Inside Discai: How Building a Common Industry Solution Led to Faster Enterprise Sales
Most enterprise software companies position their products as competitive advantages. But what if the opposite approach – building solutions that help an entire industry succeed together – could lead to faster sales cycles? In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Fabrice Deprez shared how this counterintuitive strategy helped Discai visit 26 banks and project profitability within just two years of launch.
Finding the Common Ground
When KBC Group decided to commercialize their internal AI applications, they faced a crucial decision. Which of their many AI solutions should they bring to market first? The answer came from understanding bank dynamics.
“This fight against financial crime is a common fight between all banks,” Fabrice explains. “And this doesn’t bring any commercial advantage… it’s a common obligation to do that correctly, just to keep the trust on the market.”
The Domino Effect
This insight revealed something crucial about bank behavior: they actually want their competitors to succeed at preventing financial crime. As Fabrice notes, “It’s never interesting for a bank to have a big hit on the reputation of a bank near to you because it’s like the domino effect, that reputation won’t reflect on you.”
From Competitor to Collaborator
This realization transformed their sales approach. Instead of trying to convince banks that their solution would give them an edge over competitors, they positioned it as a way to solve an industry-wide challenge together.
The results were striking. “We visited already 26 banks spread over Europe… Every time we receive that same answer, yes, we imply that it’s a common fight and we should fight that together,” Fabrice shares.
Building Trust Through Shared Challenges
Their messaging resonated because they focused on a universal pain point. As Fabrice explains, “More than 90% of the work that the people are doing is just a false positive, meaning a work which was unnecessary.” Even worse, banks only catch “10-15-20% of detected cases… meaning money launderers have between 5-10 and 20% chance of being caught.”
Accelerating the Sales Cycle
This approach led to rapid traction. “We already have our first three customers outside the group which is already positive,” Fabrice notes. “We have an outlook of being financially independent as of mid of next year. So two years after launch being profitable.”
Lessons for Enterprise Founders
Discai’s experience offers valuable lessons for enterprise software founders:
- Look for problems where competitors need each other to succeed
- Position your solution as lifting the entire industry, not just individual players
- Focus on challenges that affect trust and reputation across the market
- Build relationships by acknowledging shared struggles
Their success suggests that in some markets, the fastest path to growth isn’t through competition, but through collaboration. By helping banks work together to fight financial crime, Discai turned potential competitors into customers and accelerated their path to market leadership.
For enterprise founders, the key question becomes: what problems in your industry require collective action to solve? The answer might just be the key to accelerating your sales cycle.