Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#1

Post by sigre » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 1:23 PM UTC

We're a small team of two programmers, and we've just launched our MVP (www.pushlayer.com, if you're interested). It's a service geared towards iOS developers, and we're looking for someone to help us out with the legwork of getting feedback to validate our concept.

We've been spreading the word ourselves, and tapping our own connections for feedback, but as our backlog grows, we'd love to get someone else involved to help us continue spreading the word.

Has anyone successfully found another person (even someone just helping out in their spare time) at this stage of their company? We're wary of any true "marketing" person, as we're really looking to reach out to fellow programmers.

Thanks for any and all advice!

Re: Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#2

Post by vetleen » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 1:31 PM UTC

Have you given any thought as to how you might grow later on, when you want to scale? I ask because this is a good opportunity for you to also test (“validate” as you put it) that part of your business concept.

Re: Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#3

Post by ig1 » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 1:33 PM UTC

I wouldn't at your stage, at such an early stage the founders need to be interacting with users, you'll lose too much (information) in communication overheads if you bring in someone to do it.

Re: Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#4

Post by orangethirty » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 1:47 PM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #3

I wouldn't at your stage, at such an early stage the founders need to be interacting with users, you'll lose too much (information) in communication overheads if you bring in someone to do it.

That's just bad business advice. You need to market right from the start. Having a dedicated person to do it is actually more productive than the founders themselves doing it.

Re: Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#5

Post by orangethirty » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 1:49 PM UTC

In plain words, what does the product do for me?

Re: Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#6

Post by soneca » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 1:55 PM UTC

Would be too shocking if I consider this a "How to find a non-technical co-founder" question?

Because I think that is just what you need. I don't think a freelance, temporary or part-time marketing person would be a good choice. A real co-founder, responsible for marketing your product would be ideal. Someone that could hack the distribution part of your product.

Actually, I don't have any practical tips of how to find this person, but my advice is that you should think of her as an essential part of the team, not a disposable labor with a specific mechanical job. Don't be the "code guy" versio of the HN stereotyped "idea guy".

Maybe something you could try is trying to find, on startups' events, that non-developer young guy, who is kind of lost there, not pitching any of his ideas, just trying to understand this environment and learn a few things. My guess is that this persona, with the right potential skills, could be a good distribution co-founder.

Re: Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#7

Post by ig1 » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 2:07 PM UTC

orangethirty wrote: post #4

ig1 wrote: post #3

I wouldn't at your stage, at such an early stage the founders need to be interacting with users, you'll lose too much (information) in communication overheads if you bring in someone to do it.

That's just bad business advice. You need to market right from the start. Having a dedicated person to do it is actually more productive than the founders themselves doing it.

If you haven't found product-market fit then what you need isn't marketing, it's product management and that's something that founders need to be heavily involved with at early stages.

Re: Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#8

Post by vetleen » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 2:11 PM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #7

orangethirty wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just bad business advice. You need to market right from the start. Having a dedicated person to do it is actually more productive than the founders themselves doing it.

If you haven't found product-market fit then what you need isn't marketing, it's product management and that's something that founders need to be heavily involved with at early stages.

Don't you think you need users to move towards product-market fit?

Re: Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#9

Post by ig1 » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 2:15 PM UTC

vetleen wrote: post #8

ig1 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't found product-market fit then what you need isn't marketing, it's product management and that's something that founders need to be heavily involved with at early stages.

Don't you think you need users to move towards product-market fit?

If you don't have product-market fit it's normally much easier to move the product than it is to move the market.

Re: Ask HN: How to find help marketing an MVP to programmers?

#10

Post by route3 » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 2:28 PM UTC

orangethirty wrote: post #4

ig1 wrote: post #3

I wouldn't at your stage, at such an early stage the founders need to be interacting with users, you'll lose too much (information) in communication overheads if you bring in someone to do it.

That's just bad business advice. You need to market right from the start. Having a dedicated person to do it is actually more productive than the founders themselves doing it.

>> That's just bad business advice.

I'm no MBA or startup guru, but I don't often hear "Founders in very early stage/prototype stage should avoid interacting with their users". Early stage interaction is critical to the success of the product.

>> Having a dedicated person to do it is actually more productive than the founders themselves doing it

If the goal is to get to know their audience needs, and iterate the produce development quickly, then dev-to-dev feedback is absolutely critical. Now is probably not a good time to clog the feedback filter by adding another human to the mix.

You can spend 30 hours working on your product backlog of features that haven't been vetted, or you can spend 30 hours getting to know your audience and discover that NSCoreLibFoo gives people the most trouble with push notifications.

What would convert more: a homepage hero about the three new features you dreamed up OR the fact that PushLayer can fix everything that sucks about NSCoreLibFoo (which half of your audience hates with a passion as you discovered).