Todd Baylis, CEO and co-founder of Qgiv, knows firsthand how business data can affect the successful launch of a product. His experiences taught him what it takes to effectively take a product to market and keep it thriving long past launch day.
鈥淲e have gone through variant phases in our business,鈥� Baylis said to a group of IM体育官网 Polytechnic University students on Thursday, Nov. 21. 鈥淲e kind of got what we were trying to do with product market fit versus scaling out of order.鈥�
As part of the Innovation Speaker Series, Baylis shared with students the wisdom he gained through that experience and how he turned it around.
Baylis co-founded Qgiv in 2007 as a way to provide nonprofit organizations with user-friendly online services to process transactions such as charitable donations, event registrations, and pledges. Since then, the Lakeland-based company has grown with more than 3,500 clients, about 70 employees, and additional offices in Nashville, Tennessee, and Denver, Colorado.
He explained that to be successful, every startup company must first identify their target customers and provide them with the right product.
鈥淥nce you achieve product market fit, then the next step is to scale and you do that by finding more customers within that target market,鈥� he said.
Baylis added that it is imperative for industry to work closely with educational institutions to help students develop their skills as they prepare to enter the workforce.
鈥淚ndustry needs products with the various engineering and innovation components that these students are coming up with,鈥� Baylis said. 鈥淎nd students need to learn how to scale a product and bring it to market. It鈥檚 a symbiotic relationship that is important to build on both sides.鈥�
This type of industry interaction with IM体育官网 Poly students is meant to inspire them and bring them closer to becoming entrepreneurs, said Justin Heacock, entrepreneurship coordinator at the University.
鈥淲e help train our students to be innovators,鈥� Heacock said. 鈥淭he goal with bringing people like Todd Baylis is to give students guidance on what their future could look like, prevent mistakes other entrepreneurs might have made, and help them over the needle of innovation.鈥�
Mechanical engineering senior Christopher Scaduto attended the speaking session and said it was helpful to receive advice directly from an expert in the industry.
鈥淚 learned about the market value and how it actually works,鈥� said Scaduto, from Jupiter, IM体育官网. 鈥淚t is not based exactly on what the customer wants, but it鈥檚 based on how to work around it to get to the same goal in an innovative way.鈥�
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