Philippe Boutros moved to the US from Lebanon to study Philosophy at the University of Portland. From 2015 to 2022, he worked as a consultant for B2B tech companies (ranging from startups to Google, Amazon, and Microsoft). He subsequently ran Marketing for Transform Data, a Series A startup that was acquired by dbt Labs in February 2023.

Since 2014, he has been deeply engaged in a variety of projects, amassing considerable expertise in the B2B market and marketing for dozens of tech companies. In 2022, he assumed the role of Vice President (Tech Sector) at ClearPath Strategies. He subsequently took the helm of marketing efforts at Transform Data, a data analytics firm that was acquired by dbt Labs in February 2023.  

Boutros –an active LebNet member since 2015– recently relocated from Portland, Oregon to Boise, Idaho, where his wife joined Boise State University as a neuroscience professor. After Transform's acquisition, he deliberated running Marketing for other startups, but ultimately settled on trying to solve a problem that had irked him his entire career.

“When software buyers at businesses need to buy something they don't have experience with, they spend an inordinate amount of time searching for, buying, and implementing software, even though someone in a similar position has already had to learn things the hard way. This results in, at best, wasted time, and at worst, the wrong software decision, a costly mistake,” he explained.  

Hence he founded GetWhys, a resource to help software buyers find the right answers. Using the same data collection process as they do in market research, GetWhys is building InsightsDB, a proprietary database of research interviews with software buyers. GetWhys uses a commodity LLM to access the information in that database, helping customers save time identifying the right solution, negotiating the cost and contract, and efficiently implementing it. As Boutros put it in a prior interview, “It leverages the hindsight of people who come before you.”

In August 2023, Boutros launched GetWhys’ first product, which is currently in closed beta testing with a dozen customers, ranging from AI startups to enterprises. Over the next few months, Boutros will keep letting organizations off the waitlist and they are always on the lookout for new joiners.