https://youtu.be/gS7aHfIiXjQ

Preetha Pulusani, CEO of DeepTarget, is passionate about helping people realize their potential and leveraging technology to create meaningful business growth. After spending 25 years in corporate America and learning hard lessons from an early entrepreneurial failure, Preetha built DeepTarget into a bootstrapped fintech growth company that helps banks and credit unions acquire, engage, cross-sell, and retain account holders through advanced data analytics and intelligent marketing.

In this conversation, Preetha shares the DeepTarget Bootstrap Framework, a leadership and innovation model built around five principles: Combine Pros with Fresh Graduates, Think Big but Start Small, Be Agile with a Flat Structure, Fail Quickly, and Keep a Tight Customer Feedback Loop. She explains how blending experienced professionals with emerging talent creates powerful teams, why rapid experimentation outperforms large-scale product launches, and how customer feedback should guide innovation. Preetha also discusses using data to drive growth, selling outcomes instead of technology, and building a successful SaaS company without outside funding.

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Pull 5 Levers to Bootstrap Your Firm with Preetha Pulusani

Good day. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint, and my guest today is Preetha Pulusani, the CEO of DeepTarget, a company that helps hundreds of financial institutions increase loan demand, promote product adoption, and support intelligent marketing through advanced data mining and analytics. Preetha, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Steve. Thank you for having me. Thank you for inviting me. I’m looking forward to it.

Yeah. You have a very interesting business and very interesting profile, so I can’t wait to jump in. But let me ask you my favorite question. What is your personal ‘Why’, and how are you manifesting it in your business?

I guess you could say that my personal ‘Why’ has evolved over several years. I spent 25 years in corporate America, and that was the best business education I could have ever received. My first failure as an entrepreneur, though, added to that significantly, and that was right before I started DeepTarget. Luckily, it was a quick failure, but that doesn’t mean it was not a difficult one. And in every way, the lessons learned have come in handy today. So I believe that I’m in my final chapter of my career, so I can speak from years of experience. And my personal ‘Why’ is—it’s always been about people for me. I’ve never believed in the lone genius.

I believe that every person has some spark of genius in a different way. And I have always been inspired by pulling out that spark and weaving a tapestry of people.
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And that happened even in my job in corporate America, but it happens even more with my team today as an entrepreneur at DeepTarget. So it’s about empowering people to use that spark rather than focusing on something that they may not be as good at. It’s pulling out that strength and making it the collective strength of a solution, of how we serve customers, and of the business itself. Does that make sense?

Oh, yeah. This is great. I love that. My experience is that nearly none of the companies I talk to—or basically none of them, literally none of them—capitalize on the maximum talent of their team. Because it’s impossible to maximize it completely, but you can work on it, and that is wonderful.

Yeah.

So do you have a process for how you do that? Is there a mental process? Is it just an awareness? Is it a curiosity? Is it a natural thing that you do, or do you actually have a way of doing this?

So I have found that I think I read people. I think I’m intuitive in that way. And so I see myself as being the orchestrator of whatever it is, whether I’m working on today’s problem or whether I’m working on the big vision. I don’t know that it’s a process so much, but I have used it over and over again. It’s become a very natural thing for me.

So you talk about the big vision. What is that big vision?

So as a company, my focus is on making our clients successful. What that means is helping them grow their financial institutions.
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We work with credit unions and banks, and it’s all about growth. And we use innovation to leverage that growth for them. How do you acquire new account holders? How do you cross-sell to them? How do you communicate with them? How do you retain them? I’m a techie at heart, so it’s been about how do I leverage data? How do I leverage—today, of course—AI, kind of a combination of data and AI, to make sure that they are able to see the growth they need for their financial institutions? And that’s kind of become the mission that we have adopted for the company.

Yeah. I noticed that on your website you have this map of, I think, seven or eight different ways that you’re driving adoption and contact with people and—

It’s highly data-driven. It’s not wishy-washy. We’ve evolved from being a marketing company to a growth company. And when you take anything that’s data-driven into marketing, yeah, it’s something that people like to do. But what we like to do is use the technology to get to the human—to get to the individual. So we are helping our credit unions and banks reach individuals, understand each account holder, and understand what their financial needs are. And the only way you can do that at scale is by using technology and data. So we’ve built a platform that enables them to do that. That’s why the front end is all data, right? We can accept as much data as they want to give us so that we can do the right things to help them grow and engage their account holders.

Yeah. I like that you’re very techy, as you say—techy and data-driven. So I wonder, what is your mental model when you think about the end customers of your financial institution clients? What’s your mental model for how you innovate this process? So what are the major elements? If you had to synthesize it down to maybe three to five elements—your levers that you can pull—what are those?

Great question. So I’m going to start with the people because, for me, everything revolves around people. What I’ve been able to do is combine very seasoned pros with fresh graduates from local universities, and that has been a potent combination. Okay? That’s number one. Whether I’m talking about development, customer success, or sales, that’s been the combination that has worked for me. And as a bootstrapper, that has also helped me financially. You have a very seasoned pro that I’ve worked with for years, and you know exactly what their strengths are.

And then you put some fresh graduates under them. I’m telling you, there’s nothing better. That combination is second to none. The second thing is,

I believe in thinking big, but starting small and scaling quickly. I learned that over time. There was a time when we used to have the big-bang theory of creating products.
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We have moved so far away from that. So think big, start small, and be agile. And as a small company, that’s a big advantage for me. We have a very flat structure. And so we’re able to have the agility we need to move markets, frankly. If you’re going to fail, fail quickly.

Have a tight customer feedback loop. And if something isn’t going to work for your customer, just abandon it. Abandon it quickly. I can’t say, in all honesty, that I’ve done that every time, but it’s always on my mind: “Should we really even pursue this?” I know we’ve had projects that we thought would be very successful, but they weren’t. But when you’ve only made a small investment, it’s easier to set it aside. “Okay, it’s not working. This is not what we need to do. Let’s move on.”

Yeah, I love that. Can you give an example where you invested in a process and really believed in it, and it turned out not to work, and then you had to pivot from it?

So the way we help banks and credit unions engage and cross-sell to their account holders is primarily through digital banking. We put up very personalized offers using data in the digital banking environment and use that real estate very effectively. It works like a charm. That’s what we do today. We did get a little sidetracked by expanding that into email, and we didn’t see the kind of growth we expected. So we tried to understand that. We did kind of an autopsy. And the difference is that when you log into digital banking, you’re being served something. The difference with email is that you’re pushing something out. It has its uses, for sure, but the particular aspect of what we had done in the product didn’t take off like we expected. So we just said, “Okay, let’s do more of what we can do within the digital banking environment.”

But that works for farming existing customers of the banks, right? Do you also help banks acquire new customers?

Yes. And that’s where email works, by the way. And so does direct mail, and so do digital ads. When you’re cross-selling to existing account holders, you have a lot of information about them. For example, if they rent a home, you would never give them a HELOC offer, right? But on the other hand, what we’re doing for new account acquisition is still using data. We’re looking at who the most profitable customers are that your credit union or bank has, and using that as the model to find more likely customers within a particular radius of their branches. So we are still using data, but in a different way and using different channels to reach them versus digital banking.

That’s fascinating. So what drives growth in your business?

Well, if you had asked me that question 10 years ago,

I would have said innovation drives growth. But what we have found and learned over time is that innovation is an engine.
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Innovation, in a way, actually causes friction because when you innovate, you’re creating something new. So you first have to go out and educate the market. You have to make them understand that there’s a new way of doing things, and not everybody is open to change.

So if I go talk to a marketing professional and say, “Hey, here’s a new way of doing things. We’re using data.” I put myself in the place of that marketing person who is already constrained by bandwidth, who is already doing so many things, saying, “You’re bringing another new tool for me to learn and use? For what purpose?” While innovation is the engine, what we have learned is not to focus on the innovation, but to focus on the impact. And we do that by really working hard to get into the C-suite. So we are talking to the CEO, the COO, the Chief Digital Officer, or the Chief Technology Officer of these banks and credit unions, helping them understand the outcomes. What is it we do? We acquire new customers. We cross-sell to existing customers. We help you retain them. I receive these direct-mail solicitations from mega banks like Chase and Wells Fargo.

They’re paying me $900, $1,500 to open a checking account. It’s expensive to acquire new accounts. That’s just an example, right? So we are helping you grow through new account acquisition, but we also have a whole playbook for how you retain those new accounts that you acquire. So when you talk at the C-suite level, all of a sudden they’re not seeing a tool. What they’re seeing is an outcome. “How soon can we see results?” is the question we get asked. So we grow through a different way of selling what we do to these institutions.

So people don’t care how you achieve the result. They just want you to talk about the result?

Exactly. Especially the CEO. I mean, they don’t really care. They do care about things like data privacy, and we’ve addressed all of that. We’ve been doing this business for so long that data security is table stakes. But they care less about how you do it and more about why. So we have to talk to the individuals who care about the why rather than the how, although the how plays such a big part in building a business, right? But that’s what we focus on.

That’s behind the wall. That’s your problem, basically.

That’s right. That’s the secret sauce. We used to take great pains to explain the secret sauce at one point in time, but not anymore.

That’s interesting. So why do they listen to you? I mean, why do they believe that you can get these results? Do you show them testimonials, or how do you prove it?

We have over 200 customers now—customer contracts. It’s actually closer to 300. So we have a lot of testimonials and references that we can show them. We also let them know that there are barriers to using software like ours, such as, “Do I need to have somebody operate the software?” No, because part of what we offer is a managed service. We will operate the software for you using your branding and everything else that you have. So we’ve kind of removed all of the barriers. The biggest barrier today is creating awareness in the broader market, because this is a huge market.

And on my bootstrapping budget, I have to make sure people know that such a solution exists. What we find is that once we reach the decision-maker, it’s a fairly straightforward sale. I would say that if I’m constrained by anything when it comes to growth, it’s because I’m a bootstrapper. I watch every penny carefully, and I have built the company funded entirely by revenue. And one of these days that’s not going to be enough. But so far, so good.

Yeah. Okay. So basically you create broader awareness of your products. You have all these testimonials and references. When you get in front of these decision-makers, you talk about the outcome and show them the results you can get.

And we have direct sales, right? I mean, we do call on, we have a couple of people. All they do is work the phones, emails, and LinkedIn to get us meetings in front of the right people. You know, also, Steve, in this day and age of everything digital, what we have found with banks and credit unions is that first important meeting with the CEO—we’re finding that doing it in person makes a huge difference. So that’s another thing that we do.

That’s interesting. So does that limit you geographically?

We’re having so much success with that model that it only helps us. More revenue means I can invest more in sales. So we are limited to the United States. We have customers on both coasts, a pretty good map of customers on both coasts, and in the Midwest. And there are some blank spaces, and we’re trying to address those blank spaces.

So you actually have people fly all over the country to meet with CEOs?

Yes. And it’s making a big difference. This is a change that we made not too far back. I would say maybe about 18 months ago or so, and it’s made a big difference for growth.

That is so interesting because after the pandemic, a lot of companies kept doing video sales calls.

As did we. As did we.

As probably you did as well. But the assumption was that there’s no point in traveling. It’s an extra expense and doesn’t make a huge difference. But you’re saying it’s the opposite—that it does.

Yes, it makes a huge difference. You’re talking to the CEO of a bank. Banks still have a more traditional generation of leaders. Even I didn’t believe it when I was first sold on this whole concept, but I’ve become a believer now. That meeting—the CEO not only is in the room with you, but brings in his or her key executives to talk to you. When you’ve made the trip all the way to Sacramento, they’re going to do that, right? So it’s made a difference.

So there’s a reciprocity involved. They see that you’re making the trip. Okay, then we might as well put more into it. And it’s kind of a self-fulfilling process.

And by the way, when you have more people in the room, you get more objections, but you’re able to address those in person. Yeah. Even if you have a video call with the CEO, if the CEO goes and talks to the CTO and brings up the objection, “You really need to worry about these guys and their data security,” we never hear about that. We just hear silence. We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. So you get that opportunity to address all of that kind of in person. And I think it actually works out more cost-effectively, surprisingly. Yeah, as long as those are resulting in deals.

Yes. So maybe that’s an inside thing, but I’m just wondering, what is the upside of something like that? If you convert one of the CEOs and they start using the system—maybe that’s a business secret—but what is the value of that conversion? Let’s say the 12-month value of that conversion that makes you want to do that trip.

So let me give you an example. We sell annual subscriptions with five-year terms. That’s a big deal, right? And when we sell five-year terms, it can become very significant. So we price based on the asset size of the financial institution because that kind of determines how large they are, how many branches they have, and how many account holders they have. So let’s take an institution that’s, say, a billion dollars. I’m just going to give you some rough numbers, right? For a five-year contract, you’re talking about $300,000 or so.

Okay. That makes sense. It’s definitely worth the trip.

Yes, it’s worth the trip.

Yeah.

The other way to have that personal interaction, which we have found to be very effective, is conferences—focused conferences. Many of these banks and credit unions have state leagues, regional leagues, or certain technology-focused groups that meet. And those are kind of the best venues to do our prospecting.

And then do you sponsor these conferences?

Well, we do. We’re very selective, but we have booths, and in addition to that, we may do some other sponsorships. Yeah.

Yeah. That’s great. So switching gears here, I’m really curious. What is something that you’re actively trying to figure out in your business? So if you had a magic wand and you could wave it, what would you want to fix in the next 12 months?

I’ve kind of told you that I’ve been a bootstrapper, and I’ve been a bootstrapper very intentionally. Because one of the things that I said I would do is that I wouldn’t be so stubborn as to never take any outside capital. But the thing that I wanted to figure out before taking external capital was what would give me a multiplier effect. So if I took a dollar in, how would I be able to multiply that? And I’m getting very close to figuring that out on the sales and marketing side. So if I had more dollars, and if I have a sales formula that I know works—that I’m confident works—then I should be able to take that formula, add those dollars, and simply add salespeople, right, to grow.

Scale it up, yeah.

So that’s kind of been the biggest issue I’ve had for the past, say, five years. But I would say that over the past 12 to 18 months, a lot of that has become clearer to me. And so I think I’m getting close to having that solved—to having that formula where I can say, “Okay, if I put in more dollars, I’m going to get X return.”

Yeah. Some people call this the coin-operated marketing and sales system. You keep dropping the coin and—

Yeah. Yeah. It’s taken me years to figure it out. I spent a lot of my early years at the company building a very robust technology platform because without that, everything else becomes secondary. And then I had this focus on, how do I get sales and marketing? And I’ve tried many things, and they haven’t necessarily worked, right? I’ve built up a customer base by slogging over time, but then you want that formula if you want to throw money at it.

Yeah.

And that’s where I think I’m getting closer to getting there.

Yeah. And then marketing media is changing all the time. Different platforms come and go. Then you have different advertising formulas, and they burn out. So it’s actually difficult to stabilize it and make something that’s permanently coin-operated, so to speak.

Yeah. And when we say everything is data-driven, it’s not just on the front end that everything is data-driven. We are able to tell the credit union or bank how many products we actually sold. What loans did you sell? How many auto loans? How many mortgages? How many HELOCs? How many credit cards? How many deposit accounts did you open each month that were influenced by our campaigns? We’re able to go back and tell them that. And what are the new balances you generated as a result of that? So it’s not about impressions and clicks. On the back end, we actually give them very deep data analytics so they can see, “This is the revenue I generated last month, and these are the new balances I generated last month.” And so that makes a difference, too.

Yeah. I saw on your website that many customers get a 500% ROI on their investment.

Yeah. Which only says that I’m charging them too little.

Yeah. Yeah.

No, but I mean, if you look at the balances and how they measure, we’re almost afraid to put the actual numbers out there. But we show them a growth grid that shows, month by month, here’s what you made using these campaigns. We can even show them what happens when they turn off the campaigns and what the impact is.

So in terms of bootstrapping, is that a strategy? Let’s say you figure out your scalable sales formula. Would you then go raise money, or would you still want to bootstrap?

If the revenue that I’m generating can be used toward growth, I won’t have to go raise money. But I won’t be so stubborn and silly that I wouldn’t take outside capital. I get calls all the time from investment bankers and capital firms. In fact, I was talking to one just yesterday, and I said, “I’m probably getting a bit closer to being open to capital. Give me another six months. By the end of the year, I should know.” So yes,

I would raise money if I had that sales formula, if I knew for sure. And I think part of this, Steve, is because I talked about my first failure as an entrepreneur. It was a very quick failure, but it was a hard one because I had taken money from friends and family, and it was used up, and they didn’t get much in return. When I had to shut down that company, I actually gave them shares in this company. I guess I got a bit burned, so I’m more resistant to taking outside capital until I’ve figured out what the solution is. But I think I’m getting very close. You get to a point where it’s silly not to take capital.

Yeah, because someone might copy it. You figure out a formula, and someone might copy it. Then they put more money behind it, they dominate the market, and you lose. Yeah. So that’s the only concern.

Yeah.

Yeah. If there are listeners who hear this and say, “Wow, I’d like to learn more because I’m involved with a financial institution, and we need to improve our sales, get more customers, and upsell more customers,” where can they find out more, and how can they reach you?

So our website has, I think, a wealth of information. So certainly they can go to our website just to learn more about the solution. They can contact us at success@deeptarget.com. That’s probably the easiest way to get a deeper dive into what we do and have that one-on-one meeting. And I think that’s the best way to learn more. Whether you’re interested in going forward or not, that’s the best way to learn.

Yeah. Okay. Well, definitely. I checked out the website, and it’s pretty informative. You get good visuals of what Preetha’s team is doing, and it’s pretty complex, I would say. There’s a lot of nuance to it, so I found it fascinating. So definitely check out deeptarget.com if you’d like to learn more. Preetha is also on LinkedIn, and you can email them at success@deeptarget.com. Any famous last words for the audience? Something that would help an entrepreneur who wants to bootstrap their business? What would you recommend they do?

I think starting a business is no easy feat, and I don’t believe in overnight success. It’s a journey. It’s been one of the most inspiring and interesting journeys, and probably the greatest learning journey, that I’ve been through. So I think you shouldn’t focus just on the end result or overnight success. Instead, come for the journey.

Yeah. You have to love the journey in order to reach the destination, right?

It’s tough, right? Yeah. It can be tough at times, but then you reach a point where it’s just the best thing.

Yeah. Well, that’s great inspiration for the founders listening to this. And if you enjoyed the podcast, then definitely follow us on LinkedIn, subscribe on YouTube, and give us a review on Apple Podcasts. And Preetha, thanks for coming. That was an eye-opening discussion. I don’t recall having many bootstrapper tech companies on the show, so this is definitely a new element for us and a really good perspective. So thanks for coming, and thank you for listening.

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334: Pull 5 Levers to Bootstrap Your Firm with Preetha Pulusani

Management Blueprint | Steve Preda

334: Pull 5 Levers to Bootstrap Your Firm with Preetha Pulusani