Don’t invest too much in the proof of concept
Sarah Watson, co-founder of The NET SET and vice president of social commerce at Net-a-porter.com
Don’t spend too much time or money on it! Pull something together that works and then show it to as many relevant people as possible to get feedback.
The first product is your business’s first impression
Myles Dawson, UK Country Manager of Adyen
For me, the first product is a bit like any first impression. It has the potential to set the tone for what comes next and can be tricky to recover from an initial bad start.
Do a lot of research before developing the product
Sarah Watson, co-founder of The NET SET and vice president of social commerce at Net-a-porter.com
It’s important to understand everything about the space you are planning to enter before you even begin. Knowledge is power. For The NET SET we not only looked at the other products and businesses in our space, we also looked at the wider app market too. Find the similarities between the products that are successful and learn from other people’s successes/mistakes before embarking on your own journey.
Happy customers are the best way to measure your first product’s success
Jan Hammer, a venture capitalist with Index Ventures
What is the best way to measure your product’s success? Happy customers. Huge repeat rates. Members get members. Growth without marketing spend, through word of mouth...
Give your employees ownership
Jeroen Hüpscher, CEO of TransIP
The boundaries between work and private life are fading. So, as in at home, one should feel happy at work. When are you happy? When your talents get acknowledged and consequently you grow. Give your people ownership and make them responsible in a way they can develop themselves. Trust them, facilitate them.
New takes on existing markets make for great products
Jan Hammer, a venture capitalist with Index Ventures
On the one hand, you want a big market in which to launch your product (it means there are competitors that validate that market demand exists). On the other hand you want your startup to be breaking into a new space, which by definition means there aren’t competitors yet...
So what we love is new takes on existing markets; attacking problems differently. For example, BlaBlaCar is solving a big existing market need (people travelling from point A to point B, there are buses and trains) but through a novel product approach – utilising car sharing via mobile app.
Click here for the full transcript of this live chat, which was sponsored by TransIP.
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