More data won't save you.
You have demographics, survey responses, NPS scores. You know who your customers are. And yet you're still guessing why they chose you.
The gap isn't more data. It's better questions.
Dear founder,
We've spent the last decade sitting across from people like you, wrestling with a question dashboards can't answer: why do they choose us?
Sometimes it's churn you can't explain. Sometimes it's friction between teams who all claim to know the customer but can't agree. Sometimes it's growth that's stalled and you're not sure why.
If any of this sounds familiar, you're in the right place. We help companies understand why customers actually buy. Not through surveys or focus groups. Through structured human conversation.
Neal and Lilliana
Shokuna
People don't buy products. They hire them.
When someone signs up, they're recruiting something to help them make progress. To get from where they are to where they want to be. If it works, they keep it. If it doesn't, they fire it.
The "job" is that progress. Your product is one candidate for the role. "Better" only makes sense when you know what job you're being hired for.
How we help
We sit next to you and surface the real stories behind your customers' decisions. The pushes that made them look for something new. The pulls that drew them in. The fears that almost stopped them. The moments that tipped them over the line.
Over six to eight weeks, we have structured conversations with your wins, your losses, and your churned customers. Each week, we work through what we're learning together, connecting the patterns to your messaging, your roadmap, your sales conversations.
By the end, you'll have decisions tied to real customer language. Not guesses. Not assumptions. Words your customers actually said, organized into something you can act on.
What this looks like in practice
Socialinsider, an 8-year-old social media analytics company, was caught in a two-year churn cycle. They kept building features, assuming a more robust product would stop customers from leaving. It didn't work.
"They presented a clear structure that made us trust the process entirely. We've already recommended Shokuna to others."
Socialinsider Leadership Team
Who we are
Neal Sales-Griffin
Learned to build with focus and constraint from Jason Fried and the 37signals team. Through them he met Bob Moesta, co-creator of Jobs to Be Done, who showed him how people actually decide: why they fire one thing and hire another.
Lilliana Robinson
Has taught this craft to hundreds of founders in classrooms at Northwestern and shaped customer understanding for more than 150 Techstars companies, all informed by years learning directly from Bob Moesta.
Want a taste?
Pick one customer who chose you. Tell us their story. We'll help you see what it's missing, informed by our work with hundreds of founders over the last decade.
Five minutes. Right here.
Ready to stop guessing?
The founders who can explain, in their customer's own words, why someone picked them make better decisions. The founders who can't are guessing.
Or reach out directly: hello@shokuna.com