Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in finance but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Gerald Zankl, Founder of Kickscale, located in Vienna, Austria.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Kickscale is a Sales Training Platform to enable individuals and teams with the next generation of actionable video sales training playbooks. Customers using Kickscale experience +20% more revenue, 50% faster sales onboarding, and more satisfied & motivated sales reps.

Tell us about yourself

We started mid-2020 with our idea, worked 1,5 years part-time besides management jobs, built the MVP, and implemented user feedback. We created playbooks too. Since 2022 we have been working on it full-time.

And ... I'm still frustrated ... Why?

  1. Sales Training is expensive and often useless because it isn't done frequently.
  2. Great Sales Training from the best coaches is not accessible for the ones with a small budget (e.g., startups, SMBs, founders, job seekers, students, ...).
  3. There is no SCHOOL for B2B SALES.  Back when I was a former Head of Inside Sales at an international startup, I didn't enable my team with the right playbooks.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

🏆 $500k+ revenues since we started
🏆 +35% YoY growth
🏆 ProductHunt: #2 of the day
🏆 G2 High Performer Winter 2023
🏆 $140k in public grants
🏆 Built Playbooks sales reps love

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

As a business owner, you are constantly focussing on the problems. Because you want to improve, so your #1 focus is always on the problems no one else wants to solve. Sometimes this can be tricky and stressful. But ... it is also so nice to do that and have the possibility to influence everything.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Look for a problem big enough to solve (e.g., sales training today is broken and too expensive)
  2. Look for a co-founder you love because times will be hard (Thank you, Markus)
  3. Focus on your customer and help them with your solution (e.g., access the best playbooks easily via playbooks.kickscale.com)

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.kickscale.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/geraldzankl/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegeraldzankl/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/geraldzankl
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldzankl/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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