In the world of entrepreneurship, I've observed two kinds of entrepreneurs. You either are a product-focused entrepreneur, and then most of your time goes into developing a particular product to solve a particular market need, or you are a sales-focused entrepreneur, and then most of your time goes into marketing a chosen solution to a particular market problem.
You can fall anywhere on the spectrum - either you are completely product-focused, and you outsource or hire out most of the marketing, or you are completely marketing focused and hire out or outsource the product side, or you are somewhere in the middle, and spend half your time marketing, and half your time producing.
Let's look at an example of each:
Product-focused Entrepreneur - Elon Musk
In his own words, Elon spends 80% of his long 100-hour weeks on engineering and design - not on what he calls "time with the media or businessy things". His time and effort goes into producing next-gen products that fulfill a market need, and he outsources most of the selling & marketing. This isn't to say that Musk hasn't built a public persona and a cohort of raving fans to help him market Tesla (for example), but that's not where most of his focus is.
Even when he started his first business Zip2, he was the guy coding, putting the website up, and making sure the product keeps developing. In fact, right from the beginning he hired 3 commission-based salespeople to sell sponsored listings in malls and shopping districts. When venture capital joined the company, Elon was removed from CEO position and moved to CTO - specifically because his speciality was in product development, NOT sales & marketing.
He is the product-focused entrepreneur par excellence. Such people typically believe that creating a great product is the most important aspect of being an entrepreneur.
Sales-focused Entrepreneur - Steve Jobs
Even though he founded and ran a tech company, Jobs was never an engineer. In the beginning, Steve Wozniak was mostly responsible for creating Apple I and Apple II, and later a series of brilliant engineers were responsible for executing Apple's brilliant products. Jobs was responsible for marketing & selling the products, and creating Apple's overarching vision.
What set Jobs apart from others was by and far his marketing genius. Steve built the marketing into the products - that's why he emphasized design, and what design would communicate to customers. His marketing campaigns (such as "Think Different") also set Apple apart from other companies. Not to mention the amazing deals he lined up for Apple, such as Apple's initial revenue share deal with AT&T when the iPhone first came out.
He was a salesman par excellence. People like Jobs, typically believe that finding market needs and then fulfilling them is the most important aspect of being an entrepreneur. Many also believe in statements like "business is 80% sales and marketing".
From observation, most people on this forum tend towards the sales & marketing side of the spectrum. Discussions such as GOLD! - Learning to Program is STUPID! (or SMART?!) tend to be dominated by the sales & marketing types, whereas there are fewer product entrepreneurs on here. Such threads skirt around the issue that this thread addresses, so I think it will help everyone if we can clarify the topic of this thread.
So... for the sake of discussion.
1. Where do you find yourself on the spectrum?
(a good way to find out which way you lean is to ask yourself which is more important: sales, or building a great product?)
2. What do you think is the ideal position on the spectrum for an entrepreneur? Why?
I will start.
1. I am a sales & marketing type (no wonder I run a direct response agency). I believe sales & marketing is more important than product for success. I would say I lean around 70% sales & marketing and 30% product.
2. Personally I think anywhere 60-80% sales & marketing is the sweetspot for an entrepreneur. Why? Well, I think that hiring out sales and marketing will eat your revenue to a much greater degree than hiring out engineering - after all, that is why great salespeople get paid more than great engineers. Of course you'll still need to hire out both sooner or later, but when you're starting out, I believe being able to take care of sales is a HUGE advantage.
Anyway, I hope this can turn into a great discussion and provide lots of insights and clarity.
You can fall anywhere on the spectrum - either you are completely product-focused, and you outsource or hire out most of the marketing, or you are completely marketing focused and hire out or outsource the product side, or you are somewhere in the middle, and spend half your time marketing, and half your time producing.
Let's look at an example of each:
Product-focused Entrepreneur - Elon Musk
In his own words, Elon spends 80% of his long 100-hour weeks on engineering and design - not on what he calls "time with the media or businessy things". His time and effort goes into producing next-gen products that fulfill a market need, and he outsources most of the selling & marketing. This isn't to say that Musk hasn't built a public persona and a cohort of raving fans to help him market Tesla (for example), but that's not where most of his focus is.
Even when he started his first business Zip2, he was the guy coding, putting the website up, and making sure the product keeps developing. In fact, right from the beginning he hired 3 commission-based salespeople to sell sponsored listings in malls and shopping districts. When venture capital joined the company, Elon was removed from CEO position and moved to CTO - specifically because his speciality was in product development, NOT sales & marketing.
He is the product-focused entrepreneur par excellence. Such people typically believe that creating a great product is the most important aspect of being an entrepreneur.
Sales-focused Entrepreneur - Steve Jobs
Even though he founded and ran a tech company, Jobs was never an engineer. In the beginning, Steve Wozniak was mostly responsible for creating Apple I and Apple II, and later a series of brilliant engineers were responsible for executing Apple's brilliant products. Jobs was responsible for marketing & selling the products, and creating Apple's overarching vision.
What set Jobs apart from others was by and far his marketing genius. Steve built the marketing into the products - that's why he emphasized design, and what design would communicate to customers. His marketing campaigns (such as "Think Different") also set Apple apart from other companies. Not to mention the amazing deals he lined up for Apple, such as Apple's initial revenue share deal with AT&T when the iPhone first came out.
He was a salesman par excellence. People like Jobs, typically believe that finding market needs and then fulfilling them is the most important aspect of being an entrepreneur. Many also believe in statements like "business is 80% sales and marketing".
______________________________________________________________________________
From observation, most people on this forum tend towards the sales & marketing side of the spectrum. Discussions such as GOLD! - Learning to Program is STUPID! (or SMART?!) tend to be dominated by the sales & marketing types, whereas there are fewer product entrepreneurs on here. Such threads skirt around the issue that this thread addresses, so I think it will help everyone if we can clarify the topic of this thread.
So... for the sake of discussion.
1. Where do you find yourself on the spectrum?
(a good way to find out which way you lean is to ask yourself which is more important: sales, or building a great product?)
2. What do you think is the ideal position on the spectrum for an entrepreneur? Why?
I will start.
1. I am a sales & marketing type (no wonder I run a direct response agency). I believe sales & marketing is more important than product for success. I would say I lean around 70% sales & marketing and 30% product.
2. Personally I think anywhere 60-80% sales & marketing is the sweetspot for an entrepreneur. Why? Well, I think that hiring out sales and marketing will eat your revenue to a much greater degree than hiring out engineering - after all, that is why great salespeople get paid more than great engineers. Of course you'll still need to hire out both sooner or later, but when you're starting out, I believe being able to take care of sales is a HUGE advantage.
Anyway, I hope this can turn into a great discussion and provide lots of insights and clarity.
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