Alex Brodsky understands failure is natural — and necessary — in startups. He had seen it during his time at Procter & Gamble, and again at Ashley Furniture and Nielsen.
But during his decade-plus of working as a product officer, he kept coming back to the same problem.
"A lot of product leaders feel like they're walking off a cliff," he said. "You get lucky or you're wrong, and you’re wrong most of the time."
He first began to attack the problem alongside Tampa-based Orchid Black, working as a chief product manager to help companies evaluate their product and risk before launching them in the market.
"Seeing the problem time and time again, watching companies waste millions around me, has been painful," he said, adding he worked with five companies during his time at Orchid Black. "But now I can help more than that and do as much as possible in a growing market."
Brodsky launched Iteright, a Tampa-based SaaS company allowing companies to test and validate its products. The company, which is a combination of "iterate the right way," became a Delaware incorporated entity this February. It has a focus on business-to-business companies, which would use Iteright's product optimization program to test and validate the product before risking millions with a launch.
"Companies are spending 40% of revenue on new products that are the wrong products, then you have people selling it, marketing it, and that's why companies die," he said. "If 40% of your money is wasted on the wrong thing, imagine how much better it would be if you were investing in the right thing."
The B2B focus goes beyond traditional tech companies, which Brodsky pointed out can be almost anything in today's digital-focused world.
"Every company is a tech company," he said, adding he's targeting companies like Bank of America and UnitedHealthcare. "When you go to the doctor, you expect to see results the next day. So they're working to do that, but it's hard to get the right talent. And they're trying to be tech companies and wasting even more money [with poor products]."
Brodsky plans to focus on Tampa Bay companies that are in the "small to medium" range, between $2 million and $20 million in revenue. The company has six employees with plans to grow to 10 by the end of the year. It is a member of Tampa innovation hub Embarc Collective, and entirely bootstrapped.
"We look at it as, 'Are you building something that fills needs, that has a viable market and is it feasible for you?'" he said. "We have shorter attention spans than ever, so it's important more than ever to build what consumers need, but also what will make the company money."
