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We Built It, And They Didn't Come

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Re: We Built It, And They Didn't Come

#11

Post by yeukhon »

Here is my take after reading the slides from a student perspective. If we put more resource on marketing would it mean at some point we will oversell our service? In other words, we can only handle 100 users but now 120 users because of the good marketing? Then we have to hire more people (but that takes time too) to make the system more robust (from both deops and software engineering). That's a problem, isn't it?

Would it be okay to say a startup should have a good estimate of how many users they can handle at each cycle?

Re: We Built It, And They Didn't Come

#12

Post by foxylad »

yeukhon wrote: post #11

Here is my take after reading the slides from a student perspective. If we put more resource on marketing would it mean at some point we will oversell our service? In other words, we can only handle 100 users but now 120 users because of the good marketing? Then we have to hire more people (but that takes time too) to make the system more robust (from both deops and software engineering). That's a problem, isn't it?…

Fear of overselling could kill your company - it puts a brake on everything you do. Even worse, it gives you the perfect excuse not to market your product to the max, and human nature means you'll actually market it close to the minimum.

My philosophy is to ask "will it scale?" for every part of your business. EVERY step - including sales, support and things like invoicing too. This adds surprisingly little overhead, but if Jon Stewart mentions your product on The Daily Show, you'll be popping champagne corks instead of blood vessels.

On the platform side, services like Appengine make this easy. But you need to have plans in place to scale support, sales and everything else.

Re: We Built It, And They Didn't Come

#13

Post by sfall »

yeukhon wrote: post #11

Here is my take after reading the slides from a student perspective. If we put more resource on marketing would it mean at some point we will oversell our service? In other words, we can only handle 100 users but now 120 users because of the good marketing? Then we have to hire more people (but that takes time too) to make the system more robust (from both deops and software engineering). That's a problem, isn't it?…

I believe that his point is getting the users is the first choke point to make or break your company.

Re: We Built It, And They Didn't Come

#14

Post by stephengillie »

programminggeek wrote: post #5

You know, I'm a builder. I like to build things. But a business isn't about building things, it's about selling things. You can build a real business with a terrible to mediocre product if you are great at selling it. You can't build a real business if you can't sell your product, no matter how good your product is. The thing that will determine your success is sales and marketing, especially early in the business li…

This is why my self-driving RC-car platform is withering on the vine - I can't get funding because I'm an engineer, not a salesman.

Re: We Built It, And They Didn't Come

#15

Post by taf2 »

programminggeek wrote: post #5

You know, I'm a builder. I like to build things. But a business isn't about building things, it's about selling things. You can build a real business with a terrible to mediocre product if you are great at selling it. You can't build a real business if you can't sell your product, no matter how good your product is. The thing that will determine your success is sales and marketing, especially early in the business li…

But if you embrace that you like to build things... you can sell and market - they are different aspects of what you want to build... to say you're a builder therefore you can't sell is incorrect... perhaps you're a programmer who only likes to program or mechanic that only likes to work on engines... but if you like to build... then it doesn't matter what it is you're building... websites, databases, markets, or sales... it's all building.

Re: We Built It, And They Didn't Come

#16

Post by ZoF »

stephengillie wrote: post #14
programminggeek wrote: post #5

You know, I'm a builder. I like to build things. But a business isn't about building things, it's about selling things. You can build a real business with a terrible to mediocre product if you are great at selling it. You can't build a real business if you can't sell your product, no matter how good your product is. The thing that will determine your success is sales and marketing, especially early in the business li…

This is why my self-driving RC-car platform is withering on the vine - I can't get funding because I'm an engineer, not a salesman.

Need a site? I'll build it out for free within reason.

Need someone to physically pitch your product to investors? I can't do that.

Re: We Built It, And They Didn't Come

#17

Post by joshuaheard »

programminggeek wrote: post #5

You know, I'm a builder. I like to build things. But a business isn't about building things, it's about selling things. You can build a real business with a terrible to mediocre product if you are great at selling it. You can't build a real business if you can't sell your product, no matter how good your product is. The thing that will determine your success is sales and marketing, especially early in the business li…

That's why all successful business have 2 founders: the builder and the seller. Look at Apple, Woz built it, Jobs sold it. Microsoft: Gates built it, Ballmer sold it. etc.

Re: We Built It, And They Didn't Come

#18

Post by agibsonccc »

stephengillie wrote: post #14
programminggeek wrote: post #5

You know, I'm a builder. I like to build things. But a business isn't about building things, it's about selling things. You can build a real business with a terrible to mediocre product if you are great at selling it. You can't build a real business if you can't sell your product, no matter how good your product is. The thing that will determine your success is sales and marketing, especially early in the business li…

This is why my self-driving RC-car platform is withering on the vine - I can't get funding because I'm an engineer, not a salesman.

Half of the battle is picking up the phone. I think the main problem is coming up with a problem you're both passionate about and that provides value to customers. You can learn sales as you go.

The best salesman are the ones who don't know how to say no. I think the self defeatist mentality of "I'm not a salesman" is the core problem. You're a salesman if you call yourself one. The main reason being: You're the first person who said yes. Your next job is to do what every other sales person has to do: stomach a no answer, learn from your mistakes, and iterate on your idea within reason of making sales. Validation is apart of the sales process as well.

Re: We Built It, And They Didn't Come

#19

Post by agibsonccc »

joshuaheard wrote: post #17
programminggeek wrote: post #5

You know, I'm a builder. I like to build things. But a business isn't about building things, it's about selling things. You can build a real business with a terrible to mediocre product if you are great at selling it. You can't build a real business if you can't sell your product, no matter how good your product is. The thing that will determine your success is sales and marketing, especially early in the business li…

That's why all successful business have 2 founders: the builder and the seller. Look at Apple, Woz built it, Jobs sold it. Microsoft: Gates built it, Ballmer sold it. etc.

There's also people who can extrapolate value by themselves. The most common examples being patio11, bdunn, nathanbarry, and crew. It's no secret they're going to delegate or outsource parts of their work that might not be immediately relevant, but that's just part of knowing how to delegate. That doesn't require a permanent cofounder.

I think there's something to be said about building something simple of value and selling the crap out of one idea.(Assuming you know the idea brings in some kind of value for customers)

This kind of thing is easier to do than people give themselves credit for. Half of the problem is just getting yourself to practice it. You'll fail a few times, it comes with the territory. You might be more comfortable doing freelancing and transitioning to product, but both can be done.

That being said: business is of course significantly easier with help. It can be hard to bring someone on board without at least putting in the initial effort if you were going to do it by yourself anyway though. So it's a really good thing to attempt regardless.

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