Building Commercial Engines: Real Lessons From My Early Entrepreneurial Journey

Matthew VanBuren

I cringe when people would ask me if I was a travel agent. Not because of pride or title, but because it reduced what I was building to something purely transactional. At eighteen, with no initial capital or influential network, I took a stab at the traditional travel agency model and launched a travel-tech company aimed at making corporate and luxury travel easier and more personalized.

Over three years, the idea grew into a business generating over one million dollars in sales, not because I invented the next Expedia (I did not), but because I got my hands dirty, learned sales by doing, and built a repeatable playbook along the way.

I am not claiming to be a founder. That would be laughable, and frankly, an insult to the people who actually taught me what it takes to build something real. What I gained was practical, hands-on experience: bringing products to market, driving revenue, and genuinely improving customers' lives.

That experience gave me a foundation no textbook or course ever could. It taught me that building a commercial engine is not about theory, rather owning the playbook, testing it daily, and refining it with every conversation, win, and setback.

Deep Customer Understanding Guides Everything

The foundation of effective business development is not the product itself but the people who use it. For me, it started with understanding corporate and luxury travelers by speaking directly with them about their frustrations. It became clear they wanted personalized experiences and greater efficiency, elements that traditional agencies consistently failed to deliver. By listening carefully, I designed services that aligned precisely with their real, unmet needs.

For you and your business, it might mean recognizing that many customers have simply accepted slow, complex, or inefficient processes because they assume there is no better way. The opportunity lies in not just solving those pain points, but in doing so with such clarity and simplicity that the customer feels genuinely relieved, as if someone finally built exactly what they needed without them having to ask.

Market Strategies Must Be Iterative

Initial plans rarely survive their first contact with customers. After studying companies like Superhuman, I learned to continuously refine my approach based on real-time client feedback, which in my case often came from customer reviews (click here to listen to the podcast that influenced me). This iterative process of hypothesis, testing, and adjustment helped me quickly understand what resonated.

For example, I initially assumed that clients prioritized price above all else, but direct feedback revealed they cared far more about speed, personalization, and having a single point of contact they could trust. By shifting my messaging and service model to emphasize these points, I was able to increase repeat business and build deeper client relationships. It was about being agile enough to make meaningful changes, not stubbornly clinging to initial assumptions.

Founder-Led Sales Are Irreplaceable — but Founder-Like Hustle Can Scale

In the early stages, no team member can replicate the passion and understanding of the founder. Direct interactions with early clients did more than close initial deals; they provided invaluable insights into market dynamics and genuine customer needs. I spent hours personally onboarding and engaging early customers. These conversations shaped our offering far more effectively than any formal market research ever could.

Eventually, once I proved the offering was not just viable but valuable, I automated nearly all onboarding through AI-driven workflows and outsourced trip planning to trusted third-party suppliers and destination management companies. For startups, this reinforces an important principle: strategically expanding your team only after validating the core experience with your own hands.

Early account executives and GTM leaders should not simply manage relationships, they should embody the same passion and attention to detail that the founder brought to the first deals. In my case, the best contractors were the ones who sold themselves with the same conviction and customer obsession I expected them to deliver on behalf of the brand.

Content and Community Accelerate Growth

Sustainable growth involves building genuine communities. By creating valuable content tailored specifically to clients (such as practical guides, exclusive insights, and relevant advice) a seller can transform transactional interactions into lasting advocacy.

This does not simply mean creating industry-specific content. It means making every prospect feel as if you built a custom solution just for them. It looks like creating outreach that speaks directly to a company's unique struggles, designing documents and pitch materials with their logo and branding, and showing them you are not spamming them, you are solving for them.

Decisions Must Be Driven by Data

Intuition alone is insufficient for sustained growth. Even simple tools like website traffic reports and site analytics allowed me to clearly identify which strategies worked and which did not. Metrics around client conversion rates, engagement, and satisfaction informed critical business decisions. However, numbers alone were never enough; pairing quantitative data with qualitative customer conversations provided a full understanding of what truly drove success.

Ultimately, these lessons taught me that entrepreneurship is about far more than having a good product or idea. It demands deep empathy, a readiness to adapt, and above all, an obsession with creating genuine value. I continue to refine my understanding every day, driven by the conviction that real success is measured not merely by revenue, but by the tangible improvements made in customers' lives.

Here is the Bottom Line

Building a commercial engine is not about titles, theories, or perfect plans. It is about getting close enough to the customer to understand what they truly need, creating real solutions, and refining every part of the process with urgency and care.

Experience taught me that real momentum comes from action, not ideas. The best go-to-market strategies are not handed down; they are built through firsthand learning, relentless iteration, and an obsession with making the customer's life better.

I am still learning. I am still refining. But what will never change is my belief that success is earned by those who are willing to own the playbook, improve it every day, and stay close enough to the customer to always be solving, not selling.