FAQ: Founders Ask Questions

When considering how to scale your product, there are two important perspectives: Day-to-day, do what’s right to get customers. Come up for air and think of scaling every quarter as you take stock of where you’re headed. Investment pitches are good excuses to consider when and how you’ll scale. In your product’s lifecycle, consider scale only after you feel comfortable you know people value what you do, what they value, and which ones are your best bets.

Here are your goals for a launch: Make an impact in your target market Garner interest from relevant media outfits Figure out what works and what doesn’t in the product and your marketing   It’s NOT: Your major customer driver The only impression people will have of your product The end

Key Points: Focus on the right level of detail. No ARR? focus on MRR. Educate investors how you should be measured. Focus on the right parts, problem/solution. 

Key Points: In the beginning, your best customer is not your goal, you just need a customer— think of it like going on your first run, you’re not trying to finish a marathon, you’re just trying to get out there and go.  It can be helpful to create quarterly customer acquisition sprints to pace yourself, rather than saying that your customer is everyone — create arbitrary budgets to help you target. Once you’ve gotten this machine operating — look back and figure out the things that are common amongst the deals that were easiest to close and hardest to close and hardest to service through customer support. Let those insights guide your future plans. Find the most frictionless path to a decent number of customers — this will keep the lights on and show investors viability. Once you get investment you can start experimenting with different markets, but to stay alive you need to get creative to start. 

Key Points: A pitch deck will spend more time on setting the context. You have investors that may need more background. Pitch decks often spend more time on the company and its financials. Investors want to see that you have the team to succeed, that you have a growth plan, and that you are seeing traction in the market. A sales deck focuses on “you.” Directly talking to the pains or potential gains of the person you’re talking to. Sales decks also focus on establishing agreement on the problem first, solution second.

Key Points:  First, start with validating the problem. Just because you think it’s a problem, doesn’t mean others agree. Sometimes, people will guide you towards other ideas you hadn’t considered, or reveal that they actually have bigger problems they’d like solved. Ask people what they think! Carrie from Little Nugget (and a guest on the Better Product podcast), made a powerpoint and shared with other moms who she wanted to help.  Ensure that you are talking to the right person. I’ve talked to startups that are solving problems for retail consumers and they forget to talk to the store owners. For example, if you had an idea to create a parking app for grocery stores, you could validate the idea with the shoppers and hear things like “That’s a great idea, it’d make parking so easy!” But in that case, you’d need to also be solving a problem for the grocery because you can’t build something without their buy-in. 

Key Points:  Build a foundation, not walls Plan how your brand may grow Lean into your strengths

Key Points: First, be absolutely clear on why you are considering freemium and exhaust all other paths. Be clear what features and level of feature sets you will give. Understand very clearly what the growth strategy is for a customer into a paid customer.

Key Points:   In a marketplace app, you have to focus on three key things: Make the workflow as trimmed down as possible. Be inspired by e-Commerce’s focus on conversion Make the app as easy to get started using as possible. Don’t think about it as an app, think about it as solving a problem and making your solution as broadly available as possible. Understand impact points, and conversion points. 

Key Points: Digital experiences are not like traditional customer interactions, it is immediate, there is a lot of competition, and expectations are really high — needs to start with user research. You don’t know them as well as you think you do. Your research is product-focused, not user-focused. Your users/market may have changed — not a one-and-done.

Founders Ask Questions: The only show that answers real questions from real founders trying to navigate the startup world and build a company from the ground up. Christian Beck has worked with dozens of startups, answering questions around product management, user experience, user research, design, branding... you name it, he’s heard it. If you’re a founder (or an aspiring entrepreneur) you’ve probably had some of these questions yourself. Tune in to founders ask questions to hear Christian’s answers in the time it takes you to commute to work (or less).