A recent masterclass for Startup Garage residents featuring Tashmukhamedov Avdukakhkhor —founder of Smartup and Verifix with 17 years of experience and over 700 enterprise clients—has completely shifted the perspective of many entrepreneurs. The core insights from the session can be divided into two key pillars.
1. Low price is not a guarantee of success in B2B
Many startup founders mistakenly believe that offering a lower price than competitors will automatically cause customers to switch to their product. In reality, there is no “middle ground” in the market: you must either enter the “poor” (low-end) market by distributing high volumes rapidly or enter the “rich” (high-end) market by clearly defining the value you provide.
In the B2B sector, a low price rarely settles the deal. Consider a company with a monthly turnover of $50,000 that pays $100 a month for its current system. If you offer them a similar service for $50, they won’t switch just to save that extra $50. Why? Because the process of adapting to a new system can take 2–3 months. During this time, sales teams spend their energy learning the new software instead of selling, which costs the company far more than the few hundred dollars they would save annually.
Therefore, do not be afraid to set a high price. In Smartup’s experience, when they increased their service fee by 76%, only 7% of their customers left. This proves that you aren’t in the market just to make the customer “happy”—you are there to provide value and get paid for it.
2. The evolution of the CTO as the startup grows
Once a project reaches a certain stage, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) must fundamentally redefine their role. Abduqahhor Tashmuhammedov emphasizes that as a startup scales, the CTO should become 80% businessman and 20% developer.
Focusing exclusively on the technical side (writing code) can stunt the project’s growth. A CTO must understand market demands, customer pain points, and the mechanisms that drive business revenue. Technology is merely a tool to achieve a goal. If a technical leader does not understand the business, they may create a product with perfect code, but it will fail to sell in the market.
