From McKinsey to Startup: How Certa’s Founder Leveraged Consulting Insights to Win Enterprise Deals
Most consulting-to-founder stories follow a predictable pattern: spot a problem, build a quick MVP, then iterate based on customer feedback. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Certa founder Jag Lamba revealed how his McKinsey experience taught him to take a fundamentally different approach.
The Consulting Foundation
“The greatest thing about McKinsey is the quality and the intellect of the people you work with,” Jag reflects. “It’s exhilarating to work with incredibly smart, driven people.” However, he found himself wanting more than the traditional consulting path offered: “The consulting did not fully resonate with me. I think I’m more of a builder and I like to go deeper than consulting allowed me.”
Spotting the Enterprise Pain Point
While at McKinsey, Jag observed a fundamental inefficiency in how large companies operate. “What we do is third party risk compliance and ESG,” he explains. “In layman’s terms, we enable companies to safely and efficiently work with all their third parties.”
The problem was clear: “The amount of regulation, information security, privacy needs, reputation impact, ESG needs… there were just so many rising needs that it was really painful.” This pain manifested in what Jag calls “the infamous procurement and compliance bottleneck,” where it could “take three to six months if you want to work with a large company.”
Building Trust from Day One
Unlike many founders who rush to market with an MVP, Jag took a different approach. “I felt really strongly from every part of me that I knew that they were taking a risk on a new company,” he shares. “And I had this commitment inside me. I said, I’m not going to let my clients down.”
This commitment showed through in everything from response speed to product flexibility, helping them land major clients like Uber early on. But even with this early success, Jag wasn’t satisfied with just having a working product.
The Courage to Rebuild
“We actually completely redeveloped the product,” Jag reveals. “Once we fully understood the problem, then we knew, okay, what is the solution that would actually meet the need.” This decision to rebuild from scratch, while counterintuitive, came from his consulting experience of understanding problems deeply before solving them.
The results validated this approach: “We’ve been able to successfully deploy Certa at every single client we’ve sold Certa to.” This perfect deployment record became a powerful differentiator in enterprise sales conversations.
Beyond Traditional Categories
Rather than fitting into existing market categories, Certa created its own space. “What this needed is like a no code, low code platform which enabled multiple functions within the client to build their own ideal apps,” Jag explains. This broader vision led them to define themselves as a third-party lifecycle management platform rather than just another risk management tool.
Lessons for Founder-Consultants
For consultants considering the founder path, Certa’s story offers several key insights:
- Deep problem understanding matters more than quick solutions
- Enterprise trust must be earned through perfect execution
- Don’t be afraid to rebuild when you fully understand the problem
- Create your own category when existing ones don’t fit
The Future Vision
Looking ahead, Jag’s vision remains focused on simplifying enterprise relationships: “Companies will be able to onboard and work with each other with one click.” This vision of making business relationships as seamless as “accepting a LinkedIn connection” while maintaining compliance demonstrates how consulting insights can fuel innovative solutions.
For consultants eyeing entrepreneurship, Certa’s journey offers a compelling alternative to the typical startup playbook. Sometimes, the best way to disrupt an industry is to understand it deeply first.