The SaaS Podcast: Build, Launch & Scale Your SaaS

Episode 465: Enterprise Sales Strategy – Closing Deals in 9 Days | Briq
Host: Omer Khan
Guest: Basim Hamdi, Co-Founder & CEO, Briq
Date: December 11, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into enterprise SaaS growth and sales with Basim Hamdi, co-founder and CEO of Briq. Briq is an AI orchestration platform serving "physical industries" like construction and manufacturing. Basim shares honest lessons from the company's rapid pivots, painful layoffs, and achieving eight-figure ARR, all while resisting common enterprise SaaS pitfalls. The conversation is a no BS look at how founders can close enterprise customers in days (not months), avoid Frankenstein products, and leverage small, high-performing teams. Practical, hard-won advice and vivid war stories make it a must-listen for SaaS founders eyeing enterprise growth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Briq’s Product, Market, and Evolution

[05:42–10:46]

• What is Briq?: An AI orchestration platform focused on automating workflows in physical industries (construction, manufacturing, infrastructure).
• Ideal Customer: Mid-to-large businesses (≥$50M revenue or 100+ employees; often CEOs/CFOs as entry point).
• Core Use Case: “Really Brick is human replacement software. ... It can move data around, enter data and act like a human as if you have half dozen extra employees. Because it works 7, 24, 365.” – Basim ([06:53])
• Industry Focus: 80% in construction; expanding fast into custom manufacturing, particularly for complex, custom-fabrication workflows.
• Trajectory: Eight figures in ARR, 100-person team, 3-year goal to hit $100M ARR.

2. The Founding Story & Early Pivots

[10:46–13:13]

• Initial “Construction Data Cloud” Idea: Aggregating legacy project data via APIs—a non-starter due to lack of APIs in old construction tech.
• Key Pivot: Discovery of RPA (robotic process automation) enabled scraping/automation without APIs; digital worker product quickly found product-market fit.
• Quote: “All of a sudden the digital worker was born and that was a big step forward for us.” – Basim ([12:37])

3. Fundraising and the Dangerous Temptation of the Pivot

[13:17–20:36]

• Fast traction: $1.5M ARR by 2020, without user logins; demand was all for background automation.
• Investor Pressure: VCs disliked that there were no daily active users. Pushed Briq to spin up a forecasting tool, which failed to meet market needs.
• Lesson: “We had product market fit and then refounded the company without product market fit in a product segment that was more art than science.” ([18:27])
• Came back to core automation mission just as AI orchestration understanding was peaking in-market—right move at the right time.

4. Rapid Enterprise Deals: Land, Expand, and Monetize

[20:36–27:05]

• Contrary to Popular Belief: Large enterprise deals do not always take 6–12 months—Briq closed some in as little as 9 days.
• Strategy:
  • Land and expand by “giving them that little base of value with a check, never do anything for free.” ([21:14])
  • Even token payments ($1) create buy-in and momentum.
  • Avoid innovation departments who want freebies; go direct to financial buyers.
  • “Fire the bad clients is as important as closing the good ones.” ([21:55])
• Speed Tactics:
  • Present micro-skills—small, concrete pain points (like double-entry data tasks)—with easily quantifiable ROI as the entry offer.
  • Examples: Automating double data entry during data center projects.
  • Sales focus: “Focus on vision alignment and value alignment. ... If they have a vision match ... do you want to do that? Yes, check. Do you see value in doing this? Yes, check. Vision, value, then talk about the solution.” ([24:37])
  • “Your deal cycles could be 24 hours because if they have a vision match ... vision, value, then talk about the solution.” ([24:46])
  • Avoid lengthy demos—most customers won’t know what they’re looking at anyway.

5. Navigating Enterprise Sales to CFOs

[27:05–30:04]

• CFOs as Buyers: Risk-averse, love price certainty, and demand trust.
• Objections: Security and pricing models (e.g., tokenization vs. consumption vs. flat-rate).
• Building Trust: Found partner associations for social proof before having big logos; leverage deep domain knowledge.
• Account Based Marketing: “I wrote a Book called the Book on Account Based Marketing. ... Understand your ICP, not just buyers but blockers too.” ([29:01])

6. Pricing Experiments and Mistakes

[30:04–34:00]

• Early Pricing: “How big is your company? ... This is bigger than a bread box.” Experimented widely, little science.
• Initial Prices: Sometimes as low as $15,000 per project—“Awful ... too cheap ... didn’t scale.” ([32:07])
• Unlimited Use v. Consumption: Unlimited-per-department worked for sales but killed expansion; now moving toward token/usage models with hybrid in future.

7. Frankenstein Risk: Pitfalls of Custom Enterprise Builds

[34:00–36:24]

• Building for One Customer: “When you’re building for one enterprise, n needs to be higher than 1 to build a successful product.” ([35:17])
• Innovation Groups: Often no budget or real power to scale; risk creating hard-to-sell Frankenstein products.
• Prefer Upper Mid-market: More engaged, collective steering committees, better for scalable SaaS.

8. Product Management: Saying No & Staying Aligned

[36:24–41:03]

• Only act on feature requests that align directly with core vision (“autonomous workforce for physical industries”).
• “When a feature request comes in ... and they’re not vision aligned with you ... that feature request gotta be turfed. ... When you have your vision internally, it's very easy to figure out which feature requests to do or not to do.” ([38:54])
• Listen to sales calls for true market signals, but be wary of “XY problems”—customers misdiagnosing their own pain.

9. Headcount and Culture: Productivity Over Vanity

[41:03–43:29]

• Briq scaled to 300 people, then pared back to 100, becoming healthier and more productive.
• “Throwing bodies at problems does not result in more code written ... or more sales. ... The flex should be revenue per employee.” ([42:19])
• Modern success = high ARR per employee; measure that instead of headcount vanity.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Enterprise Free Pilots: "Never do anything for free. ... Even a dollar ... pot committed on payment ... fire the bad clients as important as closing the good ones." – Basim ([21:14])
• On Product Customization: "You're going to end up with a Frankenstein product ... you're solving for their problems, not solving for a holistic set of problems." ([35:13])
• On Speed of Closing Deals: "Focus on vision alignment and value alignment. ... Your deal cycles could be 24 hours because if they have a vision match..." ([24:37])
• On Handling Feature Requests: "If the feature request isn't aligned with your vision, then toss it." ([38:58])
• On Company Flex: "The flex should be revenue per employee ... that's my target." ([42:19])
• Favorite Inspirational Quote: “Go forth and crush.” – Basim’s Slack handle and motto ([05:06])

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Briq product & ICP introduction: [05:42–08:10]
• Founding and pivoting for product-market fit: [10:46–13:13]
• Investor pressure, failed pivot, and return: [17:46–20:36]
• Closing 9-day enterprise deals (case study): [21:08–27:05]
• Trust and closing CFOs: [27:05–30:04]
• Pricing evolution and mistakes: [30:17–34:00]
• Custom builds and Frankenstein risk: [34:00–36:24]
• Saying no—vision-aligned product management: [36:24–41:03]
• Headcount, layoffs, and ARR per employee: [41:03–43:29]

Lightning Round Highlights

• Best advice received: Sit at the engineer’s desk until your request is done—it’ll magically be done quickly! ([43:44])
• Book Recommendation: The Secret—manifest positivity daily. ([44:46])
• Key Founder Attributes: Hard work, natural curiosity, resilience. ([45:07])
• Favorite Productivity Tool: Plaud (clip-on recording and AI summary device). ([45:47])
• Dream Business Idea: Dog boarding (“boarding a dog right now is like going to a five-star resort.”) ([46:30])
• Fun Fact: Canadian who hates winter—loves California. ([46:56])
• Personal Passion: Family and dogs. ([47:18])

Summary & Actionable Takeaways

1. Get Paid Early: Always charge (even small amounts) to accelerate enterprise buy-in and avoid wasted pilots.
2. Micro-Value Focus: Land enterprise deals fast by solving one acute, clearly quantifiable pain.
3. Fire Poor Fit Clients: Bad enterprise accounts are as dangerous as no accounts—know when to walk away.
4. Align Product with Vision: Ruthlessly filter feature requests by your company’s “north star” to avoid bloat and Frankenstein risk.
5. Leverage Domain Expertise & Social Proof: Win trust before you have logos; partner with industry orgs.
6. Optimize Lean Teams: Headcount≠success; track ARR per employee and strive for high productivity.
7. Iterate Pricing: Start simple, but keep evolving toward scalable, explainable models (e.g., usage-based).
8. Don’t Build for One: Mid-market clients and cross-company steering committees yield more scalable products than one-off enterprise builds.

For SaaS founders aiming for enterprise, Briq’s story offers a textbook case in tough pivots, fearless sales, and staying grounded in value—presented in Basim’s direct, pragmatic voice.

Final words: "Go forth and crush." – Basim Hamdi ([05:06])