The most important factor of product success is probably timing. If you have had a problem for years, you are not likely to adapt a solution. But if you've only had the problem for a short time, like from one day up to a month, then you are much more likely to adapt the solution. So you basically have to be lucky, or go to market fast (within one month).
How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
181–190 of 209 posts
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Maybe I'm being naïve here, but isn't it kind of crazy to raise 3.5M in funds for a business that has no plan but to be acquired by someone else?" That's a sane question. IMO it's the current financial environment that encourages such "leap without looking" strategies. Fear of missing out is huge right now. I know of a startup that received a multi-million valuation and many more million in funding. They don't even…
Well, not everyone does that. I applied to YC with my side project [1] and got rejected. I didn't expect to get in, but if I would have, then I would be full-time on it. Now I can't, which is a shame. So in that sense, I wish someone would fund me. I have a lot of "doodling the internet" type of ideas. I use digital note taking extensively myself, so I know what's missing. [1] doodledocs.com
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Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks bumblebee4 - fashiontasteapi.com is a the b2b side of the company and the value prop is that we can help retailers automatically classify clothes and understand/classify people. It is for technical and business people, not the end consumer. This is a line of business we were just starting, and hopefully will continue. The consumer website is chicisimo.com :)
Hot take: You need a woman to design this website. None of it screams fashion. When I think fashion, I think instagram influencer not "Omnichannel Personalization." Your killer app could be a simple FB quiz. People give you their FB/insta and you spit out what looks that they'd think are wicked sick. Ideally culled from Instagram. This web page sounds like nerds talking about fashion rather than fashionistas. I'm fai…
That’s... definitely sexist
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#184I empathize completely with this team because my company was in a very similar situation in 2018. We had two very technical computer vision products, had found traction and a growing enterprise user base but revenues didn't grow fast enough and all of the major companies were entering the market. We were lucky enough to find an acquisition off ramp last year but all of the feels are the same. The big takeaway I learn…
I completely agree with all of your points, having built a Face Recognition API in the past at Lambda. If it’s a feature, high willingness to pay customers will just build in house. Low willingness to pay customers will want to use it for free or not enough money to keep the lights on. It’s difficult to build an API business with pure CV/AI/ML for that reason. I know this is unrelated, but I want to thank you for you…
I appreciate you saying that!
We're really working hard at changing many different aspects of the DoD all at once, from culture to acquisitions and are starting to see some great fruits but there's still a lot of work to be done.
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#185Wow, thank you for this. I admire your team's dedication and bravery. I found the details of all the assets of your company fascinating, since I myself know very little about classification or fashion. This is a bit of a business review type article, and I hope you write more about this and things go well for you all.
thanks theicfire :) maybe in the future!
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#186This is a brave post. It takes a lot to share this with the world. I truly hope the right partner comes along and makes the best use of all the hard work you put into this. Respect
thanks sofia :)
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#187>> We are a team of 8. We are 2 full-stack, 1 iOS, 1 Android and 4 product people What were the 4 product people doing day to day?
They shared a link with the bios of the whole team: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r0IIViwp5MuNcWXZqNI2C60P... The non-engineers are the: CEO Head of Ontology Head of Product Design & User Research User Research
Yes. I wouldn say our "Product people" are not very traditional product people, you have our bios and focus in the team link in the post and below. Hope that clarifies the doubts. I've also clarified it in the text, and it now reflects the reality better.
https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1r0IIViwp5MuNcWXZqNI2...
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#188> "We are a team of 8. We are 2 full-stack, 1 iOS, 1 Android and 4 product people." And that leaves 0 for business + marketing + sales. Maybe you didn't find the right business model during 5.5 years because you had nobody working on finding the right business model?
1:1 engineer to product person ratio seems off to me, especially for a small company. Even if that person has to do product/sales/evangelism/marketing, you should really need 2 or 3 people max if you only have 4 engineers, especially when those engineers are building so much from nothing.
I wouldn't say our "Product people" are very traditional product people, you have our bios and focus in the team link in the post and below. Hope it helps
https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1r0IIViwp5MuNcWXZqNI2...
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#189If you run out of cash, maybe you shouldn’t still believe.
I don’t mean to tear it down, but the idea as it stands apparently isn’t a business.
You must change the product if you still want to achieve market fit somehow.
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hot take: You need a woman to design this website. None of it screams fashion. When I think fashion, I think instagram influencer not "Omnichannel Personalization." Your killer app could be a simple FB quiz. People give you their FB/insta and you spit out what looks that they'd think are wicked sick. Ideally culled from Instagram. This web page sounds like nerds talking about fashion rather than fashionistas. I'm fai…
That’s... definitely sexist
It’s also right. Just replace woman with something appropriate.