It’s in a founder’s natural disposition to want to convince people of their point of view.

about 1 year ago | From Hunter Walk | Author: Hunter Walk

It’s in a founder’s natural disposition to want to convince people of their point of view. And while engaging substantively with those who disagree is often an excellent way to both stress test your assumptions and increase your ability to tell your story, figuring out when to stop and disengage is critical for your productivity and sanity. Especially during fundraising.

Earlier this summer an engaging and forward-thinking founder told me a story from her in-process seed fundraise. Operating in a technology market that most would consider nascent, she had encountered a variety of responses to her pitch. Spoiler alert, more than enough were positive and she soon closed an oversubscribed round, but of course she also encountered rejection. We talked a bit about what she’d learned from those conversations and then the founder confided her most useless investor meeting to me.

“We sat down to discuss my company and he basically said, ‘I don’t think your market is going to exist. Convince me.'” Her response? “I told him I didn’t want to work that hard, and wrapped up the meeting.”

Continue reading on Hunter Walk

What your peers are reading!

When a company understands its users as well as purple does, it feels like they have earned our trust

Added about 1 year ago | As appeared first on Prototypr | Author: Justin Ramedia

Not long ago, I was trying to watch a video on YouTube. I got the expected “5-second till skipping” countdown and had my mouse hovering over the skip link, but the video was interesting. I laughed, so I figured I’d give it another few seconds to see what the product was all about. I ended up watc... ...Read more

Companies looking to build consumer habits should know that monetization is a result of engagement .

Added about 1 year ago | As appeared first on Medium | Author: Nir Eyal

According to the New York Times, when Page looks at a potential company to acquire, he wants to know if the product is, like a toothbrush, “something you will use once or twice a day.” Page clearly understands habits. As I wrote in my book, “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products,” frequent... ...Read more

When a startup company is visualizing their product, they tend to forget the moments a user has to wait.

Added about 1 year ago | As appeared first on Hackernoon | Author: Wayne Chang

Contrary to MVPs, where the goal is to get something barely usable out the door and into the market for initial feedback, an MLP takes the opposite approach, treating, among other things, the first-time experience of a new user very seriously. This is the first time they’ll see your product, the... ...Read more

Working for free is OK in the early days, but later, it gives you an excuse to just “do your best”.

Added about 1 year ago | As appeared first on Medium | Author: Jason M. Lemkin

What are the Top 10 things I’d tell myself to do better, if I could go back in time? My top list: Slow down big decisions — when you aren’t sure. You have to move fast and break things, but if the pit in your stomach says “maybe don’t do that” — slow that decision down. My biggest mistakes ha... ...Read more

Launching is hard work, but if hyperlocal marketplaces works in one market, then it will work in hundreds more.

Added about 1 year ago | As appeared first on andrewchen | Author: Andrew Chen

How to build a billion dollar digital marketplace – examples from Uber, eBay, Craigslist, and more Marketplaces are easily underestimated When marketplaces get big, they can get really big. Some of the biggest tech successes ever – eBay, Airbnb, Alibaba, Uber – are marketplaces worth ... ...Read more

If you release your product too early, users may write it off as not good enough and getting them back may be difficult.

Added about 1 year ago | As appeared first on cbinsights | Author: cbinsights

From lack of product-market fit to disharmony on the team, we break down the top 20 reasons for startup failure by analyzing 101 startup failure post-mortems. WHERE IS THIS DATA COMING FROM? Start your free trial today Email Email SIGN UP After we compiled our list of startup failure post-m... ...Read more