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"We were trying to make SaaS for PR professionals because it seemed like a good opportunity." What was your strategy for figuring out what PR professionals wan

"We were trying to make SaaS for PR professionals because it seemed like a good opportunity." What was your strategy for figuring out what PR professionals wanted?

jasonlbaptiste 16y ago
So here's the backstory: Publictivity originally started out as an organic startup- theWeblogWire, which was meant to connect startups and bloggers together. You wanted to launch something, we would make sure bloggers got it. We had a really successful launch (mashable, front page of digg, lifehacker, downloadsquad,etc. for press and we had bloggers from: all of gawker, weblogs inc, techcrunch,mashable,etc.). There were even paying customers too! We had been invited out to the valley to meet a bunch of important people that wanted to help us/advise us/etc. Shortly thereafter, one of the cofounders Frank, went to someone he knew from way back in the day. His friend was the cofounder of pr firm. They thought what we were doing was great and gave us a bit of office space. One day the owner pops in and says: we need this software for PR! and we'll give you money to build it. This was the point Publictivity was born. We (stupidly beyond belief) shuttered theweblogwire for Publictivity, because it made sense to concentrate on only one thing + software seemed like a better startup path. We spent about two months in their offices so we were close to feedback and took meetings every few weeks to get feedback on how the "PR process" worked. We ourselves were clueless on Public Relations from a firm standpoint. We knew how it worked according to being a startup, but that's a fairly different process. In hindsight, knowing what I now know just from startup experience, I would have never started down the path of Publictivity and continued onwards with theweblogwire. Why? theWeblogWire was meant to cure a need I really had.
- tigerthink 16y ago
  So at what point did you know the publicity software was going to be a failure? What was the proximate cause of your doom?
mstevens 16y ago
It sounds like not being very good at this was their problem, which they realised.
- tigerthink 16y ago
  OK, but I still want to hear what their strategy was. If I can't think of obvious ways to improve it then maybe organic really is the way to go.
  - mstevens 16y ago
    I'm quite interested by Steve Blank's stuff on Customer Development. My personal theory is that you can sometimes build profitable products, without being the customer, but you can't build great ones. Microsoft and Apple seem to be two excellent examples. Apple's customer is Steve Jobs.
    - tigerthink 16y ago
      Are great products also greatly profitable? To be honest I am mostly interested in making a profit. Edit: If you're trying to give Microsoft as an example of a company that fails to make great products because it fails to use them, think again: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/62/microsoft.html http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/62/microsoft.html It seems more likely that they just suck.
      - mstevens 16y ago
        I am trying to do that, They may use them internally, but I think a lot of their work is focussed on external users.

"We were trying to make SaaS for PR professionals because it seemed like a good opportunity." What was your strategy for figuring out what PR professionals wanted?

jasonlbaptiste 16y ago

So here's the backstory: Publictivity originally started out as an organic startup- theWeblogWire, which was meant to connect startups and bloggers together. You wanted to launch something, we would make sure bloggers got it. We had a really successful launch (mashable, front page of digg, lifehacker, downloadsquad,etc. for press and we had bloggers from: all of gawker, weblogs inc, techcrunch,mashable,etc.). There were even paying customers too! We had been invited out to the valley to meet a bunch of important people that wanted to help us/advise us/etc. Shortly thereafter, one of the cofounders Frank, went to someone he knew from way back in the day. His friend was the cofounder of pr firm. They thought what we were doing was great and gave us a bit of office space. One day the owner pops in and says: we need this software for PR! and we'll give you money to build it. This was the point Publictivity was born. We (stupidly beyond belief) shuttered theweblogwire for Publictivity, because it made sense to concentrate on only one thing + software seemed like a better startup path. We spent about two months in their offices so we were close to feedback and took meetings every few weeks to get feedback on how the "PR process" worked. We ourselves were clueless on Public Relations from a firm standpoint. We knew how it worked according to being a startup, but that's a fairly different process. In hindsight, knowing what I now know just from startup experience, I would have never started down the path of Publictivity and continued onwards with theweblogwire. Why? theWeblogWire was meant to cure a need I really had.

tigerthink 16y ago
So at what point did you know the publicity software was going to be a failure? What was the proximate cause of your doom?

mstevens 16y ago

It sounds like not being very good at this was their problem, which they realised.

tigerthink 16y ago
OK, but I still want to hear what their strategy was. If I can't think of obvious ways to improve it then maybe organic really is the way to go.
- mstevens 16y ago
  I'm quite interested by Steve Blank's stuff on Customer Development. My personal theory is that you can sometimes build profitable products, without being the customer, but you can't build great ones. Microsoft and Apple seem to be two excellent examples. Apple's customer is Steve Jobs.
  - tigerthink 16y ago
    Are great products also greatly profitable? To be honest I am mostly interested in making a profit. Edit: If you're trying to give Microsoft as an example of a company that fails to make great products because it fails to use them, think again: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/62/microsoft.html http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/62/microsoft.html It seems more likely that they just suck.
    - mstevens 16y ago
      I am trying to do that, They may use them internally, but I think a lot of their work is focussed on external users.