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Clarity

Jeff Solomon

Greater Los Angeles Area

Why take a call with me? I have deep experience across startups, SaaS, fundraising, AI-assisted building, customer development, sales, product, and software development. If I do not know the answer, I will tell you and will not waste your time. If I do know, I will give it to you straight and quickly.

I have done 650+ calls on Clarity and 1000+ mentorship sessions over the past decade. My reviews are probably the best description of what I do: I help founders think through messy problems, get to the point, and leave with practical next steps.

A few proof points: I co-founded Velocify, formerly Leads360, which sold for $128M. I co-founded Amplify.la, a startup accelerator with 6 funds and $100M+ in raised capital. I have raised $35M+ in venture capital for my own companies, helped Amplify portfolio companies raise more than $150M in seed and angel funding and multi-1B+ valuations, reviewed 3000+ startup applications, and been pitched by hundreds of founders. I have also had a startup fail miserably, which taught me plenty.

What I am most useful for: SaaS, B2B software, AI orchestration, customer development, product-market fit, startup strategy, fundraising, pitch decks, lead generation, enterprise sales, outsourced development, UX, content marketing, AI coding, workflow tools, and micro-SaaS.

Currently, I am doing a lot of hands-on AI-assisted development with Cursor, Claude, GPT, Replit-style tools, desktop apps, mobile apps, Firebase, Postgres, Node, and internal workflow tools. I am not the best person if you want a senior engineer to debate syntax. I am very useful if you are a founder, product person, designer, or operator trying to turn ideas, workflows, or messy processes into working software. I kill UX and architecture.

Helpful links:
- Open-source Agent Brain project: https://agentbrain.heroka.xyz
- Personal site: https://bak.me
- Customer Development and Product-Market Fit course: https://bit.ly/custdevcourse

Book a call if you want direct, practical help with a startup decision, product direction, AI-assisted build, fundraising question, SaaS strategy, customer development problem, or software project that is stuck.

$5.00/min

690

690 Calls

309

309 Reviews

25 minutes
Avg. call

Growth Hacking Entrepreneurship angel investing Software Development Product Strategy Venture Capital Accelerators Raising Money SaaS SaaS - Enterprise & SMB B2B

Call me to talk about

Entrepreneurship, Financial & Business Models, Revenue Strategies, Staying Lean

Entrepreneurship is a word that is used too lightly these days. Being an entrepreneur means being able to hammer on many nails at once, stop hammering on the ones that don't sink and finding new shiny nails to hammer.

Many early stage companies typically have issues building out their core business models and financial modeling. This is a key activity that all companies should do early on as it drives all the key metrics that ultimately drive a business.

I am very effective at helping companies think through their business and develop a model that can be tracked and easily explained to investors.

Lead Generation, B2B Sales, Enterprise Sales and Building a Marketing Machine

I spent the better part of 10 years building a B2B software company that is now over 150 employees and more than 40M in annual revenue. During that time I tried many many different strategies to build a sales team, drive sales inbound leads, build an outbound direct sales team and an lead the enterprise sales efforts.

I have extensive experience in consumer lead generation as well as B2B lead gen strategies and understand the nature of lead generation marketplaces.

Talk to me if you are building a sales team, trying to create a consistent marketing engine to feed that sales team or creating an enterprise sales strategy. I've failed as much as I've succeeded at all of these things, let me share my experience with you.

User Interface Design, User Experience, UX/UI - Focus on Retention & Engagement

I've built hundreds of web and mobile applications in my career and largely been the driver of user interface design and user experience. I'm very good at taking the work of other experts and adopting them to fit the specific product needs.

My present mobile focus is topical chat room platform called Fabric; we currently have 6 apps in various niche verticals with over 100K users. My approach to UX/UI is very iterative with clean and straightforward design. I don't actually consider myself a designer, but I've become very effective at cobbling together UX from various sources to develop an optimal user experience for each use case.

http://www.tengroups.com

Failing Hard, Struggling, Grinding and Finding Your Way

Man I've failed hard and I've struggled way more than I've succeeded. But I have had success and am skilled at navigating the challenges that startups and entrepreneurship present. If you're struggling with ups and down, are near failure or just having a hard time, I'm your man.

I'll listen and provide actionable insights that can help get you out of your funk. In my experience the biggest wins are borne out of the lowest bottoms. Use the struggle to your advantage!

Startup Accelerators & Incubators, Angel & Seed Funding and Venture Capital VC

I am a co-founder and Executive Director at Amplify in Venice, CA. We've invested in 27 companies in the past 24 months and our portfolio companies have raised more than $35 million in Angel/Venture money. I've also built several startups and have raised over 20M for them.

I know the ins-and-outs applying and getting into accelerators and am very effective at building and prepping for presentations. I'm particularly good at helping define a business strategy that will resonate with investors when companies are small and have little traction. You're story is likely to change over time, it's important to tune your vision to leverage what is working, don't hide what's not working and bring the passion.

I have raised over $20 million in venture money for my companies and have helped my Amplify portfolio companies raise nearly $40 million in Angel, Seed and Venture Capital money. I'm also an Angel investor in 8 companies including Plan Vanilla Games (maker of Quizup, Joyus, Playdek Games, Umano and more).

Talk to me if you want guidance in picking the right Venture Firms, VC's, seed or angel investors. I can be very helpful in identifying investors, building pitch decks and working through deal terms and structure (which can be very confusing.

Moreover, I can help with crafting your story, talking about various ins-and-outs regarding startup accelerators and incubators, both in Los Angeles and around the country.

http://www.amplify.la

Software Development, Outsourcing, MVP; Developers Failed to Deliver Project

I've built a lot of software in the past 20 years. I've built US teams from scratch, I've outsourced to dozens of countries, I've hired on Upwork, I've used Turing and every other developer resource out there. I know how hard it is, especially for first-time software founders to build and launch something good. I've seen and advised hundreds of entrepreneurs on how to pick up the pieces from failed developers or a project that went awry.

I can help you navigate where to go after things break down or what to do so things go right the first time.

SaaS - Enterprise Software, SMB Software - Focus on B2B User Acquisition

I founded Velocify (formerly Leads360), in 2004, $50MM ARR and sold for $140MM with a clean cap table. Velocify is an Enterprise Lead Management CRM platform with over 25,000 users across 500 companies in financial services, education, insurance, business operations and other key verticals.

I have extensive experience in building SaaS applications, pricing, customer on-boarding, retention and attrition management as well as B2B customer acquisition. I've pretty much tested everything in the B2B SaaS space. I've seen what works and learned the hard way what doesn't.

Talk to me if you are starting a SaaS business or need advice on how to scale one, build the team, do customer service or any other challenge/opportunity you may have. I love this category!

http://www.leads360.com

Customer Development, Product Strategy, PMF, User Research, UX, MVP, Retention

A lot of startup problems are really customer understanding problems. I can help you clarify who you are building for, what pain you are solving, how to test assumptions, and how to turn customer conversations into better product decisions.

Talk to me if you are unsure what to build next, if users are not adopting what you built, if your product is too broad, or if you need a clearer path from customer pain to useful product.

Figure out the real pain point for your customer, build that, and scale.

AI Coding, AI Agents, Cursor, Claude, GPT, Prompting, Workflow Tools, Prototypes

I taught myself to code about 15 years ago. I was always a stellar product leader, from software architecture, user interface, feature design, simplicity and elegance, and customer-centric thinking. I worked closely with talented developers for years, learning enough about syntax and structure to start doing small projects on my own. Eventually I was good enough to do internal admin tools or process automation tools that would only be used by a handful of people.

Over a decade later, AI-assisted coding came along with amazing tools like Cursor.AI, Bolt, Copilot, Replit, and, of course, ChatGPT, Claude, etc. This really supercharged my ability to build useful tools faster and with more complexity. In the past three years, I’ve built 30+ applications using a range of stacks and platforms: JS, Node, PHP, MYSQL, Firebase, Postgres, Docker, Chrome Extensions, Desktop Apps, Mobile Apps, and so much more.

There are no doubt way more talented programmers out there, but if you are an entrepreneur or product person looking to start coding with help from AI, I’m confident I’m one of the best resources for you. My prompt-building approach is driven by a product-centric mindset, which helps me communicate significantly better with AI, leading to results that match the vision in my mind the first (or sometimes second) time.

I also create a lot of generative images using Midjourney and can share techniques for quickly achieving the results you’re looking for.

My skills are not coder-for-coder, they are optimized to help entrepreneurs, product managers, and designers turn ideas into software applications quickly.

http://www.angel.co/jeffsolomon

Answers 19
Reviews 309

Answers

Jeff Solomon answered

I have a team of salespeople calling NYC & SF setting 7 fig listing appts for top Realtors. Is there an online mktg strategy to get leads to team?

Zillow and Trulia both offer lead generation products for realtors; you might be able to scrape, or pay, for leads from there using a combination of tech and pay-for services. You might also consider checking out what data sources @Factual has that can be tapped to reach the right audience... but yes, inbound is way better than cold calling fo sho

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Start-ups

Online Lead Generation

Jeff Solomon answered

When selling SaaS solution to small businesses, how do I tell if they are willing to pay X, even if they say they'd like to pay as little as possible?

The best sales people can very quickly identify the biggest pain point for a customer; if you do this it's easier for the prospect to associate money with that pain e.g. "how much it's worth to alleviate that pain".

If something is a nice to have it's not worth that much to them, if something is a must have, it's worth more... try to put your product in the must have, or at least in the "what a pain it would be without your thing" category.

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Pricing

Jeff Solomon answered

Do you think Email Marketing is underrated as a strategy for user growth and retention? How effective is it in your experience? Thanks!

It does seem to have taken a little bit of a back seat in the eyes of most startup founders, I guess it's not sexy like Facebook boosted posts or Tapjoy incentivized installs... but it's one that still works exceptionally well.

Moreover, of the startups I've invested in this year, 2 of the 5 that are making profits do it through an email list they curated from app installs and then sell access to that list to other companies who want to reach the customers they have.

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Growth Hacking

Jeff Solomon answered

How would I start developing a product? Are freelance sites such as oDesk or eLance the way to go? Or is a private company a better route? Thanks

I use any resource at my disposal, but I think it comes down to a little formula that takes in these two data points:

1) what am I trying to build?
2) what are my strengths?

Here's how it works. I basically calculate a "success probability outcome score" based on these two factors. Here are some examples:

Let's say I'm creating sophisticated SaaS solution with a complex data structure and backend. I'm strong in the product side (features, UX, architecture, etc.) but weak in the tech side so outsourcing with oDesk could be a challenge. In a separate case, if I've got a really basic dynamic website with half a dozen tables and basic CRUD operations, oDesk might be a great source for me b/c the project is pretty straightforward and I can project manage all aspects pretty easily given my strengths.

In general I use oDesk, Elance and the like for more basic and straightforward -- they have a wide range of services there including: coding, graphic design, copywriting, task management, voiceover, etc. For this stuff, it's a no brainer. If the project starts to get out of the scope of my expertise and it's generally complicated tech, I tend to stay away from these services.

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Product Design

Product Management

Jeff Solomon answered

What is Drip Marketing? I'm looking for case studies or real life examples of how effective it is a strategy for user retention.

I think Velocify (formerly Leads360) may have an actual case study on this as the drip email capability is pretty core to their lead management software. You can probably download from their website http://www.velocify.com

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Email Marketing

Jeff Solomon answered

What are the most important metrics early on for a B2B SaaS startup?

Retention (aka churn). This is the most important because it drives all other decisions around sales, marketing and product. If churn is high it's because: a) sales people are not setting expectations properly (e.g. selling too much sizzle and not enough steak); b) your marketing is bringing in the wrong type of customer; c) your product doesn't solve a big enough problem/pain point for your customer.

It's also the key to forecasting; if you can accurately predict churn, you know how much you need to sell, how many leads you need to generate, etc. etc.

Don't wait, track this asap. And don't fake it (like Salesforce.com used to say, oh, we have less than 1% churn per year, when they were actually tracking the % of customers that don't renew contracts). That's not churn; people cancel or stop paying ALL THE TIME. As soon as you know you're not going to get money again from that customer, they've churned, track that end date right then and there.

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Start-ups

Jeff Solomon answered

What are your recommended touch points for a successful drip campaign for an analytics SaaS provider in the unified communication industry?

If it's email, my experience has been keep the touches valuable and consumable. By that I mean, don't send them a 2 page email with all kinds of content about how awesome your company is and why they should use your product. Take the education marketing approach. Send them little nuggets of useful information or data. If you are selling an analytics platform, give them some insightful analytics they can immediately benefit from e.g. "did you know that 50% of people who walk on a car dealership lot end up buying a car in the next 30 days... be sure to capture contact information from EVERYONE that steps foot on your lot".

The recipient of that email drip feels they got a real valuable data point that is also actionable and they'll remember it came from you. When they're ready to buy, you'll be top of mind.

Links to articles are also great for drip campaigns e.g. "hey, we saw this interesting article on customer patterns for car dealerships and thought you might find it valuable" -- of course, if you guys did the analytics and produced the white paper that's good too.

Key is to mix it up. Frequency is ok, if it's useful.

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Digital Marketing

Jeff Solomon answered

Where do I put my advertising dollars when launching a iOS app?

I agree with Rob, FB mobile ads are literally the only thing that works on a pay-for-install basis in an affordable way. But i would say its essential to get your retention levels figured out as soon as possible because driving users, particularly paid ones, is a big waste if you cant make a return on your spend. For example, if your app makes money on IAP's then you need to figure out LTV ASAP or any users you get at $2 or $0.50 make not a bit of difference. That said, it takes users to get this data so yes, pay to get them or whatever u need to do. Of course, you'll be way better off if your new users are good (e.g. not random Tapjoy huslers).

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Mobile Advertising

Mobile applications

Mobile Marketing

Jeff Solomon answered

What are some good places to come up with future start up ideas? How important is it that the CEO come up with the idea themselves?

There really isnt much more to say than what Paul Graham did in this essay http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

However, I will add this. As it relates to the CEO coming up with the idea, its a big bonus when founders/ceo are solving their own problem. Its obviously much easier to make a product decision when you can be certain at least one user agrees with it wholeheartedly. That said, Ive build 3 successful (and 1 utter fail) where I was not in fact solving my own problem. In fact I'm working on a new project where I'm not directly the user. But I've come to realize if you are not directly solving your own problems then two things that are essential in building a business:

1) you must become good at extrapolating the needs of users.

2) you must at least be building products that you deeply understand and empathize with.

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Start Ups

Jeff Solomon answered

Since being away from the technology, what are some of the best practices of today? Backend, front end. php, asp, off the shelf dev tools?

Having lived in the .NET world for 10 years with way too much "refreshing", I'm loving how powerful web sockets are, particularly mobile. Node.js, Mongo and Redis are great in this realm.

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Backend Development

Web Applications

front-end development

Jeff Solomon answered

What could help me to get a deeper understanding of users desires (perhaps even beyond the product)?

I love what Dan said about asking what users do 3 mins before and after using your product.

I think the best product people know how to extrapolate better than others. Its one thing to gather feedback and observe users, but its much more challenging deciding what to do with that information. Simply asking users what they want wont always give you the best outcome. Someone once said, although Henry Ford is often credited, "if i had asked, people would have wanted faster horses". Theres some truth there. Its about the ability to observe customers and extrapolate the features.

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User Research

Psychology

Reviews

I had a call with Jeff today. His input on our strategy was very good. He had some different ideas than what I originally had. Well worth my time!

Source: Clarity

Excellent, balanced, thoughtful, experienced feedback.
Thanks, Jeff

Rick Julian Source: Clarity

Jeff has a wealth of startup experience and an impressive ability to distill complex topics into clear, concise, and actionable advice. His calm, founder-friendly demeanor makes it easy to dive into core issues without wasting time. It's clear that he genuinely enjoys helping entrepreneurs navigate their challenges. Our conversation was both efficient and incredibly helpful. If you're stuck on a startup problem, Jeff is a fantastic resource to have in your corner.

Remington D Source: Clarity

Jeff was very helpful. He was knowledgable, on-topic, and helpful. He directly answered my questions without wasting time. He was willing to answer each topic I brought and he provided great insight for me.

Travis Austin Source: Clarity

Super valuable and insightful call with Jeff. Highly recommend.

Zach Wade Source: Clarity

Superb call, my first on Clarity and was work every penny.

James Augusti Source: Clarity

Very helpful. Enjoyed speaking with Jeff.

Mark McInnis Source: Clarity

Jeff was clearly experienced in the type of problems I have been seeking support with and asked the right questions, this was followed by some simple and easily actionable approaches to tweak my processes.

Tom Lazenby Source: Clarity

Great feedback from Jeff! I enjoyed our conversation a lot

Frank Temo Source: Clarity

Jeff had great insights into the problem I was facing and was able to provide direct & practical help. Will definitely reach out to him in future as well.

Utkarsh Vaibhav Source: Clarity

Jeff is brilliant and has great principles and thought processes. He would be of value to anyone considering any new software development, entrepreneurial advise, or otherwise.

Joseph Kerolos Source: Clarity

Member since August 2012