Growing Continuum with Alex Witcpalek

In this episode, of How I'm Building This, Prateek interviews Alex Witcpalek, the Founder of Continuum, a company that provides a practical solution to reduce manual labor costs, improve the customer experience, and eliminate financial impacts on the bottom line for distribution and manufacturing companies. Alex shares his unconventional path from playing football at the University of Louisville to working in commercial real estate and eventually joining the tech industry. He discusses the pivotal moment in his childhood that sparked his desire to build something on his own and make a positive impact. Alex also talks about the decision to raise capital and the pain Continuum solves for its customers. He emphasizes the importance of customer feedback and the iterative process of product development. Alex shares the three channels Continuum uses for its go-to-market strategy: BDR outbound team, marketing and inbound content, and channel partners. Continuum's Alex Witcpalek discusses the importance of transparency and collaboration in partnerships, as well as the role of content and trade shows in their inbound strategy. He also shares insights on team structure and culture, and the challenges of founder mental health. Continuum has exciting news coming up, including the release of their vendor and finance hub.

Takeaways:

• Alex Witcpalek shares his unconventional path from playing football to starting his own business.
• Continuum provides a practical solution to reduce manual labor costs, improve the customer experience, and eliminate financial impacts for distribution and manufacturing companies.
• Customer feedback is crucial for product development and iterating quickly.
• Continuum uses three channels for its go-to-market strategy: BDR outbound team, marketing and inbound content, and channel partners. Transparency and collaboration are key in successful partnerships. It's important to have a plan together and be upfront about expectations.
• Content plays a crucial role in Continuum's inbound strategy, including webinars, blogs, and LinkedIn posts. They have become thought leaders in their industry.
• Trade shows are effective for Continuum, and they integrate partner marketing with their own marketing efforts.
• Team structure and culture are important for Continuum's success. They are focused on hiring individuals with the right DNA makeup and ensuring alignment with the company's values.
• Founder mental health is a challenge, and it's important to find outlets and take breaks to recharge.
• Continuum has exciting news coming up, including the release of their vendor and finance hub.

Sound Bites: 

• "I'm going to build something on my own and I'm going to build it so that not only do I have a better life, but there's families that don't have to go through what we're going through."
• "We have so much pipeline that if we close this, I need to build a team to be able to go deliver it."
• "You need to be very upfront and transparent with your partner and have a plan together to cross pollinate your go-to-market motions."
• "We became thought leaders and our content now drive sour partner channel."
• "I don't think you can silo outbound partner and marketing, because we do a lot of partner marketing together too."

‍

In this episode, we cover:

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:07 Continuum's Solution for Distribution and Manufacturing Companies

06:21 Raising Capital and the Importance of Building a Team

08:23 The Pain Continuum Solves and the Power of Automation

14:58 The Iterative Process of Product Development and Customer Feedback

19:12 Three Channels for Continuum's Go-to-Market Strategy

24:04 Building Successful Partnerships

26:44 The Role of Content and Thought Leadership

27:42 Integrating Partner Marketing

32:09 Team Structure and Culture

40:15 Founder Mental Health

44:19 Exciting News: Vendor and Finance Hub Release

‍

Where to find Alex:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-witcpalek-419b052b/

Continuum: https://gocontinuum.ai/

‍

Where to find Prateek:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateekmathur

Activated Scale: https://www.activatedscale.com

‍

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@activatedscale.com