“Growth starts with clarity and ends with execution.” — Andrej Persolja

We are excited to welcome Andrej Persolja, Founder@ We Fix Boring. In this interview, Andrej shares how positioning became the defining principle of his career, how We Fix Boring helps complex tech companies communicate their value, and why clarity is the foundation of growth.

Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you tell us a little about yourself, your background, and what you do today?

I work in positioning, helping clients understand what drives their growth. That means looking at why their clients buy, how to get the team working together towards common goals, which products to bet on, and how to present them to achieve business goals.

This is something that I discovered for myself while working in another company. It made me realise that I probably wasn’t the only person or business who could benefit from a greater understanding and application of positioning.

What does We Fix Boring do, who do you serve, where are you based, and how can people engage with your product or service today?

We Fix Boring typically works with tech companies that have good, complex products that aren’t easily explainable to the market or the investors. These companies will often have highly intelligent people working for them, but not a lot of experience in marketing. In fact, one of the biggest “aha” moments when first working with clients is when they find that they don’t have to be “scammy”, use “tricks”, or in any way lose their values because of marketing, but learn that marketing just means telling more people about the product that you have in a way that shows them the value in what you are creating.

When working with growing companies, we create plans – we call them playbooks – that show the pathway to their business goals.

Our offer is simple. We get you an audit + playbook for free. You pay for the execution.

How did you start We Fix Boring? What moment or insight made you decide to take the leap?

My story started in a smaller startup, where, as the only marketer/growth co-founder, I needed to wear many hats. Despite having an absolutely amazing product that helped kids learn to read, we couldn’t get traction. Until I found the magical power of positioning. Understanding positioning, the context we needed to provide BEFORE the user came into our product, was key in getting our marketing working, doubling our revenue, and attracting an investment.

That’s where my life changed. I fell in love with understanding the psychology of why people buy the stuff that they buy, and made it my mission to help companies with positioning for growth.

What is your mission, and which values shape your decision-making as a founder?

As I mentioned in my previous answer, while I was a marketer in a startup, I struggled a lot. All of the co-founders knew we had a good product – it was a mobile app that helps dyslexic children learn to read – but we couldn’t get to any meaningful traction.

Obviously, it was down to marketing and growth to make that traction happen. I felt responsible. Like I had an obligation. To the team, to the product. And it just wasn’t working. For more than 2 years, we were struggling to get people into the app and convert them into paying customers.

That was two years of failed tests, of hair-pulling experiments, we even wrote a book to try and lower the cost of user acquisition. Nothing really worked. It affected my physical health, but most of all, my mental health. I was doubting myself, my skills, my value in the startup.

I vowed never to feel like that again and to help marketers and growth-oriented teams with good products succeed on the market.

Obviously, the mission evolved with time. I now work with larger companies, positioning is just easier to do, when you have the data to base your decisions on. So, I mostly work with clients with around $10M in revenue. But the mission is still the same.

Growth starts with clarity and ends with execution. I want to provide both to marketing and growth teams with tech products. Because I never want to feel what I felt as a failing marketer.

What sets your approach or product apart from others in your space?

Most experts focus on consulting. We Fix Boring is far from that. We found that most CxOs in our space need results. They need someone who’s been around and has done things to take ownership of the projects and get it done.

If they wanted to do it alone, they’d already execute it. And if they wanted an agency or consultants providing “guides and PDF files” they are clearly not who we help.

I work with companies that I know we can help. It’s why most of the “risk” is on our side in the beginning, by offering the whole strategy part for free.

The second differentiator is the depth of service. While others provide surface-level solutions, we integrate ourselves into our client’s teams, helping them in their day-to-day. That comes with a price – we can only take 2 clients per quarter, often not even that, but it does improve the results. We work with most of our clients for 12-18 months, because the ROI is 10 times higher than our fee, so it’s a no-brainer to keep us around.

How long have you been operating, and what key milestones or moments of pride stand out so far?

I’ve been in business for 10 years, with We Fix Boring being born when everyone said I shouldn’t be founding a company – right after COVID. There are a lot of milestones. We’ve helped a B2B SaaS company scale from $1 to $3M in under 12 months, we delivered Accenture, ERM.com, Bridgestone, and 7 banks to a B2B enterprise, and we led three marketing teams to a fundraise.

But it’s more than that. We helped position a CPO as an authority and takeover as a CEO, we helped an unhappy product owner about to be fired pivot into product marketing and thrive, we helped a CMO understand what their clients really want. We helped real people, with real stories. The company success follows these stories.

What trends, behaviours, or shifts are you seeing in your industry that others might not be talking about yet?

I think of our company as part of the marketing/growth segment. Obviously, the biggest trend is AI. What AI allowed companies to do is MORE. More content, more posts, more videos. Companies are louder, there is more noise on the market, so it’s more difficult to stand out. Which actually works well for us, because we found that by focusing on your clients and being ultra specific about their needs, wants, and transformations they’d love to pay for, you can cut right through that noise, leaving your competitors behind, looking like amateurs.

By focusing on clients’ true needs and being ultra-specific, Andrej Persolja & We Fix Boring help businesses cut through the noise created by AI-driven marketing.

In fact, one of the first things we do when starting with clients, is book client interviews or, like with our latest client, we opened a Slack channel and invited our best clients into that channel. They get access to the team, allowing them to provide feedback, we get feedback, and can build the product for our best-fit clients. It’s a win-win.

From your experience, what are the biggest opportunities and challenges for businesses in your sector right now? If someone wants to try your product, collaborate, or invest, what is the best next step?

We offer opportunities for every growth-oriented expert out there. What we do – positioning – enables their work. Email specialists, PPC, brand owners – we help make their work easier. Obviously, the first step is a call to see if we’re a good fit, but they can find my profile on LinkedIn, it’s where I spend a lot of time every day.

Looking three to five years ahead, how do you see AI or emerging technology changing your industry? How are you preparing for that future?

I think AI is great. Just misused. The problem right now is that AI feels like it can do it all, but when you go deeper, you see that it has very little practical use. I think that will evolve. And it will help us do the annoying little things faster. Things like populating excel files, optimizing PPC campaigns, generate photos for a landing page.

That will speed up marketing further, allowing us to work faster, allowing companies to grow further.

For anyone looking to break into your industry or progress in their career, what advice would you give based on your experience as a founder?

Be prepared to learn, be prepared to make mistakes, and always, always, always think of your time like an investor. Your time is valuable. By working with a company, you are spending time on building someone’s dream. You should be compensated for that. When younger, mostly with knowledge, when older, with money. If you are not getting one or the other out of a project… quit. And find a better client.

What three tools make your business run better, and why are they essential to your daily success?

• Google suite – Email, docs, notes, the whole ecosystem. Most of the solutions to client’s problems come when taking a stroll in the woods or down the beach, so make sure your tools are all mobile.
• AI – ChatGPT for research, Castmagic for content repurposing, veed.io for video creation.
• Miro.com – Whiteboards help me visualize my thinking.

To finish our Founder@ questions… Our motto is “Everything starts with a founder.” We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others. What advice would you give to another founder or someone thinking about starting a business, and why?

When I told my parents I am starting a business, they offered to get me a stable job. Today, I am running a very healthy 6-figure business, helping clients make multi-million decisions. Don’t take no for an answer. If you have a dream and you are prepared to do anything to make it happen, go for it. No one can stop you but you.

Thank you Andrej Persolja, it has been great learning more about your leadership story and We Fix Boring.

Want to connect with Andrej Persolja or learn more about We Fix Boring?

Check out their channels below:

LinkedIn: Andrej Persolja

Website: wefixboring.com

Company LinkedIn: We Fix Boring

---