What to do after your product is ready?
The first part of the lecture was devoted to the story of a startup "Guide to Iceland". Its chief marketing officer Xiaochen was talking about the insights of working in a startup and how they came from an idea to the most successful travel web-site about Iceland. First of all, the one thing which was surprising for me is that Xiaochen was persuaded to move to Iceland from Asia to found the company! It is really amazing that Guide to Iceland managed to receive such a dedicated person who was ready to move to another continent. This factor already doomed the idea to be a success.
The key to the success of Guide to Iceland was that they were really concentrated on the demands of customers and made what they were asked to. Xiaochen also mentioned that at first they weren't absolutely sure of what they were doing and they could spend a lot of time to develop their website more and more. But instead they just launched their startup, because you can never know when it's the right time and whether the product is perfectly ready. They just immersed themselves into the process and were developing their product to make the life of travelers easier.
Guide to Iceland is not going to stay where they are. Instead they are constantly looking for other opportunities to grow and come into new niches. So in the further part of the lecture we were talking about the growth opportunities and what we as a startup should do for that. And here comes one important thing called Traction.
The biggest mistake a startup could do is looking for money from investors. Just stop! Don´t waste your time on it. This money does not neccessarily brings you the value that you want from it. Not at all. As a founder you have to look for money in some other place. What could it be? It's your customers! So easy, you have great product, lots and lots of people buy it, they are happy and pay you the money! So why do you need investors then if you profit from your customers? Exactly! You don't need them. The only thing you should do is to build a great product and make sure that it achieves as much people as possible.
So how could you achieve it? Good question! And there are 19 different answers to it! Have a look at this book Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth (http://tractionbook.com/traction.pdf) Just pick up the ones which suit best to your company and your possibilities. Another thing to mention is that you have to do two things in parallel: developing a product and traction! And better do not postlaunch otherwise your competitors could overcome you. And final remark: having a good distribution channel is extremely crucial. If you have amazing product, but no distribution, then all the job done could just be in vain. And once you get one distribution channel, keep looking for another one. There are always opportunities so why stopping on one when you can do something globally? Just beleive in yourself and that any crazy idea could be realizable. The only thing which stays in our way is our hesitation and disbelief.
The key to the success of Guide to Iceland was that they were really concentrated on the demands of customers and made what they were asked to. Xiaochen also mentioned that at first they weren't absolutely sure of what they were doing and they could spend a lot of time to develop their website more and more. But instead they just launched their startup, because you can never know when it's the right time and whether the product is perfectly ready. They just immersed themselves into the process and were developing their product to make the life of travelers easier.
Guide to Iceland is not going to stay where they are. Instead they are constantly looking for other opportunities to grow and come into new niches. So in the further part of the lecture we were talking about the growth opportunities and what we as a startup should do for that. And here comes one important thing called Traction.
The biggest mistake a startup could do is looking for money from investors. Just stop! Don´t waste your time on it. This money does not neccessarily brings you the value that you want from it. Not at all. As a founder you have to look for money in some other place. What could it be? It's your customers! So easy, you have great product, lots and lots of people buy it, they are happy and pay you the money! So why do you need investors then if you profit from your customers? Exactly! You don't need them. The only thing you should do is to build a great product and make sure that it achieves as much people as possible.
So how could you achieve it? Good question! And there are 19 different answers to it! Have a look at this book Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth (http://tractionbook.com/traction.pdf) Just pick up the ones which suit best to your company and your possibilities. Another thing to mention is that you have to do two things in parallel: developing a product and traction! And better do not postlaunch otherwise your competitors could overcome you. And final remark: having a good distribution channel is extremely crucial. If you have amazing product, but no distribution, then all the job done could just be in vain. And once you get one distribution channel, keep looking for another one. There are always opportunities so why stopping on one when you can do something globally? Just beleive in yourself and that any crazy idea could be realizable. The only thing which stays in our way is our hesitation and disbelief.