Before talking to alpha users, the team had mapped out a large, complex feature roadmap they assumed users would want.

“we had developed a big, complex roadmap of features that we thought our users would want in the platform”

Alpha user feedback showed the flashy planned features weren't what users actually cared about; they wanted a few simpler tweaks instead.

“our users saved us from months of building features that it turned out nobody really cared about”

The prior business, DeepND, a predictive hiring and retention platform for restaurants and retailers, lost its customer base when COVID-19 hit the restaurant industry.

“It was like dominoes with customers going out of business”

Blaney's own assessment is that the timing and product-market fit for DeepND were wrong once the pandemic hit.

“The timing and product market fit just wasn't right”