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In this episode of Aggaeus, Haggai Klorman Eraqi sits down with Collin Stewart for a brutally honest conversation about revenue, ego, customer discovery, failed validation, and the painful difference between persistence and refusing to let go.
Collin started as the sales guy surrounded by engineers building software in silence.
He was the one in the phone booth.
Talking to users. Talking to customers. Trying to understand what people actually needed.
Then he built Voltage, a CRM that made sense in theory but almost nobody wanted to buy. It took him 18 months and a lot of ego death to realize the product was wrong.
Then came Carb.
A pivot that went from zero to $1M ARR in three months.
And then broke under its own weight.
Tech debt. Rushed decisions. Product gaps. Founder fear. A services business he didn’t want to build. A pandemic. Debt. Layoffs. And a long lesson in what happens when the market keeps giving you answers you don’t want to hear.
This is not a polished “how I won” founder story.
It is an experience shared from someone who got punched in the face by the market, learned how revenue actually works, and wrote the book (XX) he wished he had when he was sleep-deprived and terrified.
In this episode, we cover:
• Why founders accidentally bias their own customer interviews
• Why product-market fit is not binary — and how to measure its strength
• The painful story of Voltage, Carb, and the cost of ignoring the market
• Why going from $0 to $1M ARR too fast can still become a disaster
• How to know when persistence becomes refusal to let go
• Why pricing conversations should happen earlier than most founders think
• How to turn customer discovery into your first real sales funnel
This is a conversation about sales, shame, ego, survival, bad products, better questions, and the founder’s real job:
Finding customers before the market teaches you the hard way.
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The Terrifying Art of Finding Customers
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Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.
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