Who cares about product bugs if it is successfully sold

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According to venture investor and programmer Leo Polovets, in today's world of Saas, the API and cloud infrastructure developed technical component rarely causes success or failure of a software product. Modern technologies now allow you to develop it very quickly with minimal cost. It would seem that this is exactly what the startups need.

According to CB Insights, only 5% of startups fail due to poor technical implementation. Most failures occur as a result of incorrect product positioning, the lack of a competent marketing strategy, poor sales professionals, and the wrong business model. The presence or absence of highly qualified engineers practically does not play any role, the researchers conclude.
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If we turn to the example of the most successful technology startups in the world (Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat, Pinterest and others), we will not see complicated software solutions. But the obvious advantage of these companies is a successful business model. Together with the active promotion, these services could become one of the most sought-after and expensive startups in the world. But it is unlikely they hired dozens of engineers to develop the service and prepare it for launch, Polovets doubts.

However, he recognizes that there are companies with complex technologies that require careful and verified implementation: SpaceX, Zoox, Rigetti Quantum Computing. But, in his opinion, these exceptions only confirm the rule.

The released funds and resources Polovets proposes to focus on the study of market needs and the choice of a suitable business model. All this, of course, provided that there is a target audience for this product, which is also ready to pay for it.

This leads us to believe that from a business point of view, software itself is not a product or service.

“The product is not software, not a site, not an application that you have made. A product is a set of properties that you sell to a potential buyer. ” Arkady Moreynis cited several examples as an illustration during a lecture at the Technopark:

Example number one. A letter comes from the programmer - he is developing a trading platform where sellers can post their goods: “I am a programmer, my project is almost ready, I have already made a website, only two trifles are left - tell me how to find buyers and sellers. Everything else has already been done. The project is 95% ready. ” This is just a common mistake. If you do not know where to get buyers and sellers, you do not have a product. You have anything on your hands, but not a product.

The second example. The same technology or technical component may be a different product, depending on how you submit it. For example, a blender and a meat grinder. We understand that from the point of view of the engineer it is the same thing. What's the difference? There is a shredder that rotates on an axis inside the container, horizontally or vertically, the crushed product can be squeezed out or remain inside the container. But still these are two completely different products. They are advertised in different ways, designed for different target audiences. The advantages are completely different properties. Therefore, what you program or do with your hands, and what you sell are just two completely different things. You can even sell what is not yet.

However, for several years now, investors have been accusing startups of just selling air. In fact, it turns out that the product is not ready, incomplete, has not taken off. With all the modern technological capabilities, not all software can be made quickly, “without noise and dust, without departing from the cash register”.

John Evans from HappyFunCorp draws attention to the quality problem of quick-start products (Startup Software Quality Problem). Many projects are developed under the flag of Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which often creates more problems for start-ups than good.



“MVP (minimally viable product) is the simplest working prototype of a product that is tested for demand before full-scale development. Such an approach insures the entrepreneur against the lack of demand for the final product and the loss of resources spent on development. ” (Entrepreneur's Dictionary: MVP | Rusbase).

The fact is that after launch, startups want to quickly modify the software, fix problems that have arisen during its use and take into account the wishes of users. Sometimes entrepreneurs make decisions about pivots. In this case, the software product is threatened with more serious changes.

But, be that as it may, the developers soon realize that the software, made in haste, needs serious processing, and sometimes - not at all suitable for further development and maintenance. In such cases, the best solution is to rewrite everything from scratch.



Evans explains this poorly designed architecture and no less mediocre implementation. The software product is littered with bugs that are also not easy to reproduce. As a result, developers have to spend many times more time than they planned.

Often, in a similar situation, they try to work harder to finish fixes faster, but because of this they make even more mistakes. Only luck will help you get out of this vicious circle. At the same time, time passes, and demand begins to fall. This leads to a fall in sales and, worst of all, to a fall in investor interest.

At the same time, Evans acknowledges that MVP does not have to be perfect and well-combed. However, a balance needs to be struck between striving to put the product on the market early and creating a steady demand for the product. This will give the opportunity to gain time for processing software. Otherwise, the project will not be able to compete with teams that work better, faster, or have more money.

However, when entering the empty market, startups may not worry about the speed of product development for the time being. Using the position of the discoverer, it is easier to achieve commercial success.

Unfortunately, not all entrepreneurs think about confirming that their idea solves such problems that are important for people, and they want to pay for it. So, an entrepreneur may ultimately dwell on an idea, the viability of which is confirmed by inaccurate user comments or biased opinions of the creators.

If the idea of ​​the project is really worthwhile, then competitors will surely appear. Or perhaps large companies will join the game. It is pointless to compete with the latter in the field of marketing, because usually the possibility in this regard is obviously much wider. Then the speed and flexibility of development, as well as the uniqueness or complexity of the technology itself, which underlies the product, come to the fore.

Many startups like to call their products and technologies unique. If you make a bet on the technical component, these statements will not be just an advertising move.

Evans agrees that the quality of the software does not guarantee commercial success. The role of this factor may vary from project to project. However, the higher the quality of the software, the higher the rate of development of the project.



Another example from Arkady Moreynis is when the software role is secondary:

One American company had the idea that they would sell people sets of ingredients and recipes immediately for cooking for a week. That is, people can order a certain menu once a week, get sliced ​​products with a courier, and prepare a week out of it. Why would an average dolt start in a startup? From simple: he would have programmed the site with the selection of recipes for the parameters. What did the authors of the idea do?

They went to the nearest supermarket and began to catch aunts. That is, they literally approached aunts who went to buy in this supermarket and said: “We have a service - for 9.95 dollars a week we can bring you products and recipes for a whole week of cooking”.
They found the first aunt who agreed to pay them $ 9.95. After that, they again did not run to program. They began to pick up recipes, buy goods, cut them, put them in bags, and each week bring all this to my aunt and listen to all the feedback from her last week. And get your legitimate $ 9.95.

In parallel, they pestered other aunts. They began to make of this some kind of service only at the moment when they stopped coping with the flow of aunts. They understood that they had groped the topic, and people need it. This is one of the examples when it is possible and necessary to begin without making a complete product.

Netflix Example

Starting with a product as a service - this is where Netfix started its business.

Netflix was born in California, its founders were two men: Reed Hastings and Mark Randolph. Hastings had to pay a huge penalty for the late return of the film he was renting. It was then that the idea came to him to create a service that would allow ordering e-mail movies without penalties for being late with their return.

Immediately after that, they began renting a collection of their films to friends - this is how Netfix was born. This may seem obvious, but if you ask most entrepreneurs how they would start their own Netflix today, you will receive very detailed technological answers.

For a startup, it is vital to create a product that people really need. As already mentioned, the product is not only software. But if a startup is built around some kind of software, then even with initially high demand, the project may come to naught due to software problems.