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My Startup Failed. Fuck.

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Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#141

Post by Felix21 »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #132
Felix21 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, you cant really ask them for money too early or you'll be hearing NO too often for the wrong reasons... What you should be trying to find out is: 1. if they currently spend their money somewhere else to solve their problem 2. if your product is so much better at solving the problem, that they will want to switch.

Yes you can, you can put up a page that describes the thing, and pretend it exists, and try to get someone to click the "let me put my credit card # in already!" button. One click, a single click will not destroy you brand. And OP would've realized that no matter even with their best shot they couldn't get 10 clicks. 10 disappointed non-customers won't destroy your brand.

The problem is how do you learn from this?

Okay i have a page and i HAVE to get people here with paid traffic like adwords because no one will write about my non-existent app.

So now I get a bit of traffic but nobody clicks the buy button...

Is it because i drew the wrong crowd? Is it because they don't know me? is it because adwords conversions are usually very low so do i need to pay for more traffic?

If it actually is because my product sucks, then cool.. But what do i change?

There is no way to know this; which is why i believe the buy button is not the way to go.... at the beginning.

You can still do this before you start building, but it must be done after talking to at least a few customers.

The traditional customer interviews are always the best way to start.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#142

Post by jyap »

hayksaakian wrote: post #126
ronyeh wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So then... is Kickstarter the only true way to validate a startup idea? You throw up a cool pitch with some videos and vague promises, and watch the cash roll in. If the cash does indeed roll in, then it's a good idea! Then you get to work, and hope no one remembers in 6 months that you promised to deliver them some amazing gifts. :-)

PPC + Landing page works wonders. Avoid the confirmation bias of your peers, and target people actively looking for your idea. Build a fake checkout that collects no data, and thank your 'paying' users for signing up to be notified when X goes on sale. (You should also probably tell them that no financial information was actually stored.)

"Build a fake checkout"

Are you serious? That's a criminal act called fraud.

Please don't follow this advice. Just do something legal like having users sign up for a mailing list.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#143

Post by Felix21 »

jdaley wrote: post #137
hayksaakian wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PPC + Landing page works wonders. Avoid the confirmation bias of your peers, and target people actively looking for your idea. Build a fake checkout that collects no data, and thank your 'paying' users for signing up to be notified when X goes on sale. (You should also probably tell them that no financial information was actually stored.)

If I put my credit card number into a site and the next page said "actually this isn't real, and we promise we didn't save your card number", my next step would be to call my bank and cancel the card.

That's funny and true.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#144

Post by [deleted] »

nemrow wrote: post #100
skeoh wrote: post #18

You have a tangible yet unmarketable product. Rather than abandon it completely, would you consider open-sourcing it? Any contribution to the open source community is a positive use of time (in my opinion).

I did want to open source it, but the problem is all of our passwords and keys for amazon and everything are in the code. Is there a way to get around that?

[deleted]

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#145

Post by JonnieCache »

jdaley wrote: post #137
hayksaakian wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PPC + Landing page works wonders. Avoid the confirmation bias of your peers, and target people actively looking for your idea. Build a fake checkout that collects no data, and thank your 'paying' users for signing up to be notified when X goes on sale. (You should also probably tell them that no financial information was actually stored.)

If I put my credit card number into a site and the next page said "actually this isn't real, and we promise we didn't save your card number", my next step would be to call my bank and cancel the card.

Surely the next step for a lot of us would be to devote an afternoon to bringing public misery upon the site operators. Don't take this advice, kids.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#146

Post by dhimes »

Kequc wrote: post #130
k__ wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never been on such a website, but doesn't this make people angry? Or is the trick to do it also withe fake product and company name, so that you know it would work, but noone can hate you afterwards for lie to him? Kickstarter seems like a better approach, since everyone KNOWS there is no product to buy.

I can't imagine being anything other than angry after filling out a payment form and then being told that there was no reason to have done that. On a new web application?

Although I consider the practice unethical, the other side would (does) argue: "Who cares? You are trying to get 20,000 customers and you pissed off 100 to get there."

I still can't bring myself to do it, though.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#147

Post by ausjke »

Hate the F word in the title, that word is for your mouth, not for writing on the public network so all can see(including my kids), unless, you have a 18-year-old warning on your homepage.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#148

Post by mathattack »

onan_barbarian wrote: post #95

If there's a common thread between endless startup failure stories, then it is "we talked to a bunch of people who said they'd spend money on this" and when push came to shove said people didn't actually spend money. We're not failing, but even from a (modestly) successful startup perspective, the vast gulf between "people who like to talk to you as if they will spend real money" and "people who will actually spend m…

The vast gap between talkers and doers.... In this article, in the end they contacted 1700 people only 1-10 were interested. That sounds more like the four standard deviation crazies who just want to be polite.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#149

Post by ibrow »

Felix21 wrote: post #141
erikpukinskis wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes you can, you can put up a page that describes the thing, and pretend it exists, and try to get someone to click the "let me put my credit card # in already!" button. One click, a single click will not destroy you brand. And OP would've realized that no matter even with their best shot they couldn't get 10 clicks. 10 disappointed non-customers won't destroy your brand.

The problem is how do you learn from this? Okay i have a page and i HAVE to get people here with paid traffic like adwords because no one will write about my non-existent app. So now I get a bit of traffic but nobody clicks the buy button... Is it because i drew the wrong crowd? Is it because they don't know me? is it because adwords conversions are usually very low so do i need to pay for more traffic? If it actuall…

You can learn a lot from this.

Firstly you can learn how other people describe the type of product you are offering - not necessarily how you describe it. With Adwords you'll see the types of keywords that people are typing to have your adverts displayed, some of these keyword phrases may include words you haven't considered. You then add these new words to your list and see the results. Rinse and repeat.

Now people are coming to your site you can track what they do. What price point has the most clicks, what wording bounces the least, etc.

I have done exactly what erikpukinskis described and it serves to not only validate (or not) your idea, but the great thing about this is I learned far more what real people are actually wanting, not what I thought they wanted.

A couple of weeks investing in a quick wordpress site and some adwords to validate and modify an idea before building is so much better then building it then seeing if they will come.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#150

Post by Felix21 »

ibrow wrote: post #149
Felix21 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is how do you learn from this? Okay i have a page and i HAVE to get people here with paid traffic like adwords because no one will write about my non-existent app. So now I get a bit of traffic but nobody clicks the buy button... Is it because i drew the wrong crowd? Is it because they don't know me? is it because adwords conversions are usually very low so do i need to pay for more traffic? If it actuall…

You can learn a lot from this. Firstly you can learn how other people describe the type of product you are offering - not necessarily how you describe it. With Adwords you'll see the types of keywords that people are typing to have your adverts displayed, some of these keyword phrases may include words you haven't considered. You then add these new words to your list and see the results. Rinse and repeat. Now people…

Seems like you only read my first line
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