What's up, it's Zayd.

I've never shared this publicly before, but October 2024 nearly killed Valley. We lost around 30% of our user base in a single month. Dead silence in our all-hands meeting when I broke the news. The kind of silence that makes you question everything you've built.

Most founders would sweep this under the rug. Post about "learnings" six months later when things are good again, but I think there's something more valuable in the raw truth of what it's like when your startup hits a wall.

Here's what we learned when everything went sideways, and how it became the foundation for our best year yet.

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Zayd’s Picks

My favorite finds of the week.

• How to consistently go viral - Nikita Bier (link)

• Marketing playbook for $1m ARR in 12 months (link)

• 5 important learnings from the founder of Default (link)

• Sales is often a search of a side door/cracked window (link)

• How to generate demand on autopilot (link)

• Market segmentation insights for b2b startups (link)

The Anatomy of a Crisis Month

October started normally. Then the churn notifications started rolling in. Big customers. Happy customers. Customers I thought loved us.

Within two weeks, it was clear this wasn't normal churn. This was something systemic.

The numbers were brutal:

• 30% user loss in 30 days

• Our biggest enterprise customers leaving

• Support tickets spiking 400%

• Team morale at an all-time low

I called an emergency all-hands and the room felt like a funeral.

The Three-Team Response Framework

When your startup is bleeding users, every instinct screams "panic and fix everything at once." We did the opposite. We created a structured response with clear ownership:

Customer Experience: Stability First 

Our CX team made the hardest call. They decided to stop almost all new feature development and focus entirely on stability. Fix the bugs that were making people leave before trying to build things that might make them stay.

This felt counterintuitive. When customers are leaving, you want to give them reasons to stay, but our CX team understood that unstable software with more features is still unstable software.

Product: Listen, Don't Assume 

Instead of guessing what users wanted, our product team implemented only the feedback we were hearing repeatedly:

• Better inbox for managing responses

• Cleaner UI that didn't confuse new users

• More visibility into campaign performance

Just the basic functionality that our users were begging for.

Growth: Find the Root Cause 

This was the most important piece. Shubh and I got on calls with every churned user who would talk to us. We had one goal: understand exactly why they left.

The Results That Surprised Everyone

Six months later:

• $1.5M in ARR added

• Users switching from competitors and agencies

• Some customers generating $100K+ in pipeline within 90 days

• Team stronger and more aligned than ever

But here's the most important lesson: October wasn't a failure. It was expensive market research.

Here's the revised, combined section:

The Crisis Response Framework

When your startup is bleeding users, every instinct screams "panic and fix everything at once." We did the opposite. We created a structured response with clear ownership across three teams:

Customer Experience: Stability First 

Our CX team made the hardest call to stop almost all new feature development and focus entirely on stability. Fix the bugs that were making people leave before trying to build things that might make them stay.

This felt counterintuitive. When customers are leaving, you want to give them reasons to stay, but our CX team understood something crucial: unstable software with more features is still unstable software.

Product: Listen, Don't Assume 

Instead of guessing what users wanted, our product team implemented only the feedback we were hearing repeatedly:

• Better inbox for managing responses

• Cleaner UI that didn't confuse new users

• More visibility into campaign performance

Growth: Find the Root Cause 

This was the most important piece. Shubh and I got on calls with every churned user who would talk to us. We had one goal: understand exactly why they left.

The Three Shocking Discoveries

The emergency user interviews revealed truths that completely changed our strategy:

Discovery #1: We Were Building for Ghost Problems 

Users didn't care about 80% of the features we were about to launch. They were leaving because of basic UI confusion and stability issues we thought were minor. Meanwhile, we were building sophisticated features for problems that didn't exist.

Discovery #2: Success Was Hiding in Plain Sight 

We discovered dozens of users generating 16-25 demos per month ($100K+ in pipeline) who we didn't even know were successful. Our metrics weren't capturing what actually mattered, so our best customers were invisible to us.

Discovery #3: The Problem Wasn't Our Value Proposition 

Most churned users still believed in our core value proposition. They left because the experience of using Valley was frustrating, not because they didn't want what Valley did. The product-market fit was there; the user experience wasn't.

Based on these discoveries, we made three decisions that felt wrong but proved right: stop Innovating, amplify success stories, and embrace the churn.

The Crisis Response Playbook

If you're facing existential churn, here's what actually works:

Week 1: Stop the Bleeding

• Pause all non-essential development

• Create dedicated crisis response teams

• Set up systems to interview every churning customer

Week 2-4: Gather Intelligence

• Interview churned users (not just existing ones)

• Identify your hidden success stories

• Map the real reasons people leave vs. what you assume

Week 5-8: Make Hard Decisions

• Fix core stability issues before adding features

• Change messaging based on actual user success

• Accept that some churn teaches you more than retention

Week 9-12: Execute the Plan

• Build only what users explicitly request

• Amplify proof points from successful customers

• Create systems to identify success earlier

Why Most Startups Handle Crisis Wrong

The natural response to churn is to build more, promise more, discount more, but this often makes the core problems worse.

We learned that during crisis:

• Users don't want new features; they want existing features to work

• Success stories matter more than product demos

• Stability beats innovation every time

• Your best customers often aren't who you think they are

The Hidden Gift of Crisis

October was terrifying. But it forced us to do things we should have been doing all along:

• Really listen to users instead of assuming we knew what they wanted

• Build for stability before building for growth

• Measure success by customer outcomes, not product features

• Create systems to identify and amplify wins

Most importantly, it taught us that sometimes your worst month becomes the foundation for your best year.

The customers who stayed through October became our strongest advocates. The team that survived October became unshakeable. The product that emerged from October became something people actually loved using.

Crisis reveals truth. And truth, however painful, is the foundation of everything good that comes next.

How I Can Help?

Let me book sales calls for you while you’re building anti-fragile systems. Seriously.

I built Valley to be your automated SDR and empower AEs. Get started today and watch your calendar fill up with qualified leads.

How can we work together 🏔️

1. See more of Valley’s messaging examples, feel free to roast them:

   https://withvalley.notion.site/Cool-Message-Bro-1c0b917b0ed481dab014c465c354b4b8

2. Generate more demos for your company using LinkedIn: https://meetings.hubspot.com/zayd-from-valley/tryvalley
   

3. Become a Valley partner and get 20% recurring commission for every user you bring in: https://withvalley.notion.site/valley-affiliate-partner-program