Oscar Giraldo, Playvox | Selling Software in the US, Communicating Your Vision, and Obsessing Over Your Customer

The audio and video are in Spanish. These notes are a translation.

Landing your first corporate customers is one of the hardest things to do as a founder. Now, imagine doing it in the most competitive software market in the world, the United States, and on top of that, without knowing English.

We spoke with Oscar Giraldo, founder of Playvox, a startup of Colombian origin that offers software for managing and operating call centers and has customers such as Nike, Dropbox, and Nubank.

We talked about the strategies that allowed Oscar to land his first B2B customers in the US, and about what companies that are truly obsessed with their customers do differently.

Playvox has raised more than US $30 million in investment from funds such as: Five Elms Capital, FCP Innovación SP, and Alchemist Accelerator.

At the end, Oscar told us about the challenges he faced during the first 5 years before Playvox showed exponential growth.

Youtube Timestamps*

[1:24] - Intro to Customer Service

How did Oscar arrive at the fascinating world of startups?
How does the call center industry work, what problems does it have, and how does that give rise to Playvox’s initial idea?
Playvox has customers such as Nubank, Dropbox, and Nike. This gives them a direct view of best practices in customer service. What practices in product, talent, and so on has Oscar seen in common among the companies that deliver customer service best?
At the start of a company, time and money are scarce, founders are focused on their product and on selling, and it is hard to implement customer service or give it the attention it needs. What customer service “quick wins” does Oscar recommend to founders who are just starting out?
What key decisions does Oscar recommend a founder make at the start to foster a culture that is truly obsessive about their customer’s success?

[16:01] - Expanding and Selling in the US

Oscar started Playvox in the US, moving to San Francisco with his whole family, with the detail that he did not know English. What was his step-by-step process for connecting with potential customers in a new country and eventually turning them into his first sales?
What would Oscar say are the most important differences in how to prospect and sell to B2B customers in the US, compared with Latin America?
What did the process of scaling the sales team at Playvox look like?
What is the best way to expand to the United States in terms of the team, and what should be considered before doing it?
What lessons has Oscar learned about how to do B2B pricing? Especially given that, with a team based in Latin America, he has a cost advantage versus the US, and there can be a temptation to compete on a lower price.
What has Oscar learned about raising the price for a customer?
Oscar has said before that content marketing played an important role as an inbound acquisition channel. What characteristics must a content marketing strategy have to be a successful engine of B2B sales, especially of international customers?

[39:01] - Communication and Transparency

Playvox’s exponential growth only began in 2017, 5 years after it was founded. When you listen to venture capital investors, they say that if a company does not take off in 2 or 3 years, it is a sign that you should quit or make a significant change. What did those first 5 years look like, and what made Oscar persevere in building a product for the call center market?
Carol Snell, a member of Playvox’s board, told us that Oscar is very human and values treating people well, to the point of sometimes being too transparent. What has Oscar learned about transparency?
How should a founder communicate their vision in order to harness its power to keep their team together?

[58:56] - Rapid-Fire Questions

If he had to start a company from scratch, what is the main piece of advice Oscar would give himself?
Books recommended by Oscar
Changes Oscar would like to see in Latin America’s startup ecosystem