7 Go-to-Market Lessons from Stratyfy’s Journey in Selling AI to Risk-Averse Industries

Landing enterprise customers in risk-averse industries like financial services requires more than just innovative technology. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Laura Kornhauser, founder of Stratyfy, shared how they achieved a 400% customer growth by taking an unconventional approach to product development and sales. Here are the key go-to-market lessons from their journey.

1. Focus on Usability Over Technical Innovation While most AI companies lead with technological innovation, Stratyfy discovered a different path to success. “What really unlocked those initial opportunities for us was… the fact that we were able to deliver that technology in a way that was usable especially for our early customers,” Laura explains. This insight shaped their entire approach to product development, focusing on making complex AI technology accessible and practical for risk managers.
2. Embrace the Long Sales Cycle In risk-averse industries, trust-building takes time. As Laura notes, “It wasn’t the first, 2nd or the third time that led to those especially first few customers. It was probably the fifth through 10th.” Instead of fighting against this reality, Stratyfy embraced it, developing a sales approach that acknowledged the need for multiple touchpoints and continuous relationship building.
3. Let Customer Usage Guide Product Evolution Rather than forcing predetermined solutions, Stratyfy let customer behavior guide their product development. Laura shares how they noticed customers using their fairness metrics: “We always saw fairness as a key performance indicator that should be evaluated right alongside expected financial performance.” This observation led to their second product, demonstrating how careful attention to customer usage patterns can reveal new market opportunities.
4. Turn Organizational Complexity into an Advantage While selling to different buyers within the same organization can be challenging, Stratyfy turned this into a growth strategy. Laura explains, “Oftentimes the buyers at an organization are different, actually, though they are highly related, but they operate in different groups within the organization.” They used success with one product as leverage to expand into other departments, creating a land-and-expand strategy that worked within the constraints of enterprise organizations.
5. Qualify Opportunities Early and Decisively Perhaps most crucially, Stratyfy developed a clear framework for qualifying opportunities. Laura advises, “If in that initial 30 minutes meeting, you don’t feel the excitement from the investor and you aren’t equally excited about them… deprioritize.” This approach helped them avoid wasting time with prospects who were merely interested in learning about AI rather than implementing it.
6. Build Products That Complement Human Expertise Instead of trying to replace human judgment, Stratyfy positioned their AI as an enhancer of human expertise. Laura emphasizes that “data alone is not going to give us all the answers. It gives us part of the answers.” This approach resonated particularly well in fraud detection, where “fraud experts can spot emerging trends or emerging threats faster than you have enough data for a machine to find it on its own.”
7. Align Team Growth with Mission Stratyfy’s growth strategy extended beyond products to people. They attracted top talent by emphasizing three elements: mission alignment, the opportunity to solve hard problems with innovative technology, and giving team members agency in defining their path. This approach helped them nearly double their team size while maintaining their culture and effectiveness.

The results speak for themselves. Stratyfy’s approach has led to significant growth, with Laura noting they’re “now working with four times as many” customers as the previous year. For founders selling complex technology into risk-averse industries, these lessons offer a blueprint for building trust, driving adoption, and scaling effectively.

By focusing on usability, embracing long sales cycles, and letting customer behavior guide product development, Stratyfy has shown that it’s possible to successfully sell innovative technology to even the most conservative buyers. Their journey demonstrates that sometimes the best go-to-market strategy isn’t about moving fast and breaking things—it’s about moving deliberately and building trust.