While we were busy preparing for CES in January, we were introduced to the CEO of an office design firm based in Korea. One of our acquaintances suggested that it might be a good idea to receive strategic investment from them. So as soon as we got back from CES, we scheduled a meeting and met up with them in February.
First Meeting
Our CEO, COO and CTO attended this meeting to talk with their CEO and CPO. We introduced them to our services and jointly thought of ways to apply our services to their line of work. However, they were very sensitive to security issues as their designs were their primary asset. So after the first meeting, we sent them an email including a functions manual along with some suggestions on how we can maintain design security while providing our services. We offered a completely separate database, domain, AI model and learning data to ensure their IP will not get breached.
However, after we sent them this email, we didn’t hear back from them for over 2 months. We thought we had lost a valuable client and decided moved on to other potential clients. Just as we were listing up our potential target clients, we received an email from their CEO saying that they want to catch up and continue discussing our collaboration. We were thrilled to hear back from them and promptly scheduled a follow-up meeting.
Second Meeting
As a couple of months had passed, our services had improved greatly in terms of UI/UX as well as in terms the quality of the design results. In the first meeting, they were interested in turning 3D clay models into life-like renderings. So we emphasized the additional function we made in response to their interest. At this point, we had also made a solid sales deck to visually show them our capabilities and use cases, so it was much easier to communicate. At the end of this meeting, their CEO agreed to hold a 3-month trial run with their designers to test our services’ practicality.
Third and final meeting
The third meeting went smooth. We settled the technical aspects of the contract. We decided to only charge them with the actual server fees that is required to use our services. The contract was signed on the spot without any further complication.
As to the method in which the trial run is tested, we are trying to answer the following questions:
- At what stage of the design process should they use Planby’s services to maximize efficiency and effectiveness?
- What kind of input is required to create the highest quality output?
The 3 month period was set to answer those questions while actually using them in their line of work. We will visit their company every other week to interview them on user experience and receive feedback. Based on our interviews and their feedback, we will continue to improve the services’ usability and quality of output. Once this this 3-month trial is over, we will renegotiate the terms of the contract after we evaluate each other’s importance. If they do decide to fully implement our services, we will create their custom AI model, construct their own database infrastructure and create a independent web domain as promised.
Their onboarding orientation to our services is on the 27th of May and we cannot wait to start working with our latest client!