Laura Cruickshanks

New here! 🌟 Building Atlas + obsessed with the startup community

Hey Product Hunt community! πŸ‘‹βœ¨

I'm Laura, Head of Product and Design at Atlas (www.runonatlas.com) - we're a billing and pricing platform for AI and SaaS builders! πŸš€ We help creators build, launch, and monetize their products without getting stuck in pricing purgatory πŸ’Έ

A little about me: I spent 10 years at Salesforce (7 of those on the demo team mastering storytelling! πŸ“Š), love geeking out over Star Wars 🌟, and walk around the neighborhood with two tiny dogs who think they're giants πŸ•πŸ•

Oh, and fun fact - I haven't worn pants with buttons or zippers since 2020 and I'm NEVER going back! Stretchy pants for life! πŸ™Œ Who's with me?!

I'm sincerely excited to help fellow builders and startups connect with each other! 🀝 I've been to SO many conferences lately and honestly, the startup community is just special ✨ It's this amazing group of people who are genuinely out to support each other - I absolutely love it! πŸ’•

Super pumped to be here and chat with everyone! What's everyone working on? Drop your projects below - I'd love to cheer you on and connect! πŸŽ‰

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Chris Messina

7 years mastering demo storytelling...?! Ok, drop your best tips β€” what are people doing wrong? And are Figma prototypes enough, or is running code a requirement (vibe coding might help with that)?

Laura Cruickshanks
@chrismessina - it’s not about the tools! 🎯 The #1 demo mistake I see everywhere? Clicking through every single feature like you’re giving a museum tour 😴. That’s how you lose people in under 60 seconds. Here’s what I learned after 7+ years of demos at Salesforce: Make your user the hero, not your product πŸ¦ΈπŸ»β€β™€οΈ Instead of β€œhere’s feature A, B, and C,” think story arc: β€’ Your prospect is the hero facing a real challenge 🚧 β€’ Your product is the trusted guide that helps them win πŸ—ΊοΈ β€’ They get to be the rockstar who solved the problem 🌟 People don’t buy features - they buy the feeling of being successful at their job. Show them conquering that quarterly goal, impressing their team, or fixing that process everyone complains about πŸ’ͺ When your demo makes someone think β€œwow, I could actually be the hero here,” that’s when they reach for their credit card πŸ’³
Chris Messina

@laura_cruickshanks dang, that's fire! Love that β€” and completely agree with you!

Laura Cruickshanks

@chrismessina thank you πŸ˜‡