Aforza helps consumer goods companies sell more and grow faster through a suite of cloud & mobile apps built for the industry. Aforza connects trade planning and field sales teams together to solve the problems of unprofitable promotions, declining market share and lack of revenue growth. The Aforza product works out of the box and can be implemented in weeks.

Through early 2019 my co-founders and I had noted two phenomenon: firstly, the growth of Industry Cloud (we had worked in Veeva [$23b] and Vlocity [$1.6b]) and secondly, the conspicuous absence of solutions of this ilk in the Consumer Goods (CG) space. We noted that the TAM for CG is approx 40% greater than Life Sciences and felt that the impact of e-commerce, brand control and environmental concerns meant that CG Companies need to evolve and find new ways to be increasingly agile. We felt the confluence of our own experience together with all of these factors created an opportunity too good to miss.

For me, it is the quiet times. As an executive at companies like Salesforce, one becomes so used to being super busy with heaps of digital interruptions. When you go back to the beginning, and suddenly it goes quiet and you're staring at a blank screen...well, it can be unsettling. I have found that the key is to use the quiet times to be as strategic as you can in planning and thinking ahead.

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Talk to as many prospects and customers as you frequently can. I truly believe that the reason we've been able to come to market with an astonishingly relevant product is completely down to extensive customer interaction and feedback.

Nothing is more important than seeing our customers go live and our champions become heroes within their businesses. I am particularly proud of Distell, a multinational brewing and beverage company based in South Africa. The project was a great partnership with their Head of Sales Excellence which was covered fantastically in Consumer Goods Technology (CGT) magazine.

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For us, Bonfire is a really important partner. They have the perfect blend of financial expertise and tech company experience. They are a high integrity organization who are deeply committed to our success. I have found this to be an exceedingly rare combination of skills and values.

We have a strong and active relationship with Bonfire that is always constructively challenging. The partnership exposes us to cutting edge approaches in our go-to-market and industry best practices that maximize our potential. For example, Bonfire worked with us to transition to a buyer-led sales methodology that has transformed the way we engage with our prospects, the content we use, the experiences we deliver and how we align for mutual value.

Tourial. It’s been a game changer in how we showcase our solutions and tell stories to buyers.