Life in School and Startup

One of the common pitfalls that I think people run into when starting a company is asking everyone what they think about their product, what features they should add/remove, what segment of their market they should target, how to advertise and gain customers, etc.  This exercise is good if you’re having conversation with somebody at a bar – “so what do you do?” – but on the whole I’ve found it to be mainly a waste of time to be seeking out anyone and everyone to talk about your product to.

Unfortunately, it takes learning the hard way to find this out for a couple of reasons:

• The media loves and glorifies the headstrong, stalwart leader for defying the common consensus and going it alone because they are made out to be some “visionary” or “prodigy” for finding the next thing. Starters tend to think that the more they get shot down the more they’re “defying the odds”. Go talk to Jeff Bezos, Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, and, just for shits and giggles, go ask Jason Calacanis what he thinks – these people are a much better barometer for your web or technology startup than Grandma, creepy Uncle Tony, and the hipster who frequents your local coffee shop couch.
• You realize that the common questions you receive aren’t asked by the smartest of angels, VCs, and advisors.  I hate getting asked “Do you have anything you can patent” or “what % of this market can you catch” or “how will you market your product” or “what if Google decides to do this”.  The answer to all of those is “I don’t know and I’m not going to waste time guessing”.  Really finding the answer to those things is done when you have a product and are able to measure the actual customer response
• People try to give you advice based on their own experience which, not surprisingly, isn’t at all applicable to what you’re doing.  If you’re building a SaaS web app for graphic designers and run across Andy Bernard, Andy Bernard will probably start talking about his sales cycle in a B2B setting for inkjet printers and reams of paper.  He may or may not try to tie it back to your business, almost assuredly unsuccesfully.  Andy Bernard is the wrong person to ask or solicit advice for about your business.

So, what can you do about this?  I’ve come up with a few guidelines that I’ve kept in my head about what I try to do to filter the advice coming in.  More importantly, you should be establishing criteria for the people you seek out to have coffee with, get to invest in your company, see your early product releases, etc.

• Avoid large market association.  Not only do people not understand your product in the first couple minutes, their previous college roommates will likely have no association either.  ”Ya that sounds cool, my roommate in college used to work with websites and he just bought a sweet Toyota Yaris with all the money he’s made.”.  Unless he’s done a SaaS business before, or built a product for graphic designers, or is a graphic designer, chances are his “expert” or “experienced” feedback is going to go in the garbage can along with what your “analyst” rich neighbor said as well.
• Previous success is not a bellwether for future success or awareness of their surroundings.  Steve Jobs ran Pixar and is running Apple like a banshee.  Put him in the context of Soy Bean farming and there is ZERO guarantee he’ll do well.  Your own experience and market familiarity is likely going to be more valuable than feedback from even the most successful people you’ll meet.
• Business veterans often miss huge opportunities.  I was reading an article on RWW about famous people ignoring advice given to them, and the common denominator seemed to be entrenchment having a positive correlation with rejection of revolutionary new ideas.  For my 23 years of being alive, things have yet to cool off on the “change” horizon with the internet – I don’t predict this to stop.  The better people to talk to are the people who have been in your market long enough to understand the driving core principles, but also can entertain earth shattering ideas that may flip the industry upside down.
• Stop asking stupid questions.  ”What should I do about problem X” isn’t going to get you a great response, neither is “What is the future of market Y?”.  I’ve found that advisors are like beta testers – they work much better when you tell them what you’re doing and solicit feedback.  ”I have this problem X, and I’m thinking we could solve it with A, B, or C” – having your 3 most thought-out possible solutions will open the floodgates for response because the context around your problem is embedded in what YOU as the owner are thinking would be good ways to solve it.
• Recognize the difference between and advisor and a cheerleader.  Some people are going to be overly excited about your product because they like you and want to see you succeed – your Mom and Grandma are good examples.  Anything you bring to them about what you’re building next or some cool new feature you developed will obviously make them go “honey this is wonderful!”.  Other entrepreneurs are most likely going to be cheerleaders; people you can talk to when you’re stressed and have a lonely job being at the top.  They’ve been through it before and their message of “there’s light at the end of the tunnel, keep pushing” is worth Gold when you’re in a slump or need some encouragement if things aren’t going as well as you’d hoped.  Advisors will be very honest with you if they think you’re making a mistake or aren’t seizing opportunities fast enough.  Don’t confuse cheerleaders with advisors just to feel better about your product.

Any suggestions or stories are more than welcome.  I’d like to see hear about what others are experiencing and how they’re keeping a good filter on.

We went to Internet Summit today. It was awesome – awesome because it was a lot of people much smarter than us talking about things were interested.  Below are some pictures of the event.

Looks like we’re headed to Internet Summit 2009. Here’s the story:

A few weeks back, I started listening to This Week in Startups in my free time at work and while I’m driving from DC to Raleigh and back. It’s a great podcast and the guests are usually serial entrepreneurs that have a passion for starting up companies. Also, the host is on his third company (I think), and is usually very straightforward with people that call in or email questions. One guy recently called in to ask about conferences and their crazy cost that is usually too much for students or anyone on a shoestring budget. This particularly caught my attention because Steve and I wanted to attend IS 2009 but really couldn’t afford the $245/person registration cost. The advice to the caller was simple – volunteers are always in high demand at these events and coordinators often may exchange registration for you volunteering to help with various things leading up to and during the actual event.

I shot off an email, got a response back in a few hours. Done and done. Moral of the story? Just ask for a break and offer a little in return, you might be surprised with what you find. Thanks to Jason at Southern Capitol for hooking us up with the right guy.