Why Nauta doesn’t do POCs | Valentina Jordan

Nauta is building the data infrastructure layer for global supply chain, starting with mid-market shippers who manage 600+ suppliers across 40+ countries but lack a single source of truth. Co-founded by Valentina Jordan, who spent six and a half years at Rappi, Nauta targets the $200M-$2B revenue segment where companies face enterprise-level complexity without enterprise resources. In this episode of BUILDERS, Valentina shares how Nauta moved from Excel automation to building data pipes that connect 12-13 stakeholders touching a single product—and why they refuse to run POCs.

Topics Discussed:

• Why shippers with ERP, TMS, and WMS systems still run operations in Excel

• The tribal knowledge crisis: 20-30 year operators retiring with undocumented institutional knowledge

• Nauta's no-POC policy and why it requires contract exit clauses instead

• The cost reduction vs. revenue generation framework that escapes pilot purgatory

• Building familiar interfaces (Excel-like tables) over novel UX for conservative industries

• The shift from hiding AI capabilities (January 2025) to leading with them (eight months later)

GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:

• Distinguish symptoms from root cause pain in discovery: Most enterprise buyers surface symptoms, not problems. A client reporting penalty costs isn't revealing the root issue—just downstream impact. Valentina uses the five whys methodology to drill into actual pain: "A client can tell me, hey, I'm paying X amount of dollars in penalties. That's not necessarily the root cause, it's just a symptom of the actual pain." This prevents building features that address surface-level complaints while missing the structural problem. The real issue might be data fragmentation across systems, lack of visibility into supplier performance, or decision-making bottlenecks—each requiring different solutions.

• Structure POC alternatives that demand mutual commitment: Nauta kills traditional POCs entirely because "it implies that they are testing us and that it's not a collaborative process." Instead, they offer contract exit clauses if expectations aren't met while requiring upfront commitment. This only works when you have proven results and can confidently deliver value. The insight: POCs create evaluator-vendor dynamics where the burden of proof sits entirely on you. Paid engagements with performance-based exits create partner dynamics where both parties invest in success. For early-stage companies without case studies, this won't work—but once you have repeatable results, test this approach.

• Layer revenue generation on top of cost reduction: Nauta starts every engagement with 3-4 cost reduction KPIs—penalties, reconciliation time, manual labor automation—then transitions to revenue generation through fill rate optimization and cash-on-cash improvements. "You need to go beyond just cutting costs. That way you transition from a nice to have to a must have." Supply chain has historically been viewed as a cost center; proving top-line impact changes budget conversations entirely. This matters because cost reduction has a ceiling (you can only cut so much), while revenue generation creates expanding budget headroom. Map your product capabilities to both from day one.

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