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Partner Interview
Published August 21, 2023

Trustpilot: GTM Strategy & Network Effects

Executive Bio

Former SVP of Sales at Trustpilot

Interview Transcript

Disclaimer: This interview is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. In Practise is an independent publisher and all opinions expressed by guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of In Practise.

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What improvements do you think could be made?

I believe there are two or three areas that require focus. Firstly, the sales and go-to-market process is heavily people-led. Approximately half of the company is employed in various go-to-market functions, such as sales and customer success. Interestingly, for a SaaS product, you cannot purchase it online. You need to speak to someone, even with an entry price point of $2,500 a year or $200 a month in the US. This seems to be a high barrier, that you need to talk to somebody, and it adds significant cost to the business, slowing down growth. This would be a significant change to the business model.

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What improvements do you think could be made?

The other change I would recommend is that Trustpilot does not do enough with the several million people leaving reviews every year. There's no marketing to them, no follow-up. For example, if you just reviewed Amazon, there's no prompt to review Walmart or Target. Nothing is done to generate virality. I believe these two changes could unlock a lot of value. The first could unlock a lot of enterprise value with improved numbers, and the second could drive business growth by making it a household name in the US, unlike in Europe.

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When I looked at larger brands like WordPress and Grubhub, I didn't find any Trustpilot logos, star ratings, or review plugins in their funnel. Where do these companies typically use their Trustpilot subscription or rights to the logo? Do you think Trustpilot's customers are truly getting value and using it effectively to increase their conversion rates?

For larger brands, they're often battling on Google's search results to win that conversion. Smaller brands, on the other hand, are battling on their own website. If you're unsure whether to choose Grubhub or DoorDash, you might search in Google. But if you want to buy a specific item sold by a single company, like a candle for your home from a specific candle maker, you want to see Trustpilot stars on the small company's website to know you can trust them. The candle maker needs that star on their website to convince you to buy their product because they're a trustworthy company that uses Trustpilot. These are the two sides of conversion, if that makes sense.

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