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R.J. Talyor, Founder CEO of Backstroke and Pattern89, talks thoughtfully about product idea validation for two AI companies. Backstroke is operating on the cutting edge of Generative AI and delivering clear ROI by solving a very specific problem.

Sramana Mitra: All right, R.J., let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised? What kind of background?

R.J. Talyor: Thanks for having me. I’m born and raised here in Indianapolis, Indiana. I always thought I’d leave, but I graduated from college with an English degree out of an entrepreneurial honors program. I ended up in this entrepreneurial fellowship right after school here in Indianapolis. It paired Indiana grads with leaders across the state and I got into a role at ExactTarget, which was, at the time, a small startup. We grew to be a $2.7B acquisition by Salesforce and became the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud within the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. So my career grew there over that ten years.

Sramana Mitra:  What functions did you work in in Xactarget?

R.J. Talyor: Well, I started on the services team, which I think is a great place for anybody to start because you are hands-on with the customer. I was specifically a deliverability consultant, which I didn’t know what that was at the time.

The CAN-SPAM Act, which was around the regulation of spam and spam messaging, had just come out. So I read the whole CAN-SPAM Act, and I became an expert in spam and what was and what wasn’t spam and consulted with all sorts of customers around that and then moved into product management from that role, and then onto product at ExactTarget and then at Salesforce on the mobile side after that.

Sramana Mitra: And what years were these?

R.J. Talyor: It was 2004 to 2014.

Sramana Mitra: OK. So, 2014 is when the Salesforce acquisition happened.

R.J .Talyor: The acquisition was in early 2013, I believe, and then I worked there for about two years after the acquisition and then left to go work at a startup that had just raised a Series A. It was a great ride and then kind of a great fall. It was a good learning experience. I was a VP of Product there for about a year and a half.

Then I didn’t have a job, and I was married with a mortgage and three kids. I told my wife I was quitting that job. Then she said, “Why don’t you go do that entrepreneurial thing you’ve always thought of?” That’s when I started my startup, which is called Pattern89. I ran that for about six and a half years, sold it to Shutterstock, which is now part of Shutterstock.ai. Now, I’m working on my newest company, which is called Backstroke. So, I’ve been in tech entrepreneurial stuff for the last twenty years, and it’s been a fun ride.

Our conversation continues here.