Six months building a company

We started with a couple of one-off collaborations and knew that the sales side wasn't our strong suit. We began like many projects do: with excitement, a desire to learn, and the conviction that the first few months would be tough.

During this first half-year, we learned to sell without feeling like we were selling. We discovered that a community nurtured over the years can become the best sales channel. We lost an important client, participated in events, sent proposals that didn't go through, made difficult decisions, and made mistakes from which we've learned a lot.

But, above all, we have confirmed the idea we started with: we want to build a company where people come before data. Where relationships with clients and collaborators are based on trust, and where the long-term outweighs immediate results.

Because these six months have taught us that entrepreneurship is not just about getting clients. It is, above all, about deciding every day what kind of company you want to build.

For years, we've heard that dedicating time to the community was an investment that's hard to justify. We always thought the opposite. For years, we've been saying that when you do things, things happen. That's why we continue to push forward in the Datola community, organizing La Datolada, attending events, giving talks, and sharing knowledge even when our schedules were packed with work.

For years, we've enjoyed the small gestures from the community that fueled us to keep working on it. Words of appreciation, like 'I love everything you do,' 'I listen to all your podcasts'... All of that is gold. What we didn't imagine was that this would also help us get our first clients.

Many of the opportunities that came to nosDeu didn't appear because someone was looking for an analytics consultancy. They came because someone knew us, because someone recommended us, because someone had met us at an event months before.

The community didn't replace sales work. It made it much more human. And it helped generate those relationships of trust we were seeking from the beginning.

Three clients decided to bet on our way of working by signing up for our support plans. This made us believe that a different way of working was possible. That it really made sense to forget about hourly rates and focus on relationships of trust, where joint priorities are set and firm steps are taken, regardless of the number of hours invested, only the results obtained.

These clients taught us that many aren't looking for someone to implement tools for them, especially in these times of AI. They are looking for someone who understands their business, who proposes improvements before being asked, and who gets involved.

That's why we want to bet on support plans. Because we believe that true value emerges over time, when you know the people, understand the context, and can anticipate problems.

The semester was not a straight line. We landed a client in the travel sector that promised to be a long-lasting relationship with a very interesting project. It came without us looking for it, like a gift from heaven. They believed in us and in our way of working. They gave us confidence and a sense of stability.

But as it came, it went. It's not that we stopped trusting each other; quite the opposite. It just wasn't the right time for that company, and they had to make tough decisions.

So did we. This separation brought with it one of those decisions that define your identity. We could have demanded the notice period specified in the contract. Legally, we were entitled to it, and ethically too. But we decided to waive it. It certainly wasn't the best decision for our cash flow. But it was the best decision for the company we want to be, one where people come first.

Maybe in a few years, no one will remember this gesture, but we believed it was the right thing to do. Because it's these decisions that end up defining a company's culture.

We dedicated a large part of the semester to building the company from within. This has been our great challenge and where we have put our greatest effort.

We developed tools, automated processes, defined our service catalog, improved our sales pitch, and continued to build and support the community.

It's work that almost no one sees. But we believe it's what will generate the most value in the future.

During these six months, we developed eleven tools. Most were born to solve our own problems we encountered as a company. Others simply because we believe that automating repetitive tasks will allow us to dedicate more time to thinking and less to executing.