4 ms·

Pragmatic VC: Stop Coding, Start Marketing. Getting Your Positioning Right.

17 points by cera 18y ago

JacobAldridge 18y ago
I think there are probably two schools of thought here. Steve Barsh argues you need to define your customer, their problem, and your extremely compelling solution, then code. PG tends to argue the other way - code first, release early, GET USERS, and then have them define the solution they need. Working with a number of businesses I don't think there's a right or wrong. The risk with Steve's method is inbuilt assumptions you can make answering his questions, long before a real person ever sits in front of your program.
- webwright 18y ago
  "The risk with Steve's method is inbuilt assumptions you can make answering his questions, long before a real person ever sits in front of your program." Not really risky if you iterate this the same way you iterate software.
- jon_dahl 18y ago
  At the risk of sounding inane, you have to do both. Iterate, release early, and listen to users (PG). But also think deeply about the market, how you differentiate yourself, how you'll get the message out, and be sure you're really building something worthwhile (SB). Both contribute to the same goal - figuring out what your product or service will look like - but they attack it from different sides. No reason why you can't do both. But if you naturally lean in one direction, you might want to be careful that you don't ignore the other.
edw519 18y ago
If anyone ever tells me to stop coding, I stop listening.
- SwellJoe 18y ago
  Unless you have a partner that will take care of the marketing and sales side of things, that's probably a mistake. There are several things that making the effort to new customers will give you: 1. Money. If you have more paying customers, you have more revenue. More revenue means you can pay to make problems go away. Taxes, accounting, web design (if that's not your forte), and even the sales process itself (though it's almost certain that no one can sell your product better than you can early on). 2. More feedback. You might be going the wrong way. Early adopters have a very different set of requirements from the average user (generally). So, the more mainstream your sales process becomes the more likely you are to find out that you're on the wrong path. It's very easy to keep going further and further into a niche--and if that niche is too small, you're gonna be in big trouble before you even realize it. It's entirely possible to featurize yourself out of the big markets by focusing on the tiny niches that your early adopters live in. For example, our early adopters tend to push for scalability solutions for single websites--but our mainstream customers just want to fit more customers onto the same box. If we spend all of our time building scalability solutions, we'll find ourselves only being able to serve 2% of the market extremely. 3. More users who can help you help other users, via forums or mailing lists or wikis, and can help you make more sales. It is a reinforcing cycle. We had an amazingly great sales day today, because we got mentioned by people we don't even know on Slashdot. Because we reach out to our community regularly, we support the sites and communities that would use our software, and we (or I, rather...Jamie is full-time on coding, always) try to close a deal with a new hosting provider (even small ones) every week or two. Building a better mouse trap isn't going to make you rich. You have to "ring the cash register" sometime, or you not only won't get rich, you also won't be serving your customer as well as you should be. But, I do think the blog post in question spends a bit too much time on checklists and making elaborate plans.
  - edw519 18y ago
    I agree with all of this. What does any of it have to do with "stop coding". If you can't juggle eggs, you should probably be someone else's employee. I do the things you mention and I still code every single day. For a software startup, coding is like breathing. Stop and die. Only hackers understand this. Whoever downmodded my previous post is probably an MBA.
astrec 18y ago
A poor title selection detracts from what is otherwise very good advice. The formula is simple and elegant and the result quite useful: an elevator pitch. I can't count the number of times over the years that I've tripped over myself trying to explain what I'm working on.
DanielBMarkham 18y ago
Nice article. So take a little time and hypothesize about your market and marketing plan. I believe what is unsaid is that you iterate, and both the product "code first" and the plan "marketing" continue to iterate and evolve. Over time your idea of who your market is becomes one with your solution and your sales. Seems like a non-controversial and practical piece of advice. I liked it.

17 points by cera 18y ago

I think there are probably two schools of thought here. Steve Barsh argues you need to define your customer, their problem, and your extremely compelling solution, then code. PG tends to argue the other way - code first, release early, GET USERS, and then have them define the solution they need. Working with a number of businesses I don't think there's a right or wrong. The risk with Steve's method is inbuilt assumptions you can make answering his questions, long before a real person ever sits in front of your program.

webwright 18y ago
"The risk with Steve's method is inbuilt assumptions you can make answering his questions, long before a real person ever sits in front of your program." Not really risky if you iterate this the same way you iterate software.
jon_dahl 18y ago
At the risk of sounding inane, you have to do both. Iterate, release early, and listen to users (PG). But also think deeply about the market, how you differentiate yourself, how you'll get the message out, and be sure you're really building something worthwhile (SB). Both contribute to the same goal - figuring out what your product or service will look like - but they attack it from different sides. No reason why you can't do both. But if you naturally lean in one direction, you might want to be careful that you don't ignore the other.

edw519 18y ago

If anyone ever tells me to stop coding, I stop listening.

SwellJoe 18y ago
Unless you have a partner that will take care of the marketing and sales side of things, that's probably a mistake. There are several things that making the effort to new customers will give you: 1. Money. If you have more paying customers, you have more revenue. More revenue means you can pay to make problems go away. Taxes, accounting, web design (if that's not your forte), and even the sales process itself (though it's almost certain that no one can sell your product better than you can early on). 2. More feedback. You might be going the wrong way. Early adopters have a very different set of requirements from the average user (generally). So, the more mainstream your sales process becomes the more likely you are to find out that you're on the wrong path. It's very easy to keep going further and further into a niche--and if that niche is too small, you're gonna be in big trouble before you even realize it. It's entirely possible to featurize yourself out of the big markets by focusing on the tiny niches that your early adopters live in. For example, our early adopters tend to push for scalability solutions for single websites--but our mainstream customers just want to fit more customers onto the same box. If we spend all of our time building scalability solutions, we'll find ourselves only being able to serve 2% of the market extremely. 3. More users who can help you help other users, via forums or mailing lists or wikis, and can help you make more sales. It is a reinforcing cycle. We had an amazingly great sales day today, because we got mentioned by people we don't even know on Slashdot. Because we reach out to our community regularly, we support the sites and communities that would use our software, and we (or I, rather...Jamie is full-time on coding, always) try to close a deal with a new hosting provider (even small ones) every week or two. Building a better mouse trap isn't going to make you rich. You have to "ring the cash register" sometime, or you not only won't get rich, you also won't be serving your customer as well as you should be. But, I do think the blog post in question spends a bit too much time on checklists and making elaborate plans.
- edw519 18y ago
  I agree with all of this. What does any of it have to do with "stop coding". If you can't juggle eggs, you should probably be someone else's employee. I do the things you mention and I still code every single day. For a software startup, coding is like breathing. Stop and die. Only hackers understand this. Whoever downmodded my previous post is probably an MBA.

astrec 18y ago

A poor title selection detracts from what is otherwise very good advice. The formula is simple and elegant and the result quite useful: an elevator pitch. I can't count the number of times over the years that I've tripped over myself trying to explain what I'm working on.

DanielBMarkham 18y ago

Nice article. So take a little time and hypothesize about your market and marketing plan. I believe what is unsaid is that you iterate, and both the product "code first" and the plan "marketing" continue to iterate and evolve. Over time your idea of who your market is becomes one with your solution and your sales. Seems like a non-controversial and practical piece of advice. I liked it.