Tech Builder Who Needs to Nail Down Business

[thehighlander]

Hi, I'm a new Californian with a tech background. I've realized that the slowlane was a deadend for decades. I've had my share of cool jobs and failed start-ups. Now I'm starting over with the goal of getting the part about meeting real needs, promoting products, and building relationships right. Basically I can build technical things (software, hardware) that work but have had trouble getting the market to care.

I've got a lot of product ideas but haven't decided which one to focus on. I need to figure out which one will really meet a customer need.

 

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[lowtek]

Welcome, highlander

 

[Scot]

There can be only one

 

[DifficultTruth]

Welcome! I am a tech entrepreneur from the opposite coast, so I feel your struggle, the best product doesn't really matter if you can't market it correctly and get it noticed by those with the money, something I have definitely learned the hard way.

 

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[QueueQueue]

I am in tech as well. Welcome aboard!

 

[thehighlander]

Thanks for the warm welcomes!

 

[Young-Gun]

Welcome @thehighlander !

I'm sort of the opposite - 7 years of small-biz experience running my service business with 1-2 employees plus myself.
Now I'm starting into tech, as I see it's the best possible business model for my starting situation and endgame goals.

Specifically I see Software / small-biz SaaS as the ideal Fastlane vehicle for my personality...
Only problem is, I have to learn how to program first, since I can't actually build anything myself at this level

You can follow my 1-man SaaS progress thread if you're interested - I would really appreciate your insight and input as a tech wizard. Stop by and say hi over there!

I'm currently in the Idea Extraction phase... doing Prospect Outreach.
We might call this Customer Development.
Finding the People who will Buy and the Problem I will Solve for them...
While simultaneously learning to code.

If there's one thing I've learned about business in the last 7 years it's this:
If you build something people desperately want, everything is easy.
If you build something no one wants, everything is impossible.

Step one is find the NEED / Craving. Find and verify the market need. THEN build.

This is the secret to a fast-growing business:
Marketing is easy if everyone already wants it.
Marketing is impossible if nobody is interested in the product.

Don't build anything until your ideal customers are throwing money at your face, basically.
[Of course, these are all just my opinion, I'm sure there are other ways to succeed]

Anyway, hope you get a chance to check out the SaaS Startup thread

 

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[3feetfromgold]

welcome highlander. I'm tech as well. Have you looked into how to do proper customer discovery before building?

 

[thehighlander]

welcome highlander. I'm tech as well. Have you looked into how to do proper customer discovery before building?

No, I've been guilty of convincing myself a project is a good idea, making something of high quality, and then not getting market buy-in.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[Young-Gun]

No, I've been guilty of convincing myself a project is a good idea, making something of high quality, and then not getting market buy-in.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

Me too. I think that this is a Sin that every entrepreneur can fall prey too, especially the more introverted among us.

If you're an introvert like me, it can be good to ask almost hourly:
"Will this action put me in the path of the OUTSIDE WORLD?"
and act accordingly.

Something I'm really pushing myself on at the moment...

 

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[thehighlander]

Me too. I think that this is a Sin that every entrepreneur can fall prey too, especially the more introverted among us.

If you're an introvert like me, it can be good to ask almost hourly:
"Will this action put me in the path of the OUTSIDE WORLD?"
and act accordingly.

Something I'm really pushing myself on at the moment...

I realize now that building relationships with potential customers as early as possible is key. One early discussion can save a lot of time and effort.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[Ultra Magnus]

From a biz perspective: the best marketing is driven by enthusiastic customers via testimonials, reviews, raves and opinions. If you don't want to waste time and money, get those opinions as soon as possible. You might have a good/excellent product which could succeed, but since you haven't engaged your target market you just don't know. So the solution is not to go build something else but to put the effort into reaching out to your audience. It's like herding cats, so the sooner you start the better.

In many cases the quality of your product cannot be judged until a customer buys from you, so you can think of business in terms of marketing and number crunching, and think of your product in terms of a deliverable. Go read some of the best sales letters by millionaire-maker copywriters like Gary Halbert and see for yourself that almost every one of them includes a whole bunch of testimonials from happy customers.

Since you're investing the time into getting better at this, I recommend that you read the book Influence by a guy called Cialdini. It explains the foundations of the stuff that you'll learn from marketing gurus later on in your journey.

Best of luck!

 

[thehighlander]

My usual case is there is a significant development effort before there is anything useful to show to the customer.

Cialdini has a new book called Pre-Sausion.

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[Ultra Magnus]

Didn't know about the new book, thanks! Is it just me or are names getting more and more ridiculous as creators look for new titles? It's like "suasion" is a thing

I'm not a techie so I can't judge its merits, and you probably know about it already, but Running Lean seems to take an approach that minimizes wasting time in development. I've read it a few years ago and it seemed solid, but it's not my area of expertise.

Also, you can just try promoting something that doesn't exist to fish for potential interest. KickStarter proves that it can be valid model if done right. In fact, there were so many games made on there that they created a new platform with the option of investing more to get a cut of the profit (it's called Fig).

There are several tech entrepreneurs who build software on the forum, for example @Jon L. I would read some of their stuff also.

 

[thehighlander]

Yes, Kickstarter is starting to look good. You can easily gauge interest and get funding for an early stage project. The best part is you don't have to give up any equity; it's really just a pre-ordering system.

I've added Running Lean to my reading pile!