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We Built It, And They Didn't Come!
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Lukas Fittl
September 21, 2013
Business
4
140
We Built It, And They Didn't Come!
Talk at WebExpo Prague 2013.
Lukas Fittl
September 21, 2013
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Transcript
@LukasFittl We Built It, And They Didn’t Come! WebExpo Prague
’13
About Myself Co-Founded 3 tech startups, worked with many others
Let me introduce you to: started October 2010
None
None
Actual Revenue: 0 EUR
None
First of all, lets talk about the Team
Lukas Michael Christian Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing
Lukas Michael Christian Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing
Lukas Ash Emiliano Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing
Lukas Ash Emiliano Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing
Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing
Lukas Michael Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing
Lukas Michael Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing
Lukas Andreas Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing
Lukas Andreas Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing
Lukas (2011) Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing Lukas
(Today) Design & Development DevOps Sales & Marketing What did I learn?
Product Distribution Business
1. The Art of Launching Your MVP 2. Radically Different
Designs 3. The Ideation Switch Product
1. The Art of Launching Your MVP 2. Radically Different
Designs 3. The Ideation Switch Product
Launch = Make your Product available to (some) customers Not:
Press Launch!
What we had at Efficient Cloud: Task Task Task Task
Task Task TODO IN PROGRESS DONE
Release! Risk Time BUILD BUILD BUILD
In a group of Developers, its really dangerous to not
set a deadline!
IDEAS PRODUCT DATA MEASURE BUILD LEARN Experiment
Risk Time Release! BUILD Release! BUILD Release! BUILD Release! BUILD
None
Charged Customers $200 / month from Day One
What we have at Spark59/USERcycle:
Build: Full Prototype Measure: “Successful” Launch Learn: (within months) Perfection:
3+ months
Build: Weekend Prototype Measure: Customers commit to buy Learn: (within
days) Iteration: 2-3 weeks
Dictates how fast you can learn Experiment Scope Your Runway
How long you can survive
1. The Art of Launching Your MVP 2. Radically Different
Designs 3. The Ideation Switch Product
Hosting Company, this helps you implement PaaS and still get
a lot of customers onto one server. (But you need SSD drives.)
Sounds complicated? Yes! Bigger Problem: We didn’t (really) try something
different.
None
=> Landing Page Test But we just tested for testing’s
sake, we didn’t believe in that product at all.
Version 1: Analytics for Marketers Version 2: Analytics for Startups
Version 3: Analytics for SaaS Startups
Getting the Right Design vs. Getting the Design Right
1. The Art of Launching Your MVP 2. Radically Different
Designs 3. The Ideation Switch Product
Kind-of-Sales is not Customer Development
Are you ideating or are you executing?
IDEAS PRODUCT DATA MEASURE BUILD LEARN Experiment Executing =
Ideating = Customer Interviews Design Studio Usability Tests etc...
1. Financial Planning & Metrics 2. Making Deals 3. Traction
First, Fundraising Second Business
1. Financial Planning & Metrics 2. Making Deals 3. Traction
First, Fundraising Second Business
None
None
None
Main Assumption: Customers would buy a 5000+ EUR license &
integrate our Product within weeks (not months)
Its ok to ignore your plan, but focus on these
assumptions.
1. Financial Planning & Metrics 2. Making Deals 3. Traction
First, Fundraising Second Business
Don’t ever get too attached to one single investor (or
customer).
1. Financial Planning & Metrics 2. Making Deals 3. Traction
First, Fundraising Second Business
Dave McClure anecdote from Soup.io times He loved the product
& team, but the numbers never justified an investment.
[ Seedcamp Trip ] Accelerators give you a peer group,
and access to a lot of people (if you’re ready).
None
1. Personal Authenticity 2. Getting the Message right is Hard!
3. Adapting to the Market Distribution
1. Personal Authenticity 2. Getting the Message right is Hard!
3. Adapting to the Market Distribution
In the beginning people believe in you first, the product
second.
None
1. Personal Authenticity 2. Getting the Message right is Hard!
3. Adapting to the Market Distribution
Credit: Kathy Sierra
Make Happy Customers, Not: Make Customers Happy
Messaging A Messaging B Customer A Customer B Your Product
doesn’t need to change, Yet Your Messaging Can Change Everything
Messaging is a journey without an end, you will not
reach perfection. (but ideally people will still buy)
1. Personal Authenticity 2. Getting the Message right is Hard!
3. Adapting to the Market Distribution
Continuously ask yourself: Is this a good customer? -> can
be targeted & sold to -> pays money -> actually buys what you are selling -> ideally you like them!
“We had a long discussion, on doing this project at
all right now.” (2 months into the sales process)
Your biggest risk is Indifference. People just don’t care.
Your Team determines your Distribution methods Don’t do Enterprise Sales
if you’re missing the know-how.
Mistake we’ve made: Choosing personal preference over strategic partnership.
Product Distribution Cashflow
@LukasFittl I’m always happy to help:
[email protected]