My Feelings

foundersjourney:

Scared is not the word I am looking for. #MarketFit

So one of the most important things when starting your own startup is Market Fit. This comes with validating the product. Well I have a secret. This is not the first time we have heard of this words. And guess what? We kind of ignored it. Why? I guess there are several answers to that.

1. We thought we had already validated the product. (Everyone has a different way of validating their product). We did it by asking possible customers if they would use/buy our product. Guess what, we were doing it the wrong way.

2. Months after we started this “idea” I was introduced to the way we are supposed to validate the product.

Lesson: When validating a product, ask open ended questions which will make your possible user tell you a story of why they will never use your product, the idea is that they will not know that they are telling you your product or idea is terrible, and this way you know the truth.

So that is what I have done in the last week. So I spoke to different possible clients, people I knew would never pay for my products and people who I was sure would pay. I asked pretty open ended questions and their responses were incredibly interesting. They were interesting because people I thought would never use our service/product might in a specific situation, the people I was sure would use it actually would not use it. So that leaves us at the beginning with more fear and less Market Fit.

What now? Okay so I am not done yet.

After doing some open ended questions I saw that the problem was real but it wasn’t as huge as a market as I thought. I also learned that the city where I was planning on launching was not the city that customers would buy the most from. So where are we now? I am not sure, I need to discuss this with my co-founders.

The other thing is that we changed our business model, we thought our client were A and now we found it was B. We were soooo happy. I felt relieved. I knew who to target and how to reach them. Until the happiness faded away. It faded away because I found out that there is one way to reach those customers and is not the easiest way, they hate promotions, and they get way too confused because the way I reach them was not the appropriate way. So 1. I am not sure if I am made to do sales (I thought I was really good), 2. maybe I should focus on early adopters who I know. 3. I should revise my marketing channels. 4. I think I need more help than I thought.

*Writing this gave me hopes, I had forgotten about some sales channels that I had put in the back burner.

Are you doing your own startup, tell me about it?

Great story about starting your own business.

foundersjourney:

A couple of weeks ago I wrote my first post about this new idea and how I needed to start writing about this amazing journey I am starting. So guess what, I have quitted my job, a great job where I was not as happy as I wished I would be. At the moment I live in a very cheap city, compared to NYC. My parents live nearby and I am crashing at there home for the moment, so yes I am not worried (at the moment).

That is not to say that I don’t get fleeing panic attacks about how I must make this work out or I will be a failure. Yes, failing is an amazing word in this startup world, but guess what I am scared of failure. When I decided to start this journey I was still planning on quitting my job because I was not happy. My back up plan was moving to a not so expensive startup city in the US, work with a startup and take some classes to bump my career. So when I decided to take on this new challenge I thought if this fails, who cares I still can get a loan, study, and work part time at a sky resort. So yes, I studied at one of the best schools in my area and I am ok with cleaning bathrooms. This can mean a couple of things, I was not 100% happy with my previous job, I am scared, or everything will be fine because if everything else fails I have a plan B. Yes, this can mean 1,000 different things. Reality is very different. I took this new challenge because

1. I new I can do it (I am very innocent and believe I can conquer the world).

2. I wanted out of my job.

3.) If everything fail what I had learned would not be half of what I would be learning at any master’s program, I would have networked with the best in this area, and I would have a trophy that stated that I tried and I fail and that the worst is behind me.

Yes, I love this virtual world of startups where failing is seen as this amazing thing just because you’re tired, you cried, you worked you but off and at the end you fail. They recognize those sleepless night. ITS AWESOME.

So back to where I am today. Yes, I am a starting female entrepreneur in a male dominated world eager to start. I have an unfair advantage, I have the best advisors in the industry from the start of this idea, the best developers helping us create our web page, and a free office space because of where I used to work.

Lessons learned until this moment:

1. Dont pay for anything is not incredible important
2. Get and MVP out and then you will should start making changes, but if you wait until is perfect nothing will leave your garage.
3. YouTube, Google, Hacker Meetings, founders ect, you have more support that you believe. Yes, we started with an amazing advisory team but up till now nobody has really worked with the platform we chose to launched our startup, so yes we have had to read and watch a lot of videos.
4. You cannot be afraid to ask, everyone is more willing to help that you thought.
5. Take care of yourself. You will never stop working because ideas will overflow you.

Great story about starting your own journey!

But do not ask me where I am going
As I travel this limitless world
Where every step is my home.