Orani

A quick context

Orani got real for me when I stopped thinking like “a founder building a tool” and started thinking like the customer. If you’re a real estate agent, your day is chaos on purpose. You’re driving. You’re in showings. You’re negotiating. You’re trying to look calm while your phone is blowing up. And the worst feeling is seeing a missed call from a new lead and knowing that lead is already calling the next agent.

That’s why we sub niched into real estate professionals. In that world, speed is not a nice to have. It is the job.

The situation

Early on, we had attention, but it wasn’t clean. People liked the idea, but the conversations would drag because they were imagining different products in their head. Some wanted a full assistant that does everything. Some just wanted “stop me from missing leads.” Some were curious, but not serious.

Then I noticed something. The best calls weren’t the ones where I explained the product perfectly. The best calls were the ones where the agent said, “This is exactly what happens to me.”

So the strategy became simple. Build the entire go to market around that moment of recognition.

Strategy breakdown

I ran this like product work, with real constraints and real feedback, not vibes.

First, I picked a wedge I could own. Not SMB. Real estate. That single choice made everything else easier. Messaging, proof, outreach, even what features mattered in the demo.

Second, I segmented inside real estate based on how people actually operate.
Solo agents who live on inbound and need coverage while they’re busy
Small teams who share leads and need consistency
Agents paying for leads who care about conversion lift more than anything

Third, I rewrote the promise in outcomes that match how agents think. Not “AI voice assistant.” More like “capture leads while you’re showing homes” and “stop losing commissions after the first ring.” If you want adoption, you speak in the language of loss and wins.

Fourth, I built proof that felt like their day. Real estate people have a strong radar for generic software talk. They respond to specific scenarios, short clips, and examples that look like real leads, real questions, and real follow up.

Fifth, I chose channels that let me learn fast. Tight outbound to specific agent profiles and short proof content that can be understood in seconds. Then I treated every week like a sprint. Run tests. Read the responses. Adjust. Repeat.

Implementation

Here’s what the work looked like week to week.

I tightened the top of funnel first. That meant clearer targeting and clearer first messages. If a solo agent sees a pitch that sounds like enterprise software, they tune out. If they see “you’re missing leads when you’re in showings,” they lean in. So I built different openers per segment and tracked which ones created real conversations, not polite replies.

Then I cleaned up the middle. I focused on the questions that actually block deals. Trust, control, and “does it fit my workflow.” I built simple ways to show the product in a real estate context, and I adjusted the demo flow so the first minute hits the pain before anything else.

Activation became the obsession. If an agent doesn’t see value fast, they drift. So I treated onboarding like a product experience, not a checklist. Get to a first win quickly. Reinforce the habit. Reduce the amount of thinking they have to do.

And I didn’t treat scripts and sequences as “marketing.” I treated them like product surfaces. If the follow up feels awkward, it’s friction. If the offer feels vague, it’s friction. If the next step isn’t obvious, it’s friction. So I kept tightening until the path felt smooth.

Outcomes

Once we committed to real estate, everything got sharper. The conversations got shorter because the message matched the buyer’s world. The pipeline got cleaner because targeting got tighter. The product started being evaluated on “does this fit my day” instead of “is this cool.”

More than anything, we ended up with a repeatable GTM loop. Not random pushes. A system we could run every week, learn from every week, and improve without reinventing ourselves.

My POV

I don’t see GTM as a campaign. I see it as the product experience before the user ever signs up. When someone feels understood fast, sees proof that looks like their life, and hits a win early, adoption stops feeling like persuasion. It starts feeling like common sense.