Building in Public vs. Building in Focus: Unity SCM’s Alternative Path to B2B Success

While many startups chase Twitter followers and TechCrunch headlines, some of the most successful B2B companies grow quietly, focused intensely on customer value. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Unity SCM founder Amir Taichman revealed how rejecting typical startup marketing in favor of customer focus led to sustainable growth.

The Anti-Hero Approach

When asked about founders who inspire him, Amir’s response was telling. Instead of naming high-profile tech celebrities, he expressed admiration for a different type of leader: “These are the people who build their companies with their own ten fingers. They do the hard things, they get the work done. They don’t look for the headlines.”

These founders, Amir explains, are “so focused internally on their companies that they just don’t have the bandwidth to go around doing PR. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing PR, it serves a hell of a lot of purposes.”

Focus Over Fame

Unity’s approach prioritizes solving real problems over generating buzz. As Amir notes, successful founders often are “so focused on building the company, they’re so focused on their own problems… these are the people who build really significant companies.”

This philosophy shaped Unity’s go-to-market strategy. Rather than chasing publicity, they focused on understanding and solving customer problems. “If you have happy customers using your product… they’ll introduce you to new problems,” Amir explains. “And while every company thinks they’re a snowflake, they’re not. The same problems exist for other companies with similar characteristics.”

Building Through Customer Success

Unity’s growth strategy centers on customer success rather than marketing tactics. “We really hyper focused on our customers and making sure that the customers we have are really successful,” Amir shares. This approach creates a natural expansion path as successful customers become references and introduce new use cases.

“We manage to learn from our happy customers about new use cases that we can help solve with our platform,” Amir explains, “and then we can turn around and find other companies that have the same problems.”

The Power of Peer Support

Instead of seeking public visibility, Unity found value in private peer networks. Amir describes a small group of founders at similar stages who meet regularly: “There was four of us, and we started meeting, I think, two and a half years ago, maybe three years ago. And one, those three people became three of my closest friends and confidants.”

This group provides context-rich support that public platforms can’t match. As Amir explains, “You can just talk about what the challenges are, knowing the listening people know what you’re going through and can fully appreciate the full context of where you’re coming from.”

Measuring What Matters

Unity’s focus on substance over appearance extends to how they measure success. Rather than tracking vanity metrics or public perception, they focus on customer value and operational stability. “There’s a very intricate set of relationships between the different aspects of your business,” Amir notes, emphasizing the importance of finding equilibrium across all business functions.

The Long Game

For founders weighing visibility against focus, Unity’s experience suggests that building quietly can lead to stronger foundations. As Amir puts it, “I think a lot of really solid businesses don’t just explode one day… It’s a really long journey for overnight success.”

The key is maintaining conviction in your approach while staying deeply attuned to customer needs. Sometimes the most powerful marketing strategy is simply building something that works exceptionally well, even if fewer people initially know about it.