Strong Foundations for Category Creation

In this week’s blog, we’ll hear from Coactive AI’s new Customer Operations Lead. A start-up veteran, Suzanne Singer has experienced the challenges and benefits of rapid scaling and constant innovation. Find out what experiences she’s bringing to Coactive AI, and how she's helping to spearhead our category creation project.

P.S. She was midway through relocating her home when we did this interview, so roll your sleeves up, because it’s all hands on deck!

Suzanne, it’s great to meet you! You’re surrounded by boxes and grinning. No judgment, but have you been building a fort?

Aaah, I wish! You've actually caught me on moving day.

Can you pass me that packing tape?

Of course - and how are you feeling about relocating to the West Coast?

I am really excited about moving to San Francisco for a number of reasons, but if I had to name one, it would probably be the access to the outdoors. Chicago is a wonderful city, but I love hiking, skiing, running, and surfing. The Bay Area puts all of these opportunities on my doorstep. Do you want a snack by the way? I’m trying to clear out my refrigerator.

[The Coactive AI team welcoming Suzanne (front right) on her first day. Who needs boxes when you’ve got barrels?]

Shotgun the cinnamon swirl! Delicious. So, what brought you to Coactive AI?

Hmm, I’ll back up a bit to answer that one. What attracted me to the companies I’ve worked for in the past was respect and admiration for their founders and leadership teams. Then, when I met Cody and Will [the co-founders of Coactive AI] earlier this year, they took my definition of good founders to a whole new level. They're just such incredible people. So, to be honest, before I even knew about the product, I had made up my mind to join Coactive.

Forgive the phrasing, but can you un-pack that a little?

Before Coactive, I worked at a number of startups where, as an early employee, I was able to work closely with founders as part of lean, scrappy teams. I learned that I am especially energized and effective in high-speed, iterative environments, where scaling happens quickly. I’ve seen a lot! Including acquisitions, expansion into new markets, incredible team growth, reorgs, etc. It’s been a total blast.

In my opinion, Coactive AI is a perfect combination of really good people doing really, really cool things. We’re building products that will transform our customers’ businesses, saving them massive amounts of time and money. Simultaneously, we’re doing it in a profoundly human way. I can’t say enough how committed everyone is to embodying a positive and inclusive culture here.

Keep your eyes peeled for some guy named Larry by the way - he’s supposed to be buying my couch today. Help me move this table?

Yikes, that’s heavy! So, aside from hopefully buying lighter furniture, what excites you about your new role at Coactive AI?

Loads of things! What I'm most excited about is working closely with both our engineering team and our customers. I love sitting in on the engineering meetings. I get to work closely with these incredibly intelligent and talented technologists, to understand their perspectives, and then be the conduit through which information is relayed to the customer, and vice versa.

I'm also currently spearheading our category creation project! That involves interviewing our early employees, investors, and board members to really understand how we want to define and position the new market category we’re creating. It’s been immensely helpful (and extremely fun!) as I ramp up. The Coactive ecosystem is unlike any I’ve seen before; I’ve never felt so immediately welcomed and supported.

Beyond that, we’re also in the process of strategizing how to introduce a regular communication cadence with our prospective customers. Continuing engagement with them before and after proof of concept, and becoming a more consistent part of their lives is a crucial step for us. Part of category creation is educating your new market.

Tell us more about category creation. What does it mean for your role and for Coactive AI?

It’s a new experience for me, and kind of weird to be honest! Typically, when you're selling to a customer, you have a shared frame of reference for the product – like an established market player or methodology for comparison. But Coactive AI has developed a whole new category of product – so there’s no one to compare ourselves to!

For our non-technical book club at Coactive, we’ve been exploring category creation. One of the books cites Henry Ford as an example, focusing on when he first started producing cars for the masses. If Ford had asked customers back then what they wanted, they would've asked for a faster horse. But Ford saw past the status quo and built the future. He gave his customers the automobile and changed the world. But of course, it meant customers had to leave behind their knowledge of horse riding and instead learn to drive cars. So educating the market was key, but when the user benefits are so colossally clear, progress happens.

[Suzanne (left) on a weekend sight-seeing trip around San Francisco, courtesy of her Coactive AI colleague, Caitlin (right). Our team brings people together from all walks of life - whether it’s Midwest start-ups, like Suzanne, or military veteran Caitlin (read about her mid-career pivot here).]  

Coactive is bringing its business customers to a similar juncture in the road. The challenge for us, just like for Henry Ford, is that customers don’t yet have a frame of reference for our new solution. So it takes time to earn their trust. But when we do connect with them, and start showing them what’s possible, our platform demos are met with astonishment. We’re not giving our clients a faster horse, we’re giving them a whole new category of solution.

It's been really cool sitting in on customer calls with Cody and Will. There's an element of disbelief when they’re explaining to customers that yes, we can do X, Y, and Z, in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost of their current operations. Category creation is one of the most exciting things about Coactive’s mission.

What energizes you at work?

For lack of a better way of describing it, I love being a connector. Whether in my professional or personal life, I love identifying opportunities for different people and groups to collaborate and accomplish something great together.

I am grateful to have had really fantastic mentors and exemplars in this exact effort throughout my life. Finding genuine people who mean what they say, and who deliver on their pledges. That authenticity is how I approach every relationship that I have.

When you’re building long-term relationships and earning trust, you’re building something together with your stakeholders. Understanding customer feedback is essential to building something fantastic. You also need to hone and trust your own instincts, as well as those of your team, so that you can collectively think beyond even what the customer knows they want right now.

Oh, I think that’s Larry outside!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne!

My pleasure! Now, grab that end of the couch and lift on three.

Culture is our top priority at Coactive AI. We build our teams around collaboration, inclusivity, and daily learning. We’re also the best at what we do, which is revolutionizing how unstructured image data is analyzed. Check out our job openings.