ODU alum achieves entrepreneurial success with sale of ReachSuite

Old Dominion University alumnus Collin Smith was highlighted by Innovate Hampton Roads as a regional entrepreneurial success story as he recently sold his tech company, ReachSuite.

The Arlington resident, who grew up in Virginia Beach, stays connected to the region’s startup scene. He graduated from ODU in 2017 before starting his third company, ReachSuite, in 2022.

Atlanta-based Consensus announced its acquisition of ReachSuite in September in a move that will grow ReachSuite’s impact and reach while empowering Consensus’ software company customers to close deals with a platform that delivers on-demand video demos, interactive product tours and live product simulations. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Smith shared insight into his entrepreneurial journey and recent success in an email to Inside Business.

Can you explain what led to you starting ReachSuite? What problems does ReachSuite solve? I was inspired to start ReachSuite through my sales rep’s complaints at my former employer. I was skeptical at first, yet learned quickly that the modern buyer has changed — they no longer want to meet for demos. ReachSuite was originally something that my sales reps in my last company were bringing to me as a problem. They were complaining that people didn’t want to get on demo meetings anymore, that buyers didn’t want to bring in their bosses and that, ultimately, there’s this new modern buyer who wanted to buy completely self-serve, or mostly self-serve. I honestly was skeptical at first. I did not believe in this modern buyer. And I thought it was kind of an excuse until I started doing some research and I learned that 70% of B2B (business-to-business) buyers prefer a self-serve demo and 83% of the B2B buyer journey is spent alone — without a seller. So, it was really interesting that I was learning about these modern buyer demands yet sellers were still trying to sell to them in an old way, and that’s what inspired us to start ReachSuite as the world’s first full revenue lifecycle product experience platform.

How was ODU pivotal in you becoming an entrepreneur? ODU was pivotal. I started my first company Dash Analytics while I was at ODU, and they actually gave me my first contract. So without them, I don’t think, I don’t know if my entrepreneurship journey would have ever started because they gave me the confidence to take what was on a PowerPoint deck and turn it into a reality, and that built my addiction for execution of going forward in life.

Why start a company instead of working to launch a solution at an existing company? I don’t think either is right or wrong. I think it comes down to your personality. If you have the personality type where you want to lead the ship and you see a problem that you are convicted and passionate about solving and no one else around you wants to solve that at your company, you should probably start your own company. If you’re in a certain family situation or you don’t have the personality type to work 80 hours (a week) and give everything your 110%, you probably shouldn’t start a company. It’s not for everyone.

What led to the Consensus acquisition? One of our advisory board members connected us to the leadership team there, and after some conversations about our vision and them seeing our technology work, they were being hounded by their sales reps in the field to build some capabilities like what we had. And so they’re very, very excited to add our technology to their offering. It was a very long process, though. We had a lot of conversations, a lot of negotiation to make sure that it was the right partnership for both parties.

Why do you think the deal was successful? What role will you have in the combined company? The deal was very successful. I think it was the right outcome at the right time for the team. And we’re really excited about how we are folding into the existing core platform over Consensus. They have built a world-class organization with some of the largest software vendors in the world. And now they are adopting Reach Suite. And as I joined that company, everyone on our team is going to have a great role at Consensus, including myself as the vice president of product.

Do you have any tips on starting and selling a business? The only tip that comes to mind is stop asking people, “What’s your business idea?” and start asking, “What’s the problem you want to solve?” Starting a business takes three things: One, having a massive problem that people are willing to pay for. Two, building a solution that reliably solves that problem. Three, doing it in a way that is superior to the other solutions in the market.