Be honest: is your product really the best?
It is important for any startup manager and entrepreneur to understand the phenomenon that Brad Feld calls the “Product Illusion”. Mark Saster, vice chairman of Upfront Ventures, writes that he is already tired of asking the same question to entrepreneurs:
Many companies quickly rose to the top of Google, after which they quickly fell from there due to any changes. It is not so important to be in search results, how to convince customers to access your pages directly.
The success of a startup at an early stage of its development is often deceptive. Startup rattles the whole world, flashes on the pages of online publications, attracts money and inflates like a bubble , after which it naturally breaks. Investor Bill Gurley is confident that in Silicon Valley, companies that simply lose money work far more people than they have in the past fifteen years. And this is due to the large amount of money in the venture capital market.
One of the approaches of startups to advertising is the viral dissemination of information about their product, an attempt to attract as many customers as possible with the help of spam messages. This tactic will only work with a truly great product. Remember the popular games, where you can find friends and compete with them? Words With Friends, Angry Birds, Clash of Clans. True, the developer of "evil birds" lasted only a couple of years at the peak, after which Rovio's profit decreased by half and the company had to lay off people.
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The same approach can be used by representatives of e-commerce, spending huge amounts received from several investors to attract new customers. But if customers do not like the brand, do not come back to it again and again, all this money is wasted. Hence the conclusion - the product must have value, it must satisfy the need better than its counterpart, otherwise it will fail in the market.
How is success measured? Determine the answer to this question for your business, advises Mark Saster. Find a way to measure your success and focus on it. Do not use the numbers that performers like to sin for the satisfaction of the client in order to convince himself of the excellent work done.
Look at the largest high-tech startups . Xiaomi sells great smartphones at half the price of its competitors and has become the third smartphone maker in just five years. In 2009, Uber helped taxi drivers and private traders find customers more easily. Palantir turns unstructured data into readable maps and charts to look for criminals. SpaceX builds and launches rockets into space. Is there an analogue of your product on the market? Is your project really the best? Could you put it on a par with these startups? Be honest with yourself.
Is your product really different? Are users addicted to it? Will we make their lives better? Can we fight for their minds every time they turn on their phone or computer?
Many companies quickly rose to the top of Google, after which they quickly fell from there due to any changes. It is not so important to be in search results, how to convince customers to access your pages directly.
The success of a startup at an early stage of its development is often deceptive. Startup rattles the whole world, flashes on the pages of online publications, attracts money and inflates like a bubble , after which it naturally breaks. Investor Bill Gurley is confident that in Silicon Valley, companies that simply lose money work far more people than they have in the past fifteen years. And this is due to the large amount of money in the venture capital market.
One of the approaches of startups to advertising is the viral dissemination of information about their product, an attempt to attract as many customers as possible with the help of spam messages. This tactic will only work with a truly great product. Remember the popular games, where you can find friends and compete with them? Words With Friends, Angry Birds, Clash of Clans. True, the developer of "evil birds" lasted only a couple of years at the peak, after which Rovio's profit decreased by half and the company had to lay off people.
')
The same approach can be used by representatives of e-commerce, spending huge amounts received from several investors to attract new customers. But if customers do not like the brand, do not come back to it again and again, all this money is wasted. Hence the conclusion - the product must have value, it must satisfy the need better than its counterpart, otherwise it will fail in the market.
How is success measured? Determine the answer to this question for your business, advises Mark Saster. Find a way to measure your success and focus on it. Do not use the numbers that performers like to sin for the satisfaction of the client in order to convince himself of the excellent work done.
Look at the largest high-tech startups . Xiaomi sells great smartphones at half the price of its competitors and has become the third smartphone maker in just five years. In 2009, Uber helped taxi drivers and private traders find customers more easily. Palantir turns unstructured data into readable maps and charts to look for criminals. SpaceX builds and launches rockets into space. Is there an analogue of your product on the market? Is your project really the best? Could you put it on a par with these startups? Be honest with yourself.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/283928/
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