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Why aren't you building your startup for early adopters?

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Re: Why aren't you building your startup for early adopters?

#11

Post by viscanti »

iamwil wrote: post #6

The question I've always had was, "how do you find the early adopters?" for any particular market or product. It's easier to note, when you know where they hang out to talk about the topic (forums, HN, etc). I've also seen the approach of taking out ads, online or offline. Do you guys know of other ways to find early adopters?

I think a lot of it depends on the problem space. Are you solving a problem that uses a B2B or B2C solution (or a hybrid)? B2C problems are likely easier to find early adopters, if the problem is of any significance. You likely already have friends who face that problem and would be happy to be an early adopter. For those situations, you just reach out to your social circle and can work from there.

I think more work is required for B2B solutions. Linkedin and Facebook probably already have several groups dedicated to the general topic your solution falls under. It's not too difficult to identify people there who are pushing the boundaries of your problem area. These are the low-hanging fruit for finding early adopters. I think networking events, especially if there's a meetup.com group in your area, that are specific to your problem area can be a great place to get some face time with people who might be early adopters. From there, it's a matter of setting up some coffee meetings and talking to those potential early adopters in more depth.

Some people like to throw up a landing page with a form to collect email addresses, then throw money at some ads to drive traffic and see if anyone is willing to send their contact info. I think that strategy has it's merits, but I think you lose something by automating the process at that time. I think there's a lot of benefit from the early face time with potential early adopters. I think you can find out a lot more about who might fit the profile of an early adopter, by actually finding out what an early adopter looks like.

Re: Why aren't you building your startup for early adopters?

#12

Post by dholowiski »

iamwil wrote: post #6

The question I've always had was, "how do you find the early adopters?" for any particular market or product. It's easier to note, when you know where they hang out to talk about the topic (forums, HN, etc). I've also seen the approach of taking out ads, online or offline. Do you guys know of other ways to find early adopters?

You said it, we're all doing it - hang out where the early adopters hang out.

Re: Why aren't you building your startup for early adopters?

#13

Post by andrewtbham »

Although I think Crossing the Chasm is a great book and will give you perspective... it is largely about the final stages of being a startup. After you cross the Chasm, you are a mainstream company. The 2 books that I recommend for early stage startups are "The Lean Startup" (especially for consumer) and Four Steps to the Epiphany (especially for B2B).

Re: Why aren't you building your startup for early adopters?

#14

Post by DanTheDuck »

My question is how does this relate to market maturity? Look at the Linux server market. That market is very much at the peak of the curve or perhaps into the "Late Majority" phase. Does a company targeting that market necessarily have to start at 0? If I come out with a linux distribution tomorrow that gives large players some whizbang feature to simplify their lives, how far up the curve do I get to start?

Cloud Computing is definitely at the "Early Adopters" stage, and we are all rightfully starting at 0 when it comes to building new products in that space. It seems to me that the chasm in this case is the mindshift required to play in the new space. Thinking about all the different failures and redesigning entire architectures around failures is a lot of hard work.

Wouldn't a company get faster growth if someone came up with a transition technology: something that still fit the principles of the new mode, but still "felt" like the old way of doing things?

Re: Why aren't you building your startup for early adopters?

#15

Post by leecho0 »

Any thought about what to do if you didn't follow the advice? Our startup is 10 months in trying to convince a non-early adopter to buy our enterprise product. They want the product, but like the article claims, they are too risk adverse to just buy it without months of testing.

Should we stick it through to make it as main stream as fast as possible (we chose the client for their effectiveness as a reference) or backpedal and look for early adopters?

Re: Why aren't you building your startup for early adopters?

#16

Post by rohit89 »

kerryfalk wrote: post #9
rohit89 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I was thinking primarily about software and web services.

I am as well, actually. Unless you are building tools for programmers or techies I think it's dangerous to assume the Early Adopters of your software are also programmers or techies. They could be but it's far from default.

Early adopters may not necessarily be programmers but I would be surprised if they were not techies (in majority). I have rarely heard of cases where an average user has tried out something new. Exceptions exist depending on the product of course. Also my definition of a "techie" may be a bit loose here.

Re: Why aren't you building your startup for early adopters?

#17

Post by essayist »

leecho0 wrote: post #15

Any thought about what to do if you didn't follow the advice? Our startup is 10 months in trying to convince a non-early adopter to buy our enterprise product. They want the product, but like the article claims, they are too risk adverse to just buy it without months of testing. Should we stick it through to make it as main stream as fast as possible (we chose the client for their effectiveness as a reference) or bac…

You might find Sharon Drew Morgen's work helpful.

For instance: http://sharondrewmorgen.com/2011/07/why-arent-our-prospects-...

(My only connection is that I've read two of her books and talked to her on the phone once.)

TL;DR: "A purchase is a change management problem."

Re: Why aren't you building your startup for early adopters?

#18

Post by robgo »

I actually think that the problem I see more often is the opposite these days. Lean Startup principles have led more founders to build single features that a small subset of adopters might want, but little or no appreciation of why that wedge in the market will matter in a meaningful way.
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