 10:20 – Mobile applications needed systems with extreme productivity, fast change and continuous integrations; traits that OutSystems was already known for
  • 11:02 – Agile methods are the norm even in big organizations today; OutSystems works very well in an agile environment
• 11:37 – Got a lucky break when they managed to secure $1 million in funding in October 2001, a month before 9/11; funding dried up for 2 years after this
• 12:12 – Started off in 2001 by taking on telecom players as customers as well as partners; telecom pipeline dried up by 2002 leaving them no sales
  • 12:42 – Had to switch back to enterprise which took 6 months; took a while to get back into the black
• 13:16 – Nuances of making an enterprise sale
  • 13:16 – A sophisticated, transformational sale; a free version is available onsite where prospects can avail thousands of free trials
  • 13:52 – 70% of sales are through partners who want to use OutSystems to build their own application; in the process, they end up pushing their product
• 14:07 – What’s one big change that you have made in the last year that has impacted you? – Learned to delegate
• 15:50 – Manages to hire great people because they have removed the restriction of location; created processes around aligning people to a single, consistent culture
  • 16:33 – Promotes culture through an organization booklet, “The small book of the few big rules”
• 17:09 – What’s one new tool that you’ve added in the last year that’s added a lot of value? – The iPad Pro with pencil and Evernote with Penultimate
• 18:36 – What’s one must-read book you recommend to everyone? – The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business
• 20:46 – Connect with Paulo via email
• 20:59 – End of today’s episode
• 21:01 – Head to our website to access today’s show notes
• 21:10 – Please leave us a review and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast

3 Key Points:

1. Any new, innovative technology that is ahead of the market will face the problem of being “too good to be true”; be prepared to wait it out, as you WILL gain traction.
2. Agile methods are the norm in small and big organizations alike; switching to mobile has necessitated the need for platforms to permit quick changes, faster productivity and continuous integration.
3. Making an enterprise sale is much more complex than a consumer sale; offer free trials, and PUSH your product in the process.

Resources From This Interview:

• OutSystems
• Logitech
• Vopak
• Evernote with Penultimate
• Must-read book:  The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business by Erin Meyer
• Paulo’s e-mail

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