#405 – Burak Karakan, CEO of Bruin - On the cost of trying to please everyone

About this episode

Burak Karakan discusses the benefits of being an opinionated founder and the importance of focusing on the right customer base.

A story about an opinionated founder, the customers he turns away, and the ones who stay. This episode is for SaaS founders quietly wondering whether trying to be a fit for every buyer is what's slowing them down. Most founders think the goal is to be a fit for as many buyers as possible. Burak Karakan, Co-founder and CEO of Bruin, runs his company on the opposite belief. A former engineering manager at HelloFresh, he built an opinionated product — and he's at peace with the buyers who walk away because of it. And this inspired me to invite Burak to my podcast. We explore why being opinionated on purpose creates focus, speed, and the right kind of customer base. Burak shares his thinking on the question that qualifies a buyer in five minutes, why he hires juniors over seniors right now, and what happened when his team stopped tracking competitors altogether. You'll discover why he turns down deals that other founders would take. We also zoom in on three of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – Acknowledge you cannot please everyone – Aim to be different, not just better – Master the art of curiosity Burak's journey proves that remarkable companies don't try…

People in this episode

Host: Ton Dobbe

Guest: Burak Karakan

Topics covered

• SaaS founders
• opinionated products
• customer focus
• business strategy
• software traits

Keywords

• SaaS
• founders
• customer base
• opinionated products
• business strategy
• software companies
• engineering

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bruin, HelloFresh

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