From Idea to Execution with Jeffrey Paul

In this episode of the Predictable Revenue Podcast, host Collin Stewart interviews Jeffrey Paul, founder of Ziotag, a startup using AI to make video content more accessible and searchable.

After a long hiatus, Jeff returned to a product that needed to be revalidated from the ground up. No shortcuts, no silver bullets, just founder-led work: talking to users, refining the pitch, and iterating toward product-market fit.

This post breaks down the most actionable lessons from that conversation. If you’re building in AI, edtech, or video, this one’s for you.

Startups Are Brutal, But Resilience Wins

“Starting a startup is hard.” Jeff Paul says it plainly because he lived it. After stepping away from Ziotag for several years, he came back to a product that no longer had a precise fit. The tech still worked, but the market had moved on.

Most would’ve pivoted or quit. Jeff didn’t. He revalidated the product himself, speaking with users, conducting demos, and gathering direct feedback. No contractors. No shortcuts.

This kind of work doesn’t scale, and that’s the point. 

As The Predictable Revenue Manifesto puts it, you don’t delegate your way to the first $1M. Founders have to do the selling, the listening, and the fixing.

Ziotag didn’t restart with a growth hack. It restarted with grit.

PMF Is a Moving Target. You Have to Earn It

Most founders treat product-market fit like a milestone. You launch, tweak, and wait for the signal, some magic moment when everything clicks.

That moment rarely comes.

In reality, product-market fit is earned slowly. It’s not a single breakthrough, it’s a hundred small ones. A user tells you what actually helped them. A demo sparks unexpected interest. Someone signs up without needing hand-holding. You start to hear the same feedback over and over, not just louder, but clearer as well.

It’s built through loops: show, listen, adjust, repeat. 

Especially early on, every version of your product is a prototype, because the product isn’t just what you built, it’s what people understand, value, and keep using.

And fit isn’t static. What worked last quarter might stall next quarter. New competitors emerge. Customer needs shift. What felt like traction turns out to be noise. This is why treating PMF as a fixed point is dangerous. It gives founders a false sense of security.

Instead, treat PMF like a moving target. One that gets easier to hit the more you listen, iterate, and stay close to users. It’s less of a moment and more of a rhythm.

The teams that win aren’t the ones with the best launch. They’re the ones willing to keep adjusting the sights.

Don’t Overthink Branding

It’s easy to spend weeks debating the perfect name, tweaking a logo, or reworking a tagline. It feels productive, but most of the time, it’s just a distraction.

Early on, the only brand that matters is whether the product works.

Founders often default to polish because it feels safe and familiar.

Branding is controllable. Customer feedback isn’t. But polish without proof is wasted effort. The goal isn’t to look credible, it’s to be useful.

A name doesn’t create traction. A logo doesn’t drive retention. Until real users validate what you’re building, everything else is noise.

Pick a name. Ship something. Talk to users. Adjust. The story gets written later, right now, the only thing that matters is whether you’re solving a real problem.

Accessibility Became a Growth Lever

Accessibility wasn’t part of the original plan. But it became one of the biggest unlocks.

As Ziotag evolved, the team realized that making the product easier to use for people with disabilities didn’t just check a box. It made the experience better for everyone. Cleaner interfaces. Simpler navigation. Smarter tagging. It didn’t just widen the user base. It clarified the product.

And in education, accessibility isn’t optional. It’s essential. 

By prioritizing it, Ziotag found unexpected traction with educators and institutions, opening up new use cases and audiences that they hadn’t initially targeted.

It’s a reminder for founders: sometimes your biggest differentiator comes from solving for edge cases. What starts as a constraint can turn into a competitive advantage.

DIY Sales > Outsourced Growth

In the early stage, sales is not a department, it’s a founder’s job. The goal isn’t just revenue. It’s learning. Every conversation, demo, and objection reveals where the product resonates, and where it doesn’t.

Outsourcing that too early is a mistake. You can’t improve what you don’t understand firsthand.

Early traction often stems from founder-led efforts, including conference booths, cold outreach, and casual networking. It’s not scalable, but that’s not its intention. The purpose is to gather real-time reactions, test messaging live, and observe where people lean in or walk away.

Ziotag followed this path. Jeff Paul showed the product directly, often with nothing more than a laptop and a “try it out for free” invitation. That wasn’t just a sales line. It was a loop. It gave him the feedback he needed to refine both the pitch and the product.

The founders who sell early build conviction. The ones who skip it build blind spots.

AI Supports the UX, It’s Not the Headline

AI might power your product, but if it’s the first thing you’re selling, you’re probably missing the point.

Users don’t care about your algorithm. They care about what it helps them do.

Ziotag’s core feature is AI-based video tagging, but that’s not what users mention. What they actually value is being able to find the exact clip they need without having to scrub through hours of footage. The outcome is clarity, speed, and control, not machine learning.

Founders often lead with the tech. But real traction comes from leading with impact. Don’t tell users how smart your product is. Show them what it unlocks.

If AI improves the experience, that’s the story. Not the stack behind it.

Conclusion

There’s no playbook for product-market fit, but there are patterns. Build what solves a real problem. Talk to users. Do the work yourself before trying to scale. That’s what turned Ziotag from a stalled product into real traction.

If you’re still in the messy middle: keep going. The feedback, the false starts, the slow wins, they’re the work.

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