About Shokuna

Can you name the last customer who chose you?

Not who signed up. Who actually chose you over staying where they were or going somewhere else.

Most founders can't explain why, in the customer's own words, that decision happened. They know customers choose them. They don't know why well enough to do it on purpose again.

Where you might be right now

Growth feels shaky. Activation is flat, retention is drifting, and every "fix" raises more questions than it answers.

Internal stories don't line up. Product, marketing, and sales each insist they know the customer, but everyone's running on a different version of the truth.

Some customers love you instantly. Others churn. You can't explain the difference in a way that guides real decisions.

You're doing the work. Talking to customers, watching dashboards, running tests. But why someone bought today versus any other day remains blurry.

What you need in moments like these

Not more dashboards or feature requests or internal debates.

A clear view of why people choose you, why others walk away, and what tips someone from "thinking about it" to "I'm in."

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.

In practice: Six to eight weeks. Structured conversations with your wins, losses, and churned customers. Weekly working sessions with your team. Decisions tied to real metrics.

We find the truth behind real decisions, in your customers' words, so you can make moves with confidence.

Shokuna is Neal Sales-Griffin and Lilliana Robinson.

Neal learned to build with focus and constraint from Jason Fried and the 37signals team. Through them he met Bobby Moesta, co-creator of Jobs to Be Done, who showed him how people actually decide: why they fire one thing and hire another. That practice became the foundation for everything Shokuna does.

Lilliana 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 Bobby. The pattern is always the same: progress starts the moment you understand the story behind the choice.

Together, we've spent years doing this work. Not through surveys. Through human conversation. Through structured interviews that reveal the pushes, pulls, anxieties, and moments that tip someone from "thinking about it" to "I'm in."

Why founders work with us

Because when you're leading a growing company, you don't have time for theory. You need clarity you can act on quickly. A partner who can reveal what's been hiding in plain sight, in a way that brings your whole team with you.

The founders who can explain, in their customer's own words, why someone picked them make better decisions. About product. About messaging. About who to build for next.

The founders who can't are guessing.

If you're tired of guessing why customers choose you,

Start Here →

Or book a call.