Inside Vayu Robotics’ Customer Discovery Process: Why They Spent 8 Months Talking to Customers Before Writing Any Code

Most technical founders start with the product. They dive into code, prototype rapidly, and worry about customers later. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Anand Gopalan from Vayu Robotics reveals why his team did the opposite – spending eight months talking to customers before writing a single line of code.

The Antithetical Approach

“I think if I was really point to two things that we did antithetical to her nature as engineering founders,” Anand explains, “One was spending a lot of time before we even started building anything, identifying kind of who was our hero customer or our favorite customer, and then actually trying to find those people in those companies.”

For engineering founders, this approach feels wrong. It goes against the build-first mentality that drives most technical teams. But this deliberate pause before building proved crucial to Vayu Robotics’ success.

Finding the Right Conversations

Their customer discovery process wasn’t just about having conversations – it was about finding the right people to talk to. “It’s really the challenge is not finding the company, but it’s finding the right person within the company to go talk to and digging through your electronic Rolodex and then finding that connection to that person,” Anand shares.

This targeted approach led to deeper, more meaningful conversations. As Anand notes, “And then having that one conversation, and sometimes that flicks. So it’s very sort of organic and nonlinear.”

Building the Financial Foundation

Alongside customer conversations, the team focused on understanding the economics of their future product. “The first thing we did was we built a spreadsheet to define what the right unit economics of a solution would look like. And then we live by that spreadsheet,” Anand reveals. This financial blueprint became their guide, ensuring their technology could deliver value while maintaining viable economics.

From Conversations to Strategy

These early conversations shaped their entire go-to-market strategy. Rather than focusing on a single vertical, they identified opportunities across multiple segments. “We always had this tension about do we go horizontal, or do we go vertical and deep?” Anand shares. The insights from their customer discovery led them to choose a horizontal platform approach.

Curating the First Customers

Even after launching, they maintained their disciplined approach to customer selection. “We are essentially in that first push into the market where you’re not trying to basically get every single customer,” Anand explains. “You’re trying to actually carefully curate your first group of customers who can truly make you successful and also make your product the best product that it can be.”

This selective approach creates a powerful feedback loop. “There’s a tight feedback loop with these first group of customers who are constantly basically calling you and giving you feedback and saying, this doesn’t work, or this could better, and you’re refining the product as you’re also working with these customers to make their end system successful,” Anand notes.

The results validate their patient approach. Their customer funnel has tripled in size over the past year, with improving conversion rates from initial interest to design wins. For technical founders eager to start building, Vayu Robotics’ story offers a compelling alternative: sometimes the best way to build the right product is to not build anything at all – at least not right away.

Instead, invest time in understanding your market deeply, validate your economic assumptions, and build relationships with potential customers. The code can wait. The insights you gain from this process will be far more valuable than any early prototype.