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Build Your Product, Then Your Business

blog.mojotech.com

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Re: Build Your Product, Then Your Business

#11

Post by saosebastiao »

benjaminwootton wrote: post #2

Do we not have exactly the opposite problem within this community? We know coding so we spend our time hacking away in dark rooms on product stuff such as frameworks, features, deployments, websites etc. We leave considerations about marketing, distribution, customer research till later, and end up building something that we have no way to effectively market. The order should probably be to develop the business model…

I think the community is too diverse to be able to say that. I have a background in Supply Chain Management, and while I can code well enough to be an engineer, I have never been the same type of hacker that you imply.

My conversations with others in this community confirm that I am not alone. I have read many comments from Marketers/Product Managers, TPMs, SEOs, CEOs, Designers, Stock Traders, Financial Analysts, Ops Researchers, Executive Assistants, etc.

Re: Build Your Product, Then Your Business

#12

Post by patrickk »

What if formally incorporating your business is a prerequisite for getting real user feedback (i.e. feedback that's not from friends and family)?

Like accepting credit card payments to a merchant bank account from real customers, or setting up an iOS developer account for a premium app to accept payments from Apple?

One of the pieces of advice YC gives to startups struggling to find direction is to "charge users for something". Surely you can't do this unless you're properly setup to accept payments. I suppose you could accept payments into a personal bank account and incorporate later, but most tax authorities would frown heavily on that.

Re: Build Your Product, Then Your Business

#14

Post by ordinathorreur »

patrickk wrote: post #12

What if formally incorporating your business is a prerequisite for getting real user feedback (i.e. feedback that's not from friends and family)? Like accepting credit card payments to a merchant bank account from real customers, or setting up an iOS developer account for a premium app to accept payments from Apple? One of the pieces of advice YC gives to startups struggling to find direction is to "charge users for…

Then that's just a necessary step towards getting your product in the hands of people then. However, do you really need to charge customers until you've validated your ideas? I see a lot of projects offering their product for free while in beta, perhaps that's more in line with what the article is trying to argue.

Re: Build Your Product, Then Your Business

#16

Post by jmathai »

flyosity wrote: post #9
benjaminwootton wrote: post #2

Do we not have exactly the opposite problem within this community? We know coding so we spend our time hacking away in dark rooms on product stuff such as frameworks, features, deployments, websites etc. We leave considerations about marketing, distribution, customer research till later, and end up building something that we have no way to effectively market. The order should probably be to develop the business model…

Figuring out what to do after you build a product is only hard if you don't plan to sell the product. For example, if you build a consumer-oriented service that you plan to offer for free, then, yes, developing the business model is hard. And by looking at lots of "pageview-successful" startups who are still trying to make their first dime of revenue, it may take years to graft a successful business model to a free s…

I think that's a bit of an oversimplification. Scratching your own itch might not solve a need for a market big enough for a viable business. You end up "pivoting" till you figure that out.

If there's a way to find that out early then you save yourself valuable time. Time which could determine if you're able to stay alive long enough to succeed or not.

Not at all advocating spending a year on market research but don't go straight from idea to your basement to start coding. Not if you're trying to build a business out if it.

Re: Build Your Product, Then Your Business

#17

Post by victorhn »

patrickk wrote: post #12

What if formally incorporating your business is a prerequisite for getting real user feedback (i.e. feedback that's not from friends and family)? Like accepting credit card payments to a merchant bank account from real customers, or setting up an iOS developer account for a premium app to accept payments from Apple? One of the pieces of advice YC gives to startups struggling to find direction is to "charge users for…

> I suppose you could accept payments into a personal bank account and incorporate later, but most tax authorities would frown heavily on that.

In my country many online retailers accept payments on personal bank accounts, but being a total novice to receive payments i have some questions : is there an amount of monthly flow of money where tax authorities start checking your transactions in your bank account? also, how is the process? does your bank notify your government that you are receiving an extra-ordinary amount of money?

Re: Build Your Product, Then Your Business

#20

Post by DividesByZero »

Wow, what a transparent strawman. Every 'how to do a startup' guide stresses that getting your product in front of users is the key priority of every new company.

Nothing I've ever read has ever advocated getting an NDA or figuring out pricing strategy before you have interested users.

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