From Pink Slip to Pivot: Predictable Sales in Unpredictable Markets | Joe Gruca, Ep 32

“I literally that day I was helping coach my kids baseball team. How was your day? I said, kind of crappy, lost my job today. And he was like, 'Hey, I know these two guys that are kind of starting this software company. Do you mind if I introduce you?' I never saw this coming, but by the fourth week I'm bitten. Something just bit me and it was the entrepreneurial bug.”

On his wife's support during the Higher IQ startup years

“I remember her being so committed to it, saying, 'Should we really think about selling the house and do we need to?' It was absolutely the worst thing I could have ever done to me and my family. But my children are different because of that. I've got two young boys that are trying to become entrepreneurs. They've learned to live with a lot less than maybe we were accustomed to.”

“I've walked a mile in their shoes. I'd stop at Costco. I'd buy a case of Red Bull. I'd make the coffee, take out the garbage. Then I would make every cold call, a bunch of them, 50 of them a day. I would do every demo. I would try to make every sales call, do every contract, create all my own sales collateral. Then I put on the classic uniform of the time, pair of jeans, nice shirt, and a blazer, and I try to go raise a million bucks.”

On whether cold calling is dead

“Don't try to follow the exact playbook. Figure out how to make it your own. Use a little bit of AI, use a little bit of practice, trial and effort, make a few cold calls, do that. But if you're looking for the holy grail of do it this way all the time, it just doesn't exist. I think it's about meeting your customer where they are and then you kind of back into that.”

Reflecting on advice from David Cummings about raising venture capital

“As soon as you do raise that capital it's not your company anymore, Joe. It's not you and Rob and Jay. It's their company as much as it is yours. In hindsight I don't know whether it was the right decision or not. But I do question it to your point, is raising capital always the right solution? I don't know.”