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Tech Startups Face New Investor Mandate: Profits over Discounts

4 points by raiyu 7y ago

burtonator 7y ago
My current startup is sort of struggling with something similar. The recent YC batch was really focused on growth and your primary milestone. I agree with this to a certain degree but I think if you're too early it's not worth it. What I'm focused on is actually building a product that people care about. I'm building our VALUE and not focused on growth. Once I have a KILLER product the growth will be easy. I already have enough users/customers go get feedback on what the market wants. It's irrational for me to spend a massive amount of time trying to get other people to use it vs just building a killer product that people love. What these companies are doing is trying to fake product/market fit by giving away "money" when they should be using that to try to understand why users don't like their product. If you have something amazing people will use it. You won't need these gimmicks.
- thrwaway69 7y ago
  Are you a technical founder? I feel like this is the same perspective shared by most of them but in reality, it doesn't work for everything. Marketing has proven itself to be quite effective against services with better features or offering. It's definitely not something to do AFTER you have built that 'perfect' product (it will never be perfect). It's a journey doing both as you move forward. Although I agree with the sentiment for current unicorns. I am just unsure how to compete on product alone especially when it comes to software, if some FAANG has any stake or interest in the same field. You will get devoured eg - elastic search, docker etc or anything that requires lot of data or eroding your privacy. Tech is special that it is very versatile to leverage in other fields and market, should that be considered a violation of anti trust? Why is it not illegal to leverage your existing network to pull one over the small guy? of course, I understand it's not practical on its own to claim something but it should definitely be a metric. Edit: Added more clarification and rant.

4 points by raiyu 7y ago

My current startup is sort of struggling with something similar. The recent YC batch was really focused on growth and your primary milestone. I agree with this to a certain degree but I think if you're too early it's not worth it. What I'm focused on is actually building a product that people care about. I'm building our VALUE and not focused on growth. Once I have a KILLER product the growth will be easy. I already have enough users/customers go get feedback on what the market wants. It's irrational for me to spend a massive amount of time trying to get other people to use it vs just building a killer product that people love. What these companies are doing is trying to fake product/market fit by giving away "money" when they should be using that to try to understand why users don't like their product. If you have something amazing people will use it. You won't need these gimmicks.

thrwaway69 7y ago
Are you a technical founder? I feel like this is the same perspective shared by most of them but in reality, it doesn't work for everything. Marketing has proven itself to be quite effective against services with better features or offering. It's definitely not something to do AFTER you have built that 'perfect' product (it will never be perfect). It's a journey doing both as you move forward. Although I agree with the sentiment for current unicorns. I am just unsure how to compete on product alone especially when it comes to software, if some FAANG has any stake or interest in the same field. You will get devoured eg - elastic search, docker etc or anything that requires lot of data or eroding your privacy. Tech is special that it is very versatile to leverage in other fields and market, should that be considered a violation of anti trust? Why is it not illegal to leverage your existing network to pull one over the small guy? of course, I understand it's not practical on its own to claim something but it should definitely be a metric. Edit: Added more clarification and rant.