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Highlights

 

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 Geert Van Kerckhoven, CEO & Co-Founder of Oper, a mortgage tech platform that’s raised over $15 Million in funding.

Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:

  • Oper’s Mission: Oper is revolutionizing the European mortgage process by digitizing the journey for both borrowers and lenders. The platform aims to improve the experience from initial contact to final contract, reducing paper-based processes and streamlining mortgage underwriting.
  • Founding Story: Geert’s 20 years of experience in fintech and banking, combined with frustration from a personal mortgage process, inspired the creation of Oper. He saw a clear gap in the market for a modern, scalable solution for mortgage lenders across Europe.
  • First Customer Acquisition: Within three months of starting, Oper landed its first client who acted as a design partner, enabling the company to generate revenue from day one.
  • Early Challenges: While securing a first client quickly, the challenge was to avoid building a proprietary solution for just one partner. The focus shifted to scaling the product and acquiring more clients to broaden its market presence.
  • Go-to-Market Strategy: Oper focuses on enterprise sales with a team of experienced account executives managing relationships with banks. Additionally, they leverage partnerships with system integrators for larger, complex implementations, a key element of their growth strategy.
  • Marketing Strategy: Geert emphasizes the importance of content marketing. Oper creates in-depth reports and thought leadership pieces that educate the market, helping them scale their knowledge beyond face-to-face meetings.

 

Actionable
Takeaways

Prioritize Speed in Early Customer Acquisition:

Oper secured its first paying customer within three months of founding by leveraging an existing network and focusing on a clear, well-defined product vision. For early-stage founders, having a design partner or initial customer is a powerful way to gain traction quickly and validate your offering. It also allows you to start generating revenue from day one, which is crucial for momentum.

Avoid Dependency on Single Customers Early On:

Geert emphasizes the importance of quickly acquiring a second client to avoid building proprietary software for just one partner. Founders should be mindful of this trap and focus on scaling their product to serve multiple customers from the beginning, ensuring the solution has broad market appeal.

Content-Driven Marketing Scales Expertise:

Oper's marketing strategy focuses heavily on producing high-quality, expert-driven content. By publishing reports and sharing best practices, they’ve been able to position themselves as thought leaders. This approach allows them to scale their insights to a wider audience, building credibility without relying solely on direct sales interactions. For founders, content creation can be a strategic way to establish authority and expand reach.

Full-Stack Sales Teams Over SDRs for High-Value Deals:

Oper made a strategic decision to eliminate SDRs, instead relying on experienced account executives capable of handling the full sales cycle. This approach is particularly effective for enterprise sales with high ticket sizes. Founders should evaluate whether their sales team structure aligns with the complexity of their deals and consider moving toward more senior, full-stack sales roles where appropriate.

Founder-Led Sales is Crucial for Long-Term Success:

Contrary to the advice that founders should eventually step away from sales, Geert believes in the power of maintaining strong, direct relationships with key clients, even as the company scales. Founders involved in sales build deeper trust with customers, especially in enterprise markets. For B2B founders, staying close to sales—especially with big clients—can help ensure the company stays customer-centric and continues to win major deals.

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