Latest / Unstuck Pod / Backup CRM Fuel Your AI (George Maramigin and Jamie Schneiderman)
Transcript
- Jamie: George, welcome. It's nice to have you here today. George Maramigin: Hey Jamie, thanks for the invitation. Jamie: Sure. Can you do me a favor for everybody who's listening and watching? Can you please give some background, introduce yourself, the company, what you do, and then we'll start that as the basis for our conversation. George Maramigin: Yeah, for sure. Hi, everyone. My name is George, and I'm the CEO of MyCRM Backup. This is the SaaS that allows you to backup your CRM to your own cloud storage. And in addition, I'm a partner at Kraft. This is the consulting agency that provides implementation and administration services to auto users. Jamie: So let's talk, I'd like to talk about my CRM backup and I wanted to start with, how did you get started? What made you wanna start it? So why did you start it? How did you get started? So when did you start it? Let's get into a little bit more about that, because then that'd be great. George Maramigin: Yeah, so my entrepreneurship spirit, I could say that, came up in my childhood because my father was one of the first employees in local branch in Huawei and I was growing he worked ⁓ 9 a.m. 6 p.m. typical office work and I thought that don't want to do the same way and Even in school, my route to the school was through the bakery. I some bread and sold in the school to my classmates. So ⁓ then I to write some poems ⁓ someone ⁓ and advertise on the street. then, so ⁓ there a lot different stuff and... This is the main reason why I decided that I need to do my own business. So I started MyCRM Backup two years ago I worked as a marketing manager at Parma CRM. This product is already shut down, but it doesn't matter right now. And my told me that, so how do you think if you will manage this product? Like if you... see that some customers from the CRM need to ⁓ their data to their cloud storage. And I thought, it's good idea. I'm not anything. And yeah, good to start. And that's my CRM backup came up. And I started from scratch. So I up at positioning and messaging. I came up a marketing strategy, sales strategy, product strategy. ⁓ So one, so one. Yeah, this is like, I it's typical story how to start your own business. Jamie: you say typical story, not, but a lot of people don't, you even how yours started and the thing, wasn't like you saw the problem, but the problem came from an opportunity, like a gap that was existing. So, so tell me, so who are the customers? Like Who are the people who use Like what, what, what size are they? Are they from a certain industry? Like, George Maramigin: Yeah, initially we thought that our ICP it will be typical, ⁓ CRM users. Right now, MyCRM backup supports 8 CRM, included HubSpot, ITO, Pied Drive, like three biggest CRM in the market, and Zoho CRM. sorry, I forget about it. and we thought that the main ICP will be like general CRM users. But when we started, we noticed that CRM user don't needed it because they don't afraid about their data and they don't afraid to lose it. But what we that marketing agency, consulting that provides different helps to ⁓ their in implementing CRM or something like that, they promoted ⁓ our to their customers to pick up data and they purchased our product for them. And right now, I think this is the main channel. this is the main ICP. mean, and yeah. Yeah. Jamie: Well, your ICP is like a channel, sorry. It's interesting because you say it's main channel, but it sounds like it's a bit of both, right? I mean... George Maramigin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because marketing agencies, consulting agencies, like our partners, that could lead us to more customers for us. ⁓ this is the main right now. But the second part of the customers ⁓ the CRM users. Like I am, I think you are as well. If you are using CRM and you are worrying about your data, you come us, buy the MyCRM backup ⁓ and can Good. Jamie: So, George, so tell me, so like, you talked about the agencies and you talked, you know, those folks, and then you said, you know, after, if there's others who you have a CRM and you want to back up your information, it's a good way. How are you reaching people today? Like, how do you reach them? How do they find you? Or they just have to find you randomly online? Or what kind of stuff are you doing to promote it or to get the word out there about it? George Maramigin: Yeah, we tried to do some marketing activities like a world post in LinkedIn, writing in ⁓ Axe Twitter and ⁓ we to some blog posts, but we noticed that it was ⁓ zero outcome because very boring creating and no one wants to read about it. And right now, we trying to understand how to grow product because it's a really boring product. And are two ideas that we see right now. It's ⁓ product-led growth, many CRMs we can support, as many apps, I could say that. We don't focus only on CRMs, but only help desk as well, ATS, knowledge-based management system, et cetera, et cetera. is the first one and the second one is advertising, I think. Jamie: just advertising it to get more people in the door. And where would you, where do think you'd be advertising if you were gonna do that? George Maramigin: I get some insights from ⁓ colleague from the market that ⁓ advertising is much, kind of like how to say it, is much profitable for us because it's ⁓ fresh market in this ⁓ to compare with the Google Ads because Google Ads bidding is much higher than to compare with the meta. For example, If you try to promote with the CRM keyword in the Google Ads, one click could be cost for $200, ⁓ ⁓ Jamie: ⁓ wow. Okay. That's really, yeah, that's pretty significant. So you want meta. Yeah. So I think meta gives you the ability to sort of like, you know, learn and, and adapt. mean, it's very, very large audience that you can go and, and reach that way. So, okay. So, so, so you're thinking about what's next and when do you, so, so like, George Maramigin: Yeah. Jamie: When do you make the decision? So people bought. who, like the guys who bought originally bought because of what? Like, how'd you get them to buy? How'd you get your first set of customers? Because you're, you know, so, hold on. Let me ask you the first question. How much does a product cost? George Maramigin: Yeah, we have two plans and it's $25 per month or $100 per month. But there are some limitations on each plan that include the limitations of total amount of the records that we can back up for you. If you need extra records, you just can purchase additional records for that. And of course, limitation in additional objects. For example, in the pro plan that costs $100 per month, you can pick up email and attachments like the core of any business. But in the basic plan, you can note it. Jamie: Right. Yeah. OK. So all right. So your product is affordable. It's an affordable product, but it also leaves you needing to get a fair number of companies on board in order to. grow, really grow the business, right? Like in terms of like turning it into significant dollars and cents. And so today have you like, was it knocking on the doors of the guys that were the agencies like reaching or reaching out to them cold email? Like what did, what did you do to the guys to get the initial folks on board? George Maramigin: We don't do any outbound right now. So we don't do cold calling or cold email outreach because like in our case, it's understandable that our total addressable market is any CRM user probably, but if we start right everyone with this typical email or with the same email for everyone, it will be like a spam. ⁓ And I believe that it will convert. ⁓ Jamie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. George Maramigin: Right now we don't do any outbound, but we get the customers from the marketplace listings. every CRM, almost every CRM, their own apps on ⁓ their where we're listed. And our found there. Jamie: Okay. So, okay. So to your point earlier about if you're in more places, so if you had better distribution of, then you'd, you'd think you'd just have more customers and they'd come to you and that's what it would look like. Okay. So ⁓ got it. So, so like, let's, what I want to understand is, okay, so you start this. You're learning it, right? You're figuring, you know, there's an idea, you start, you put something out there. Some people go, sure, I want to get it. Let's talk about the evolution of the last 12 to 18 months. And I, What I want to try to do is I want to try to look at this in terms of things do you think have gone really well and what things were surprisingly hard, especially as you were trying to grow the business. George Maramigin: that's good questions ⁓ we parallel stuff in ITO implementation ⁓ and are trying to identify what customers really need in the And We found in the AI era, you need to keep your data. And we refined our positioning because if we were like CRM backup, right now we are backup your CRM to enrich your to enrich your LLM. LLM knows your and you can talk with your ⁓ LLM, like don't to sign into your CRM, for example. Yeah. ⁓ And we noticed due to the AI up rapidly, you need your own data. we worked on it to understand how to sell it. And now we are working on to prepare an additional format that you can pick up. Right now you can get backup in CSV format for each object, but we want to back up it in JSON format as well. Jamie: Is the JSON format make it easier for the connection with the LLM? Is that why? Okay. So you're building with, you're building with, like it's, it's interesting because you're talking backup, which is a safety, safety and security thing. but you're really talking about shifting it into powering an LLM to be able to be ⁓ about. George Maramigin: Yes. That's why. Jamie: you what you're trying to do. That's like, which is a whole new application of the, of your data. So which, which do you think it's good? So is it like, is one the way in like, which one is, do you think is the way in going forward for new customers? George Maramigin: ⁓ That's a good question. That's a good question. And honestly, I don't know how to answer it because every one of us using AI, but okay, not every one of us, ⁓ ⁓ think part of us. And still like leave our data from our laptop, from our Google Cloud ⁓ or like that to the LLM. And we feed the LLM to train it. talking about the security, it's really interesting because we don't know how it will affect it for everyone. OK, we have a plan to get SOC certification because most of our customers are asking about it. Because it's a stamp that our code ⁓ our product or the whole stuff is is acknowledgement about the security reasons and everything is under control and we pass the security test and we are good product that you can trust us. And we are going to get it. But I don't know this year or the next year because it's very expensive. And nobody knows what will be with the AI this year and the next year. probably we need to pivot again. Jamie: Yeah, so, okay, so it sounds to me like there's a lot you're still, there's a lot that you're figuring out as you're going ahead and doing this, which is good. And now you have a, you're busy, not just with the business, you have, you're busy like with a day job or do you do the business full time? George Maramigin: ⁓ I do the business part-time, I could say that, because I'm not part-time, I do the auto implementation. ⁓ this is like collaboration between each other product, because when I work with the clients with the auto implementation, I understand the users needs more smartly, for example, And after that, I can... align it with the My CRM backup. That's why. Yeah, but my main point here is even the AI will grow as rapidly as now. Even more people start using it. You will still need the data and keeping it. For example, where do you store your notes? For example, iPhone notes. if I come to you in one day and tell you... Jamie: Okay, interesting. George Maramigin: Do you want to backup your iPhone nodes daily or weekly to your own cloud storage? I think the answer will be yes, because I want to backup my Notion. I want to backup Obsidian, my knowledge-based management system. it's needed that when we are talking about the customer data, nobody cares about it. It looks like this. Jamie: Interesting. So, no, think everybody, ⁓ ⁓ up, people back up data that they think is important, right? That they feel like they can't lose and maybe they don't view the customer data as their data. don't, and you're saying the way that you, that you're, ⁓ you're thinking about it. Ultimately for me, when I hear that, I always wonder about like, George Maramigin: Yeah. Jamie: I wonder the root problem is, right? So back to the, It's one thing to say, do you, why do you back up? So why do I care about backing up my data for my iPhone or any of my personal stuff? And why do I not care about backing up customer data? Or why do I not think about backing up customer data? So what's the problem in the first one? I find it very valuable. And then with the second part don't. I don't find it so valuable. can get, I get it sounds to me like if you can crack the nut on why that is such a big problem, ⁓ you're into a, ⁓ pretty good, you're probably into a pretty good place around why will come running to my Sierra backup. ⁓ right? you. ⁓ The other is when you start talking about meta, I find it interesting because it's obviously it's people who back up. phones and back up other the other notion and back up other things that they're doing. So if they're backing those things up, will they think back up in the same condi- do you to to shift the context for them so that they can also see it for their business? Anyway, lots of it sounds to me like you have lots of ⁓ things to why I say to figure out I mean a lot of opportunities out there. Challenges. so where is the main clip area that you're focused George Maramigin: Yeah, for sure. Jamie: now and for the next, you know, call it for the next six months or 12 months. George Maramigin: Yeah, it's ⁓ implementing AI that will help us to deliver new ops integration each day, I hope, because more ⁓ we can support, we can get more customers and can provide the services we can. And this is first one. And the second one is just to... Jamie: care. Mm-hmm. George Maramigin: to keep the hand on the wrist, because to understand what's happening on the market. Because the last year Salesforce bought own backup for $1.8 billion. The same tool that allows you to backup your only Salesforce data and Salesforce bought it. So like a signal for us that probably this product needs for someone. Jamie: Mm-hmm. George Maramigin: and we have like a market opportunity. Jamie: Yeah. no. It sounds well, and I guess the question, excuse me, around that is whether like, whether that's the opportunity that you're seeing is their value and ⁓ at how to grow it much, much faster, like to scale it much, much faster. that ⁓ that's aligned with the AI work that you're doing right now. So you can get into more channels and then eventually shift yourself also to, okay. No, no, it makes a lot of sense. mean, growth is the way that you grab people's attention. George Maramigin: care for sure. Jamie: ⁓ Obviously a good product. Okay, so no, this is great. Very, very cool and very interesting. Anything else that you, any advice or anything else you want to share with the audience? George Maramigin: Don't forget about backing up your data. Jamie: I love it. love it. All right. So George, so tell me, just do me a favor. So tell everybody where they can find you, how they can reach you or find you online. I'll put some links in after, but it would be great if you stayed. George Maramigin: Yeah, for sure. can DM me in LinkedIn you write directly to my ⁓ professional It's george.maramajan ⁓ at And yeah, and email. Jamie: Awesome. All right. Well, listen, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you, everyone, for listening and watching. George, that was great. And good luck with my CRM backup. I look forward to seeing another CRM provider purchase you for ⁓ a lot of money in the not too distant future. That'd be great. George Maramigin: Thank you, Jamie. Thanks for having me.