Welcome to a very special episode of Inside the Salesforce Ecosystem!
The very first in-person episode, and we’re delighted to be joined by the CEO and founder of PDF Butler, Igor Stuyver.
While gathered in Spain for our EU team off-site, we couldn’t miss the chance to sit down with Igor. From product insights to Igor’s take on the future of PDF Butler, this episode brings you an inside look straight from the top.
Let’s dive in!
Q: Take us back to the early days of PDF Butler. What inspired you to start this journey?
Igor: Like any good product, it came from having a problem.
As a Salesforce consultant working with global enterprises, I used to hear them tell me how they needed to generate quotes fast. They needed them during calls, customer visits, and with high-quality branding. The tools at the time couldn’t meet the speed, data, structure, or branding needs. We ended up with poor results, and nobody was happy.
So yeah, that’s where I said, “This has to be fixed.” There has to be a better solution to get this done.
Q: When you looked at the market, did you feel that there was a real need for a document generation tool that could meet the needs of a growing business?
Igor: Yeah, most of the products that were out there came from the US, and being in Europe in a very small country with a difficult setup like multi-language and lots of formatting requirements, we would really see that certain requirements were not met.
And obviously, those companies were super big, and there were just like three or four of them. And there was definitely a gap because they did not listen to the customers. They thought because they had a large customer base, they were doing things right. But that’s not a mindset for long-term success.
Q: If we jump forward now from that first sort of moment of the idea to six years on today, how have you seen the company grow?
Igor: Well, the first years were a bit of a struggle…
Some customers thought document generation wasn’t core to Salesforce. But at the end of the day, ask any end user what they want to do. They want to click a button, generate a quote, generate an invoice, generate a proposal, and generate a contract, and then be able to send it out to get it signed. That’s what the end users actually want.
Convincing big customers to trust a startup was a challenge. But once we proved ourselves by signing good contracts, evolving constantly, and delivering, they started putting PDF Butler and our other products on every shortlist.
Q: What’s your favorite PDF Butler product, and why would you recommend it?
Igor: My favorite product remains PDF Butler, to be honest.
It’s the core of what we do. And then when I see the journeys that our customers are looking for, it’s where they start creating a document or end up creating a document.
They have to get it in the documents, they have to send it out via email, they have to get it signed via SIGN Butler, they have to store it somewhere via COLLABORATION Butler, and they have to get a document filled out via FORM Butler. And they have to get a contract negotiated via CONTRACT Butler, and eventually that also needs to go into a document and get it signed.
And yeah, because it’s obviously the first product I worked on, it’s my baby.
Q: How do you see the future of Salesforce ISVs, and where do you think PDF Butler fits into that future?
Igor: It ‘s clear that, at the moment, AI is the focus for everybody, and it’s the focus for Salesforce.
Get noticed in that AI world, in that new way of working, and position yourself in there. I mean, all the products we have have unique characteristics that you cannot just ask the AI to do. So you probably would not want to ask the AI to just do it for you, because you’re going to check it, ‘create a document for me’ and then hopefully it will… No, you need that business logic.
And that’s where we are very well positioned. We already have the AI tools out there for PDF Butler and SIGN Butler. We are building other AI tools and listening to customers for their use cases.
I think the AI world is the big next step in the entire journey of what we are and what we’re going to do.
Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to build their business in the Salesforce ecosystem?
Igor: I think I was very lucky to have a good product.
I think I was very lucky that I really understood from day one what our customers wanted, and I was able to express how we would meet what they wanted and maybe even exceed their expectations.
So I think the key is to have a good product, really listen to your customers, and invest in those first customers. Those first customers are there to establish your brand and show others why your product is a market fit for the use cases that you have.
And you have to really know what you’re doing. You have to be a subject matter expert to say that you can go to a client and say, “We’re not just building and giving you a tool; we’re actually giving you advice on top of that, on what others would do, what would be even more beneficial for your business, and how you can drive your own productivity of your sales team and maybe even close more business because of the automation and the well-established branding that you can push forward.”
Q: If you weren’t running PDF Butler, what do you think you’d be doing?
Igor: I think I would still be an architect.
Before I started PDF Butler, I was looking into the journey of being a certified technical architect. So I think that would be my next step. And I love everything that has to do with technology. I love to really listen to customers.
Talk about integration; see how Salesforce can support customers in their journey and bring that added value.
Q: The Salesforce ecosystem is all about community… How do you think the community shaped your journey as a founder?
Igor: I think we got great feedback from the community from day one.
We sponsor a lot of community events across the globe. Community is important, and I think that’s really what makes the Salesforce ecosystem unique. The community is obviously about Salesforce, people who are interested in Salesforce. But it’s also a great place for people to come together.
I remember going to a user event in Amsterdam even before I started PDF Butler. I was amazed by how many people showed up from all over Europe. I loved hearing their stories, and by the end of the day, I felt like part of the community and even made some friends.
Rapid-fire Questions
🌎 Salesforce World Tours or Community Events? World Tours!
⚒️ AppExchange or Custom Build? AppExchange
🏔️ Hiking in the mountains or relaxing at the beach? Hiking in the mountains, for sure!
🧇 Chocolate or waffles? Waffles (we tried to trick a Belgian)
🎙️ Books or podcasts? Podcast…
👨🏻💻 SF Admin or architect? I’d go with the Architect!
☁️ Sales Cloud or Service Cloud? Sales Cloud.
