Ready to launch your own podcast? Book a strategy call.
Frontlines.io | Where B2B Founders Talk GTM.
Strategic Communications Advisory For Visionary Founders
Conversation
Highlights
Shownotes & Key topics discussed:
Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech’s most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Stoyan Zulyamsky, Co-Founder of Costimize, a finops-powered operating system for the modern enterprise that’s raised $5 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
- Early Tech Aspirations: Stoyan’s interest in technology began at a young age, with ambitions to build his own computer. His early career moves, including working for the biggest bank in Bulgaria, provided him with the insights and experiences that would later fuel his entrepreneurial journey.
- The Tech Scene in Bulgaria: From being perceived as a call center location to becoming an R&D hub for large tech companies, Bulgaria has experienced a significant transformation. This change reflects the country’s growing startup ecosystem, fueled by an influx of capital and a wealth of educated talent.
- Addressing Cloud Complexity: Costimize tackles the complex, automated environment of cloud systems, aiming to simplify and optimize operations for businesses. Stoyan’s vision is to provide a systematic approach to managing and reducing cloud expenses while organizing operational playbooks for sustainability.
- The Genesis of Costimize: The idea for Costimize was born out of Stoyan’s experiences in managing IT operations and witnessing the manual efforts required to control cloud spending. This realization led to the development of a platform that could automate these processes, saving time and resources for businesses.
- Market Positioning and Growth Strategy: Initially focusing on Google Cloud as a niche market, Costimize is expanding its offerings to other cloud platforms. Stoyan’s strategy involves leveraging marketplace opportunities and partnerships to drive growth, aiming for a tenfold increase in the coming year.
- FinOps and the Future of Cloud Management: Stoyan emphasizes the importance of FinOps (financial operations) in the evolving landscape of cloud management. He envisions Costimize as a central platform that connects various systems, aiding organizations in automating their cloud finances for enhanced profitability.
Actionable
Takeaways
Identify and Address a Specific Need:
Stoyan's realization of the inefficiencies in cloud spending management led to the creation of Costimize. For entrepreneurs, it's crucial to identify a specific problem that is deeply felt by your target audience. Dive into niches where your expertise can offer significant value and differentiate your solution.
Leverage Your Background to Uncover Unique Insights:
Drawing on his experiences from working in banking and M&A, Stoyan recognized the need for more sophisticated cloud financial management tools. This underscores the importance of using your past experiences to gain unique insights into the challenges faced by industries you're familiar with, potentially uncovering underserved areas ripe for innovation.
Educate Your Market:
Particularly in emerging or complex fields like FinOps, dedicating resources to educate potential clients about the significance and benefits of your product is crucial. Create educational content and stories that resonate with the challenges they face, guiding them to understand the value your solution brings.
Adapt Your Positioning as Your Product Evolves:
As Costimize transitioned from a savings-focused tool to an operating system for cloud finance management, its market positioning evolved. This highlights the need for startups to continuously refine their messaging to align with product developments and market expectations, ensuring relevance and clarity in how the value proposition is communicated.
Build for Integration and Automation:
In today's hyper-automated business environment, designing your product or service to easily integrate with existing systems and automate tasks can significantly increase its appeal. Stoyan emphasizes the importance of creating solutions that act as digital agents, capable of performing tasks within a larger ecosystem, thereby enhancing operational efficiency for clients.
Recommended Founder
Interviews
Harpreet Singh
Co-Founder and CEO of Launchable
Harpreet Singh, Co-Founder and CEO of Launchable: Over $12 Million Raised to Build the Future of Software Testing
Liam Randall
CEO and Founder of Cosmonic
Liam Randall, CEO and Founder of Cosmonic: $8.5 Million Raised to Power the Future of WebAssembly
Jacob Moshenko
CEO & Co-Founder of Authzed
Jacob Moshenko, CEO & Co-Founder of Authzed: $15.9 Million Raised to Build the Future of Authorization Infrastructure
Pascal Weinberger
CEO of Bardeen
Pascal Weinberger, CEO of Bardeen: $18 Million Raised to Build the Future of No-Code Automation
Prakash Chandran
Co-Founder and CEO of Xano
Prakash Chandran, Co-Founder and CEO of Xano: $5.4 Million Raised to Build the Next Generation of No-Code Backend Development
Andrew Wolfe
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Bloomfilter
Andrew Wolfe, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Bloomfilter: $7 Million Raised to Power the Future of Process Mining
Mike Malone
CEO and Founder of Smallstep
Mike Malone, CEO and Founder of Smallstep: $26 Million Raised to Build the Future of Certificate Lifecycle Management For DevOps
Tommy Dang
Co-Founder & CEO of Mage
Tommy Dang, CEO of Mage: $6.3 Million Raised to Build a Modern Replacement For Airflow
Lasse Andresen
CEO and Founder of IndyKite
Lasse Andresen, CEO and Founder of IndyKite: $10 Million Raised to Empower Teams to Move Beyond Legacy Identity and Access Management
Paul Kim
CEO of Notifi
Paul Kim, CEO of Notifi: $12 Million raised to Build the Future of Web3 Communication Infrastructure
Chetan Venkatesh
CEO of Macrometa
Chetan Venkatesh, CEO of Macrometa: $38 Million raised to Build the Hyper Distributed Cloud for the Next Generation of Applications
Benjamin Wilms
CEO and Co-Founder of Steadybit
Benjamin Wilms, CEO and Co-Founder of Steadybit: $7.8 Million Raised to Build the Future of Chaos Engineering
Derric Gilling
Co-founder & CEO of Moesif
Derric Gilling, CEO of Moesif: $15 Million Raised to Build the Future of API Analytics
Gary Hoberman
CEO & Founder of Unqork
Gary Hoberman, CEO & Founder of Unqork: Over $400 Million Raised to Pioneer the Codeless as a Service (CaaS) Category
Robert Whiteley
CEO of Coder
Robert Whiteley, CEO of Coder: $85 Million Raised to Power the Future of Developer Productivity
Tomas Reimers
Co-Founder of Graphite
Tomas Reimers, Co-Founder of Graphite: $22.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Code Reviews
Johnny Dallas
CEO and Co-Founder of Zeet.co
Johnny Dallas, CEO & Co-Founder of Zeet.co: $6M Raised to Power the Future of CI/CD & Deployment
Tom Tovar
CEO and Co-Founder of AppDome
Tom Tovar, CEO and Co-Founder of AppDome: Over $26 Million Raised to Build the Future of Mobile App Security
Omri Gazitt
CEO & Co-Founder of Aserto
Omri Gazitt, CEO & Co-Founder at Aserto: $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Authorization
Lukas Gentele
Co-Founder & CEO of Loft Labs
Lukas Gentele, CEO of Loft Labs: $5 Million Raised to Build the Virtual Kubernetes Category
Casey Rosenthal
CEO of Verica
Casey Rosenthal, CEO of Verica: $17 Million Raised to Build the Future of Chaos Engineering
Will Wilson
Co-Founder of Antithesis
Will Wilson, Co-Founder of Antithesis: $47 Million Raised to Build the Future of Autonomous Testing
David Siegel
David Siegel of Glide
David Siegel, CEO of Glide: Over $20 Million Raised to Power the Future of No-Code Application Development
Marcin Wyszynski
Co-Founder and CPO of Spacelift
Marcin Wyszynski, Co-Founder and CPO of Spacelift: Over $22 Million Raised to Build the Future of IaC Management
Eden Full Goh
Founder & CEO of Mobot
Eden Full Goh, Founder & CEO of Mobot: Over $17 Million Raised to Power the Future of Mobile App Testing
Yadhu Gopalan
CEO and Founder of Esper
Yadhu Gopalan, CEO and Founder of Esper: $100 Million Raised to Build the Future of Android Device Management
Yana Welinder
CEO and Founder of Kraftful
Yana Welinder, CEO and Founder of Kraftful: Over $3 Million Raised to Help Product Builders Create Better Products and Communities
Zach Lloyd
CEO and Founder of Warp
Zach Lloyd, CEO and Founder of Warp: $70 Million Raised to Build a Better Terminal
Ravi Parikh
CEO and Co-Founder of Airplane
Ravi Parikh, CEO and Co-Founder of Airplane: Over $40 Million Raised to Build Better Developer Infrastructure For Internal Tooling
Costa Tsaousis
CEO and Founder of Netdata
Costa Tsaousis, CEO and Founder of Netdata: Over $30 Million Raised to Power the Future of Infrastructure Monitoring
Ron Efroni
CEO and Co-Founder of Flox
Ron Efroni, CEO & Co-Founder of Flox: $28 Million Raised to Empower Developers with Reproducible Environments That Span the Enterprise SDLC
Martin Mao
CEO of Chronosphere
Martin Mao, CEO of Chronosphere: $250 Million Raised to Build the Future of Observability
Ori Keren
CEO and Co-Founder of LinearB
Ori Keren, CEO and Co-Founder of LinearB: Over $70 Million Raised to Build the Future of Software Delivery Management
Evan Kaplan
CEO of InfluxData
Evan Kaplan, CEO of InfluxData: Over $170 Million Raised to Build the Leading Time Series Provider
Ben Kliger
CEO and Co-Founder of Zenity
Ben Kliger, CEO and Co-Founder of Zenity: $21.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Security and Governance for AI, Low-Code, and No-Code Development
Ramiro Berrelleza
Founder and CEO of Okteto
Ramiro Berrelleza, CEO of Okteto: $18 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cloud Development
James Hawkins
CEO of PostHog
James Hawkins, CEO of PostHog: $21 Million Raised to Build the Future of Product Analytics
Suresh Mathew
Founder and CEO of Sedai
Suresh Mathew, Founder and CEO of Sedai: $18 Million Raised to Automate Cloud Management for Critical Decisions
Tim Kraska
Co-Founder of Einblick
Tim Kraska, Co-Founder of Einblick: $6M Raised to Build the Visual Data Computing Category
Joshua Aaron
CEO of Aiden
Joshua Aaron, CEO Aiden, $3 Million Raised to Build the Future of Software Packaging and Deployment
Tom Hacohen
CEO and Founder of Svix
Tom Hacohen, CEO and Founder of Svix: $10.5 Million Raised to Power the Future of Webhooks
Kevin McNamara
CEO & Founder of Parallel Domain
Kevin McNamara, CEO & Founder of Parallel Domain: $44 Million Raised to Power the Future of Autonomy
Sophie Novati
CEO and Founder of Formation
Sophie Novati, CEO and Founder of Formation: $9 Million Raised to Build a Virtual Fellowship Program for Software Engineers
Mike Long
CEO and Founder of Kosli
Mike Long, CEO and Founder of Kosli: $3.5 Million Raised to Deliver Secure Software Changes at Scale and Deploy to Production with Speed
Alan Shreve
CEO and Founder of Ngrok
Alan Shreve, CEO and Founder of Ngrok: $50 Million Raised to Help Devs Deploy SItes, Services, and Apps
Matthew O’Riordan
CEO of Ably Realtime
Matthew O’Riordan, CEO of Ably Realtime: Over $82 Million Raised to Build the Future of Realtime Experience Infrastructure
DeVaris Brown
CEO and Co-Founder of Meroxa
DeVaris Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of Meroxa: Over $19 Million Raised to Empower Engineering Teams with Better Stream Processing
John Li
CEO and Co-Founder of Vimcal
John Li, CEO & Co-Founder of Vimcal: $7 Million Raised to Build the Future of Calendar Productivity
Gil Feig
CTO of Merge
Gil Feig, CTO of Merge: $75 Million Raised to Help B2B Companies Build Customer-Facing Integrations via It’s Unified API Platform
Yingjun Wu
CEO and Co-Founder of RisingWave
Yingjun Wu, CEO and Co-Founder of RisingWave Labs: $40 Million Raised to Make Stream Processing Simple, Affordable, and Accessible
Romaric Philogene
CEO of Qovery
Romaric Philogene, CEO of Qovery: $4 Million Raised to Help You Deploy Your Apps on AWS in Seconds
Honey Mittal
Co-Founder, CPO & CEO of Locofy.ai
Honey Mittal, CEO of Locofy.ai: $3 Million Raised to Build the Future of Frontend Development
James Evans
Co-Founder and CEO of CommandBar
James Evans, Co-Founder and CEO of CommandBar: $24 Million Raised to Build the Leading AI-Powered User Assistance Platform
Hersh Tapadia
Co-Founder & CEO of Allstacks
Hersh Tapadia, CEO of Allstacks: $16 Million Raised to Build the Value Stream Intelligence Category
Egil Østhus
CEO and Co-founder of Unleash
Egil Østhus, CEO of Unleash: $16.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Feature Management
Dylan Etkin
CEO and Co-Founder of Sleuth
Dylan Etkin, CEO and Co-Founder of Sleuth: $25 Million Raised to Make Engineering Teams More Efficient
Michael Corr
Founder and CEO of Duro Labs
Michael Corr, CEO of Duro Labs: $4 Million Raised to Power the Future of Hardware Engineering
Matt Butcher
CEO of Fermyon
Matt Butcher, CEO of Fermyon: $26 Million Raised to Power the Future of WebAssembly
Paul Stovell
CEO and Founder of Octopus Deploy
Paul Stovell, CEO and Founder of Octopus Deploy: Over $170 Million Raised to Build the Future of Deployment Automation
Holly Tate
CMO of Leadr
Holly Tate, CMO of Leadr: Building the Future of People Development Platforms
Paolo Fragomeni
CEO of Socket Supply
Paolo Fragomeni, CEO of Socket Supply: $3.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of P2P Computing
Anish Dhar
Co-Founders of Cortex
Anish Dhar and Ganesh Datta, Co-Founders of Cortex: Over $52 Million Raised to Improve Developer Productivity