Howjer Gu started Planoverse with a clear understanding of what his software could do, and a willingness to show up and prove it for free. He hadn’t yet built a case study, a recognizable brand, or a marketing budget. What he’d built was a structured way to create value before any contract conversation began.

The model he built was a half-hour monthly workshop with enterprise retail decision-makers. Five minutes of live product demo. Twenty-five minutes of open co-design conversation. No pitch. No contract talk. Just genuine problem-solving with the people who knew the problem best.

It’s how Planoverse, his retail space intelligence platform, got in front of some of Australia’s biggest supermarket chains. And by the time those buyers were evaluating whether to sign a contract, the risk felt low. They’d already seen it work.

In this feature, Howjer and I get into the full mechanics of that model, why 30 minutes beats an hour for enterprise stakeholders, how he thinks about ROI alignment before any implementation begins, and what the GTM motion that scales looks like versus the one that builds.

We also get into the thing most technical founders get completely backwards about outreach. Respectful persistence builds bridges in a small TAM, even when the first answer is no.

​Read The Interview Here >>​

WHAT WE DISCUSSED

• How Howjer went from senior data analyst at Quantium, Deloitte, and Commonwealth Bank to founding Planoverse, and what drove the leap
• The half-hour monthly workshop model that got enterprise retailers to give an unknown team their time, with a commitment level low enough that saying yes was easy
• Why 30 minutes beats an hour for enterprise calendar management, and why five stakeholders is the right group size
• How Planoverse approaches ROI alignment: getting on the same page about the metric with the buyer before measuring anything, and being willing to change it mid-implementation
• The two dimensions of Planoverse’s GTM transition: shifting from internal-facing features to customer-facing product, and from startup humility to earned confidence
• What Howjer would do differently if he started today: move faster, hire sooner, and do more outbound earlier
• Why the best salespeople aren’t always extroverts. Sometime they’re people who sell in a way that fits their personality

REFERENCED

• ​Planoverse​
• ​Quantium​

WHERE TO FIND HOWJER GU

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/howjergu​
• Contact Howjer directly: planoverse.com.au/contact-us​

MY BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS

1. The workshop model works because it collapses risk for the buyer before any contract conversation begins. They get real value from session one. You get real product feedback. By the time you’re negotiating, both sides already know it works.
2. The most useful reframe in enterprise sales: a stakeholder passing is a product development signal. If they say it’s not for them, the question is what’s still missing, and the relationship stays intact while you go build that.
3. ROI metric alignment before implementation begins is a simple discipline most B2B teams skip. Howjer’s point is that the agreement matters more than the number. When both parties define success together, the result is meaningful to both.
4. The GTM motion that builds a business is categorically different from the one that scales it. The ability to read which stage you’re in, and adjust your product focus and brand posture accordingly, is a transition most founders make too slowly.
5. The personality-fit point on sales stuck with me. A quieter founder who builds a process that plays to their strengths will outsell an extrovert running someone else’s playbook. The workshop model is a great example of a process built for curious, technically-minded people who are truly interested in the buyer’s problem.

​Read The Interview Here >>​

If you’re building a B2B product and working out how to get enterprise buyers to take you seriously early on, this one’s worth your time.

All the best,

Lillian Pierson

Fractional CMO & GTM Engineer

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