There is a dark time in WordPress development history, a lost year. Version 2.0 was released on December 31st, 2005, and version 2.1 came out on January 22nd, 2007.
What killed us was “One more thing.” We could have easily done three major releases that year if we had drawn a line in the sand, said “Finished,” and shipped the darn thing.
The problem is that the longer it’s been since your last release the more pressure and anticipation there is, so you’re more likely to try to slip in just one more thing or a fix that will make a feature really shine.
It’s even worse because development doesn’t happen in a vacuum – if you have a halfway decent idea, you can be sure that there are two or three teams somewhere in the world that independently came up with it and are working on the same thing, or something you haven’t even imagined that disrupts the market you’re working in.
‘Being sustainable is the future!’ — that’d be the only key to sustain a better life — for us and our coming generations.
While Kiriti Acharjee, 31, believed in creating a brand that could be an eco-friendly choice for people, he also wanted it to remain true to its cause — something that could actually bring a difference in people’s lives.
An eco-friendly period product labelled under the brand Healthfab, GoPadFree aims at replacing plastic sanitary napkins — to bring comfort to women & create a more plastic-free society. It reduces the total plastic waste generated during its lifetime by over 99%. While there are period panties in the market, this is the first stand-alone, reusable panty of its kind.
Unlike menstrual cups, which are a sustainable alternative but neglected due to the taboo and fear of insertion, GoPadFree wants women to experience a hassle-free and comfortable menstruation.
And though it is one of the major USPs of the product, it is not the sole reason for Kiriti to start it.
“I was looking to create a solution that would make the lives of the working women in my family easier. They found it difficult to go to work during their periods since there were fewer to no places to change pads and dispose of the old ones. Gradually, I realized that this was not restricted to my household. This prompted me to make a reusable period panty — that could replace conventional sanitary pads. There is no reason that we can’t provide sanitary care solutions and save the environment at the same time! Our product was a direct solution to all the problems,” shares Kiriti.
“I decided to start Healthfab — with the express purpose of providing a comfortable and hassle-free environment for menstruating women. I decided to test this first in my inner circle. After six months of testing and incorporating the feedbacks, I came up with the final product, the GoPadFree reusable stand-alone period panty. The product — claiming to be the first and currently the only one of its kind in India — was ranged on Amazon in 2020 at a premium pricing and has become quite successful since.”
Before starting Healthfab, Kiriti worked with Flextronics (known since 2015 as Flex) as a senior analyst in their supply chain and procurement domain. “It was here that I understood supply chain, procurement, and logistic operations at a large scale,” he adds.
“After working in Flex for 4 years, I decided to switch industries and jumped into e-commerce and joined Amazon as Associate Account Manager. A year later, I opted to join Cloudtail (a joint venture between Amazon and Catamaran Ventures). I was given a portfolio of ~USD 75 million to manage and grow. I decided to quit my job around August 2019 and started to learn more about other marketplace nuances operating in the Indian continent,” he further continues.
He was joined by Saurav Chakraborty and Satyajit Chakraborty as co-founders in September 2019, and they together registered their company officially.
As of this writing, the team managed to sell around 10,000 units and save 3 tonnes of sanitary plastic. “We have not been aggressive in promoting our product and have invested all our efforts in perfecting its features. We did not even expect to sell these many units so soon, but the customer response has exceeded our expectations,” the 31YO optimistically adds.
GoPadFree is currently one of the top 75 sanitary products on Amazon. The startup has also started selling in the Middle East and has got very reassuring responses from the customers there.
“While the product is highly rated with excellent reviews on Amazon, the aspect that has truly delighted us is the number of users who have reached out to us through our website to appreciate us for the product and give their detailed thoughts and feedback. This has made the whole experience personal — it makes us feel that we have genuinely made enough of a difference in someone’s life that they took time off to contact us!”
Kiriti shares recalling the positive feedback
While every industry can talk about having a personal effect on its customers, it is never truer for anyone more than it is for the health and hygiene industry. The level of trust that a brand in this space can command from its customers is huge, and consequently, the rise and fall of a brand is intense.
“We have seen our customers treat us with doubt and suspicion before trying our product. We have also seen the insane level of comfort and familiarity they show to us once they have tried and bought into our product proposition. Each of us in the team has worked in a different industry, and none of us has experienced this level of engagement with any customer before. Our biggest lesson, consequently, is about taking the trust of the customer extremely seriously. There is absolutely no room to repair the situation once that trust is broken,” the CEO shares.
Menstrual health is still a taboo in today’s world — more so in India, it is an extremely under-served segment — where these issues are barely acknowledged, let alone discussed in public. This is that one common barrier that cuts across all demographics.
Since the ideation stage, all the insights and feedbacks incorporated were received from females in friends and family. But as the startup grew and broadened its customer base, Healthfab’s biggest challenge was to break through that social barrier and talk to potential customers.
Kiriti wanted his startup to be free of that social barrier. With all the male co-founders and one female in the team, the idea was to neutralize period talks and make people realize that periods are common and men can too talk about it!
“One thing we learned early in our journey is the importance of being willing to be proved wrong. This wasn’t a category we knew well and had to learn everything from scratch. A lot of information we obtained was disproved over time, and we changed course accordingly. This was particularly intense for the category we are working in since the janta doesn’t talk about it much. We approached every situation with the assumption that we may not always be right, and that helped us get a far better understanding of our customer than what we would have had otherwise,” he further shares.
While talking about investments and profits, Kiriti shares, “we are bootstrapped and has been focusing on expanding our categories. We believe that our product has achieved a level of acceptance that can now allow us to scale. We are working on additional product lines which are specific to the health and personal hygiene category. The underlying philosophy, though, is that they will all be environmentally friendly. We will further be approaching investors in order to expand our operations and manufacturing.”
Kiriti believes that if everything, in the beginning, is going your way, then you are on the wrong track! “For anyone who wants to start off, it is to surround yourself with folks who can offer constructive criticism for everything you do. That’s the only way you can ensure you are on the right track,” the entrepreneur ends it on an optimistic note.
Customer satisfaction is one important factor that businesses need to focus on. Here are 5 tips that can help you in satisfying and winning more customers!
1. Improve how you measure customer service:-
You can use net promoter score or customer satisfaction score or through tracking business metrics which matters most to you.
2. Speed up response time:-
If your customers are having any problem then they will need the solution as soon as possible. Faster the response, more will be the customer satisfaction.
3. Create a customer centric culture:-
Make your whole team customer centric. Make each and every department to think about customers first.Customer-centric companies are more profitable and enjoy better work cultures.
4.Get creative on social media:-
It’s the best way to connect with your customers, to interact in a better way. It is necessary for brand awareness also.
5.Provide the value:-
This is the most important goal, whatever product or service you are providing must be able to add value to your customers which can retain them for long term. Give them a unique reason to stay with you for long.
No investor wants to lose money and so they’re particular about which startups they fund.
Here are some reasons why investors might not want to invest in your business.
Thread
#businessplaninnigeria #businessplan #funding #startup
#nysc #retweet
1. You’ve approached the wrong investor.
If you approach an investor who has no interest nor experience in your sector or market, then it’s very unlikely they will invest.
2. You have no coherent business plan.
Without a solid business plan, the investor you approach will have no idea whether your startup is worthy of investment.
3. Your startup is not financially sound.
Investors like startup founders with some financial intelligence. If you’re spending too much money on products and strategies that do little to grow your business, this will reflect poorly on you
4. Absence of marketing strategies
When you have no substantial strategies to make sure your product or service keeps reaching your target audience, investors will most likely not invest.
5. Absence of business acumen
Investors recognize and respect a shrewd entrepreneur. You gain their trust when you demonstrate confidence and business skills.
Startups taught me more about life and business than I ever could imagine
Thread: 20 tips I wish I could give to my 20 year old self
Startups are simple:
There are good times and bad times
Good times: enjoy the ride
Bad times: enjoy the ride
Beware of pessimistic people
Pessimism is the worst disease
Professional lies we tell ourselves:
1. Your email inbox is getting stuff done
2. A full calendar is positive
3. Big meetings are the answer
You know better
FAANG give you credentials
Startups give you education
Bob Dylan on the common sense behind criticism
“Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.”
There is nothing easier than being a critic
A tremendous waste of energy and bad vibe
On the life at a startup:
I’ve never met a startup that has gone according to plan
Buckle up
Emotional decisions kill startups, careers and your day
How to avoid making emotional decisions:
1. Wait
Point: If you can wait, wait
Be kind to yourself
A recipe for failure:
1) Being compulsively critical
2) Being massively unforgiving
Being too hard on yourself is a hindrance to growth
Reminder: you are enough
The greatest productivity trick:
Listening to people you respect
You won’t be able to get them out of your head
They will make you better
Tip: the internet makes it easy to find and listen to these people
Elon Musk on what it takes to change the world
“I could either watch it happen, or be part of it.”
Say less, Elon
Good habits are life’s magic pill
Reading fast: defeats the point of reading
Read slow to really learn
A sweet illusion:
You are in control
A true sign of success:
Someone who doesn’t keep track of failures
Unlearn: filling your life with possessions
Learn: filling your mind with mastery
Everyone could become a master
Literally, everyone
Free:
– Exercise
– Go for a walk
– Being in nature
– Sharing knowledge
– Learning from others
– Listening to others
– Asking for help
– Being kind
– Positive attitude
– Twitter
The amount of growth you can experience for free is massive
Expensive:
– Spending time with the wrong people
– Populating feeds with toxic content
– Spending too long at a job
– Spending not enough time at a job
– Chasing startups for the money
Product/market fit happens when you least expect it
Realization:
People don’t support your company’s vision. They support their own vision of the world
#1 behavior of successful people:
Thinking clearly
I write weekly threads
Follow me @gregisenberg to stay up to date
80% of readers only scan headlines.
This makes headlines a magnet for eyeballs.
Here are 13 tips and examples to craft a perfect headline 🧵
1. Use Numbers or Data
Numbers are brain candy.
It automatically helps us visualize context and organize info.
And pro tip: odd numbers work best.
Example: 7 Copywriting Tips to Turn Scanners Into Readers
2. Use A Rationale
This means nothing more than giving a good reason for why an action should be completed.
That reason should be value-driven, so they’re urged to click.
Example: 9 Uncovered Secrets to Boost Your Site’s SEO
3. Rhyme
A conducted study showed that “Rhyme as Reason” was rated as more likable, trustworthy, original, memorable, and persuasive.
Example: Delightfully Capable. Surprisingly Affordable. (h/t Apple)
4. Use Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound in a series of words.
It’s poetic like fashion makes it easy to remember.
Example: Don’t Dream it. Drive it. (h/t Jaguar)
5. Avoid Sound Smart Adjectives
Using sound smart adjectives doesn’t make you sound smart.
Consumers can read right through the BS.
Bad Example: 7 efficacious copywriting tips.
Good example: 7 persuasive copywriting tips.
6. Offer A Test
It’s nearly irresistible to pass up a challenge.
That makes using offering a test a clickable headline.
Example: Does your site pass the SEO test?
7. Drop a Hint
When we’re hit with a cliffhanger — we’re intrigued.
We naturally want to know the answer.
This works for headlines too.
Example: This Instagram Ad Secret Dropped Conversation Rates by 20%
8. Share Your Experience
People connect with people.
Sharing your experience is a great way to connect with your audience and build trust.
Example: What I learned about going viral after writing 50 Twitter threads.
9. First 3 Words. And Last 3 Words.
Because people are scanners, the first 3 words and the last 3 words are the most important.
Start with a punch. And end with one too.
Example: (7 Facebook Ads) That I Used (To Increase Sales)
10. Get To The Point
Don’t waste any words.
Wasted words equal wasted time.
Start with a keyword.
Then get to the point.
Example: Better soles. Stronger feet.
11. Open-Ended Questions
Open-Ended questions spark discussion.
Perfect for creating an engaged audience.
Example: Is it a good idea to invest in Bitcoin?
12. Close-Ended Questions
On the other hand, close-ended questions spark curiosity.
Example: Did you invest in Bitcoin too late?
13. Problem. Solution.
Address the problem.
Express the solution.
Example: Your sale page doesn’t convert. Here’s how to fix that.
Would this help you?
– marketing breakdowns
– copywriting tips
– how-tos
– growth strategies
– campaign dissection
If so, follow @alexgarcia_atx 🙂
I drink too much coffee and spend too much time on the internet to write valuable marketing threads for yah.
I promise.
TL;DR
1. Use Numbers
2. Rationale
3. Rhyme
4. Alliteration
5. Avoid “Sound Smart” Adjectives
6. Offer A Test
7. Drop a hint
8. Share your experience
9. First 3 & last 3 words matter
10. Get to the point
11. Open-ended questions
12. Closed-ended questions
13. Problem. Solution.
Important lessons in your career can come from brief interactions with effective leaders. I had one of those interactions with Charlie Bell at Amazon 20 years years ago, and I’ve never forgotten it. Here’s what happened:
I was a middle manager in Amazon’s retail business and Charlie was a vp of engineering (on his way to svp and co-founder of AWS). We were working on something urgent, I don’t even remember what it was. But I remember Jeff Bezos was not happy with me.
I ran into Charlie at the company picnic. I pulled him aside and said “we need to do something right away because Jeff is pissed.” He looked me in the eyes and said “let’s forget about Jeff for a minute, what’s the right thing to do here?”
This was an aha moment, it never occurred to me there could be a difference between what Jeff wanted and what we should do. But I knew there was a better answer. We discussed my recommendation and Charlie agreed with me. Then we talked about how to get Jeff on board.
It’s hard to push back on the CEO, they have the most context and power. But their context is wide and shallow, and sometimes they miss important nuance. The job of a senior leader is to fill in that nuance by framing decisions clearly and escalating efficiently. Not to complain.
Many years later I found myself in a situation at Facebook that reminded me of this lesson. Zuck and I disagreed about something that seemed existential to the business, and he asked me to take it to the board for their input (to his credit, he took our debate to the board).
Several weeks later I ran into FB board member Reed Hastings, and he asked me if we had made a decision. I told him it would be much easier for me to just do what Mark wanted, but I didn’t think it was the right thing for the business. Reed encouraged me to keep making my case.
At the end of the day, the CEO gets to decide. But until they make their final decision, a leader’s job is to make their case. Great CEOs encourage dissent and leave space for debate. Great leaders have the ability to discern that space, and agility to make their case effectively
Great CEOs are also stubborn, decisive, impatient and wicked smart (trust me, I worked for two of them!), which makes it difficult to push back. It’s natural to just do what they ask now and complain about it later. Effective senior leaders know to do the opposite:
They make a strong case, patiently working through the pros and cons and debating for as long as the decision is left open. And when they lose a debate with their CEO, they disagree and commit, and start selling the decision to others so there’s alignment up and down the org.
I often disagreed with Bezos and Zuck, but I trusted them. They encouraged debate, were right more than they were wrong, and they had a special knack for being really right about the big stuff. If you don’t trust the judgement of your CEO, you’re working at the wrong company.
If I couldn’t convince Jeff or Mark to follow my recommendation, I viewed it as my failure not theirs. I looked at the decision through their lens, always wider than mine even if sometimes shallower. I didn’t complain, and I never said I told you so (neither did they). Onwards!
Being a solo founder is tough but not impossible – it can make your startup & can kill it too. Kuljit Jagpal’s thread is a quick motivation for people who are trying to make it as a solo founder. If you are of them, this post is for you!
A little late night Monday early morning Tuesday motivation . Sharing a little bit of research that I volunteered for (thanks for the inspiration JM- it’s been a very helpful exercise).
Solo founders, here’s a thread 🧵
#startup #founder #solefounder #cofounder #solofounder
Have to agree – even though it looks like it’s just a solo founder, it’s often not. Just the PR friendly/ pitch ready / face of the startup. I think the following are solo founders, here they are in no particular order. #startup #founder #solefounder #cofounder #solofounder
Building startups are hard , lots of things in life are hard …. it doesn’t make them impossible as all these founders show ⬆️. 👏🏽
Meeting with a founder and they asked what tools I use to keep organized. To be honest, I don’t feel very as productive as I want to be but happy to give a little #thread 🧵 on the tools / tips I use and learnings. 👇 #productivity #startup #hustle
2/ At the start of the week I spend about 30 minutes focused on what needs to get done. This is usually done by reviewing my calendar (using fantastical) and also my todo list using @todoist which has an Upcoming view. I have learned over time that there is a max amount…
3/ Of todo’s that can be done for me on a daily basis so I work really hard to only allocate that per day (which is 4 for me but might be different for you). If I have more than 4 in a day I look at those items, stack rank them, and then move the ones on the lower and if…
4/ needed inform the person(s) that could be affected by that change.
In addition to this many of you have a CRAZY calendar 🗓️ where there are meetings all over the place. This is hard as with every company / work environment the rules are different…
5/ The first step is to go to your calendar and decided what time you need to block off to actually do work. Yep. go and do it now. Just block that time off. Then stay firm on it as most people will adjust. If you …
6/ Find yourself still booking meetings there find another time to block off that is less hot as with every company there are hot windows (Palmetto has more in the morning and less in the afternoons).
7/ The second item is to allocate time where you are good with “random” meetings on your calendar. I usually have 3-4 slots a week. Then go and get something like @Calendly and just allocate those spots. You can send out your personal link and people will just use those spots. 💥
8/ As always, this is just a couple quick tricks that I have learned that work for me. What things work for you as I am constantly looking to optimize things?
Seeing a lot of startups closing big rounds in the pre-B stage which is great for the startup ecosystem but it seems to be getting very frothy and I wanted to share my experience from raising way too much capital for my previous company Shyp prior to finding product market fit.
For starters it’s really hard as a founder to see your peers or competitors raising massive rounds and not to do it yourself. I got caught up in this trap and looked at funding rounds as a gauge of success.
This is a trap unless you have product market fit. Taking on lots of capital at big valuations puts so much pressure on yourself & raises expectations for everyone involved in your company. It forces you to hire faster, spend more on S&M, build more product features etc.
If you haven’t validated you have something your customers love and you can scale to produce the expected venture return this can be (and was for me) one of the nails in your coffin.
Without having product / market fit extra capital forces you to scale something that is not yet working. Constraints are one of the main advantages a startup has. Stay as small and scrappy for as long as it takes to find that fit. A startup can do this when an incumbent can’t.
After shutting down Shyp and starting @AirhouseHQ we had the opportunity to raise a $10M “seed” but chose not to because that would have forced us to scale up the team way too fast and limit the customer / product discovery even though we had a pretty good idea of what to build.
Turns out that was the right choice. We raised our “seed” w/ a fair valuation in small chunks based on what we needed for the next year+. It allowed us to keep expectations with our investors and our team low until we found our fit (which we now have and are scaling up).
Stay safe out there and remember you can say no when someone offers you capital. You know your business better than anyone else and it’s important you are honest with yourself at which stage you are at.
Customer satisfaction is the key to any successful business, and customer engagement strategies help the same. The interaction or ‘engagement’ between the customer and the brand as we label it here is done in multiple ways. It is a process that has developed over time.
Well planned strategies take customer engagement from reactive to proactive. They must incorporate two major ideas — the first being how your brand interacts with its customers and the quality of such interactions. Mere acquisition of customers is not sufficient, so secondly, it is also significant to actively engage with your base.
Advantages of customer engagement strategies:
When you engage with your customers, it is more than just fulfilling your business agenda. You form a bond with them, a bond that is not restricted to giving and taking of products, but rather more of emotional relation.
Just like low budget movies with good stories that earn great profits solely on the basis of mouth publicity similarly, word of mouth is equally important for small businesses that cannot invest much in advertising.
It might sound weird and obviously outdated, but “words matter the most”. Even today, word of mouth is of prime importance and assurance in the time of reviews and ratings. The care and tenderness with which you handle your customer relations reflect in the referrals your customer makes to their family and friends. The strategies mentioned below are surely going to assist you in enhancing your customer engagement.
10 customer engagement strategies for your business:
1. Creating custom content
You have a variety of customers, and their needs, wants, and desires vary. So it is equally important to cater to each one of them. Custom content is the key to it, but what does the term actually mean?
We do talk a lot about content marketing. But what about the customers we already have? This is where the idea of custom content marketing hops in. Custom content is tailored to engage with the ‘existing customers’.
“78% of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing. And 61% of buying decisions are influenced by custom content.”
No matter how old we grow, the thought of rewards always excites us, be it in any way. Suitably rewarding your customers is a great way to maintain their loyalty towards your business. Weird, but true, customers feel happy when you reward them for spending their money.
Rewarding your customers must top the list of your loyalty programs. In fact, a lot many businesses also hire a team just for designing their loyalty programs.
It might sound expensive to some of you, but a little expense to retain your customers does no harm.
3. Implement in-product messaging
Apart from email marketing, in-product messaging can also be a great option to communicate with your audience. In-product messages are highly targeted and are influential in helping new customers get acquainted with the product.
The main aim of using this feature is to enhance customer engagement and motivate them to use your products more.
4. Personalise user experience
Personalisation is the new way of showing that you care for your customers ― that their presence matters and is valued. From Myntra personalising the recommended products we see to Netflix suggesting shows we would like based on our watch history, all the major brands are rolling it off pretty well.
“72% of consumers only engage with marketing messages that are customised to their specific interests. And 80% of those who classify themselves as frequent shoppers say they only shop with brands who personalise their experience.”
In the world where nothing remains constant, at one moment you might be delighted with the number of customers you have and in the next moment highly shocked with their sudden disappearance. There might come a moment when they cease to use your products. Such customers are labelled as churned customers, and they should top the list of your priority because they have used your product, service or app at some point ― and might need it again.
All you need to do is decode why they stopped using your product or service and make efforts to bring them back. Re-engaging is a great way of dealing with this problem. Establish your connection with lost users via emails and make them realise their importance. Doesn’t everyone love to be treated as ‘special’?
6. Investing in analytics tools
These days customer engagement can be easily evaluated well with analytics tools. The data obtained from these tools can be used to build a dashboard with various pointers, like the features used by a certain group of people or how long aṣ user goes on with your app or product before discontinuing.
The data collected helps you in knowing and analysing the performance of your product or service in both ways, good and bad — this further aids in building new strategies.
7. Take help power users
Each brand has a group of highly engaged individuals who intend to become product champions for its company. You should always keep such people very close and very prioritised as their opinions matter the most. Their views regarding your product can either make it a great success or a bad failure. Keep a tap on their demands and requirements.
8. All hands support
All hands support is an innovative way of engaging all your company’s employees ― from developers to product managers to the sales team ― in supporting the customers.
This technique boosts growth in many companies by keeping their entire team in contact with their customers’ needs, wants, desires, and pains.
“Effective all hands support focuses on making life better for your customers. But it can also cause a shift in how you and your team think about and build your company.”
With the money you don’t end up spending on events, you can double down on digital channels and/ or invest in some truly engaging digital experiences. Create an integrated experience when reaching out to prospects by adding more targeted ads and social media layers.
Also, consider putting budget into a piece of interactive content. Consider creating interactive top-of-funnel content, case studies, or sales demos where prospects can peruse through information at their own pace whenever they have time. The possibilities are limitless here and generally evergreen, so you have the opportunity to generate an ongoing return.
10. Collect customer feedback
Feedbacks are a great way of conveying whether the customer likes your product or not. It helps you to view your product from a customer point of view and work on shortcomings, if any.
Asking for feedback from your customers is a great way of customer engagement. It gives you an insight into what the customers think about your product and helps in developing a customer-centric business.
What are some of your proven strategies for customer engagement? Share with us, and we will share it with the masses!
Last week, I asked my followers to share their favorite free investing tools
I received 200+ responses and dozens of recommendations
Here are my top 10 favorite answers:
2/ @QuartrSE
This is a GREAT app for listening to investor conference calls for free
I love that you can 2x the call speed & skip ahead/rewind easily
It’s SO much better than calling in
6/ @KoyfinCharts
This is yet another platform that gets plugged A LOT on fintwit, but for a good reason
The dashboards are great, customizable, and it’s very useful for building a watchlist
It’s a bit intimidating at first, but you get used to it fast
10/ YouTube
I wish YouTube existed when I first started
Here are some great channels for learning about money/investing:
@7investing
@AswathDamodaran
@ChooseFi
@heydave7
@JonahLupton
@MicroCapClub
Minority Mindset
Our Rich Journey
@RichardMoglen
Rose on Investing
1/ The early years of Pomp’s life & career seem similar to that of the rest of us. He played in the system of established institutions: went to college at Bucknell, then joined the US army and spent time at Facebook as a PM. Along the way he got into angel investing and crypto.
4/ Now he monetizes through multiple diverse revenue streams: a rolling fund via @AngelList where he makes startup investments out of, merch (yes, T-shirts and mugs), a daily @SubstackInc newsletter, a live cohort-based course via Maven by @gaganbiyani, and fan subscriptions.
6/ 3 changes in the past decade made Pomp and other solo-preneurs possible:
6-1/ Decoupling of healthcare benefits and personal credit from full-time employment, in part due to Obamacare. (Tho, still lots more work to be done here on the fintech front!)
6-2/Rise of SaaS low/no-code tools, freelancer marketplaces and social platforms (in diff mediums – from videos to voice to text). The former allows outsourcing. The latter aggregates audience for anyone to build a fanbase. You no longer need to be scouted by agents to make it.
6-3/Work and network from anywhere, and meet in the “cloud” ☁️ (thanks to the pandemic’s incredible acceleration of this trend) has become societal norm.
7/ While @APompliano is one of the most visible examples, his story is not unique. Anyone with access to the internet and expertise in something (anything from sewing formal dresses to playing Magic or curling) can do a version of this. Solo-preneurship is on the rise.
Founders building anything to enable solo-preneurship and creators (doesn’t have to be digital, could be any type of sole-proprietor work), I’d love to hear from you!
Ways to market your business online.
If you are a #smallbusiness owner and thinking of starting online. You should read this thread.
#Thread #startup #onlinebusiness #DigitalMarketing
1/5. Invest in #webdev
Your website is the center of all your digital marketing efforts, so if your page is not clean, easy to read, and
interesting, it won’t matter how much time you put into strategy development – you’re still going to lose
customers.
2/5. Use Search Engine Marketing and Optimization
Your company website will become associated with the keywords used to find your services with a strong #SEO strategy. This increases your chances of being the company an individual chooses to work with after searching online.
3/5. Affiliate and Associate Programs
With an #AffiliateMarketing program, people who believe in your company can share your information and grow your market on a commission-based platform.
4/5. Hold #contests and #Giveaways
People love contests and giveaways. Anytime you can encourage promotion from your customers in exchange for a free product or service, you will usually see a surge in purchases or connections.
5/5. Maintain a #Blog
Your blog should be used for several reasons, including allowing you to consistently post new keywords and optimize your search engine strategy.
Imagine you’re using a product and something bothers you about it.
Maybe it takes 5 clicks to do anything.
Maybe it works but is kinda ugly and clunky.
“I bet I could make a new app that’s 15% better,” you think. “Instant business success!”
This is a fallacy. Thread 👇
This lesson took me many failures to properly appreciate.
Especially since it seems like a given: if millions of people use a mediocre service every day, and I come along and make the same thing but better, won’t they obviously choose my product?
But no.
Product builders are trained to ask: “Is our product better than the competition’s?”
What they should be asking instead is: “Is our product better enough to motivate a change in behavior?”
There is a big difference.
Instead of asking “Is it better?” than the alternative, we need to ask:
1) How much better?
2) How painful is the alternative?
3) How easy is it to switch?
Example: when I need a ride, I’ll open up my default ride-sharing app. If the closest driver is more than 8 minutes away, or the price is too high, I’ll immediately switch to the competitor.
In this case, switching costs are low. So 15% better on time or $$ gets my business.
Example: everyone’s hyping up this new note-taking app. I download it. Seems great. Some better features than my current app.
But my current app is fine. And wow will it be painful to port over my huge archive of past notes.
Sorry, not switching.
“Switching costs are high” is the reason why bad legacy software persists in older orgs.
If the next-gen stuff isn’t 2-3x better, it can’t overcome the switching pain. It still might be 30-70% better though. Which is why new co’s will readily adopt it.
Also, “good enough” is its own barrier. I used to rattle off all the ways YouTube could be better, but didn’t care enough to upload to other video services that have come along over the years.
(This is also why every week there seems to be a new and “better” to-do app being launched, which are often fun demos or show pieces, but I can’t recall any having huge traction in growth.)
As a designer, it was hard to accept that people wouldn’t always clamor to use something that was more usable, more understandable, more delightful.
But purely aesthetic improvements rarely make something >15% better (unless status is involved). Functionality matters more.
Of course, 15% better will usually find *some* audience, usually the most avid and discerning users of a service.
But just because you can find the first 500 customers doesn’t guarantee wider appeal.
So, to recap: just because you can build a service better than anything else out there doesn’t guarantee you will have a hit.
Understand: “Is it better enough to motivate a switch?”
1) How much better?
2) How painful is the alternative?
3) How easy is it to switch?
Fin.
1/ If you are a growth stage founder raising $$$, this thread is for you…
2/ At the growth stage – the types of investors you can access are much broader than VCs (e.g., crossover, PE, Sovereign Wealth Funds)
3/ As a result the rules of the game are different
1. Term sheets are not final — valuations can drop and/or investors can pull TS’s last minute and your entire round can fall apart
4/ Having been at YC and seen a spectrum of fundraises I do realize this happens across the board (international, non- Silicon Valley investor) but to a *large extent* Silicon Valley investors work very hard to keep their word and reputation intact.
5/ But in this new trend of crossover and PE funds investing in the late stages.. we see this happening more than ever
6/ What can you do as a founder?
(A) If you have decided to take a TS close ASAP
Why? In the last week when markets crashed we had few investors message founders asking if they can drop the valuation by 30% from their original offer since the market has corrected.
(B) If you have just started the process — finish your process to understand the range of valuations and who the *real* long term partner is..
Why?
You need to have a plan B if your lead pulls the TS and it is good to get market feedback.
Examples of why investors have pulled TermSheets —
* Market correction,
* Entered COVID lockdown (In March 2020 there were several that pulled TS’s)
* Did not finish our work in time and we gave a TS prematurely to win the deal!
(C) If your fundraise does fall apart because the lead pulled the TS then pause the process if you can
If you have enough runway, go back to building your business and go back to market in two quarters
(D) If you have only reasonable runway then try raising a SAFE /Bridge to buy you time before you go back to market
7/ Pulling last minute TS’s are not common but when it happens it can be quite damaging in terms of morale to both the founders and the broader team.
Therefore as PG would famously say — it is not done until the money is wired in the bank!
8/ Many founders have experienced this and gone on to build really successful companies. At YC most of our successful companies have had at least 1 or 2 rounds of fundraising that were extremely hard.
Don’t let the short term pain get to you. You will come back stronger!
9/ Last but not the least you should reference check investors even in the late stage.
