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Well, can't they make use of the information once they know who the connectors are? We can offer deals or special customer service to these users, but we can en

• playeren 15y ago
  Of course they can - and they should! But if you contact 100 companies, 99 will think it's an amazing idea, but only 10 will actually know what to do with the connectors. Those 10 are the only viable leads out of 99 positive responses, because the rest doesn't have a clear road map in mind when it comes to closing the deal. I'm not saying businesses are stupid, but they haven't spent as much time thinking about the value and opportunities a connector represents - as you obviously have. And that becomes a barrier in front of closing the deal. After the initial positive response, they need to think through all the good and bad ways they can use the connectors, and then plan it, assign resources - and only then are they ready to use your product. I strongly urge you to sit down and in detail define "What is the absolute smartest thing a business can do with our information", and then see how you can provide THAT as a service to businesses. Maybe in a partnership with a company that specializes in delivering products and services based on the social graph. If I seem adamant about making my point, it is because I have a failed start-up on my resume due to a failure of recognizing this fact in due time. It was a B2B product, that provided the exact same results as the main players in the marketplace, but smarter, faster and way more cost-efficient. My service could deliver in 3 days, what the main competitors did in 3 weeks, and at half the cost. But I couldn't seem to penetrate the market - and I was absolutely sure it was a marketing issue - and kept pouring money into new and arguably better ways of marketing the service, with only limited betterment as a result. In the end it turned out to be a product issue, and I had spent all my money on re-inventing marketing at that point (self-funded). My hubris was "It's self-evident that my way of doing things is better than what you're doing now. You should do it my way!". And it was an easy hubris to fall into - all the smart people in the business I talked to, agreed that my product was "amazing" and "the new and better way to do things", but those responses come from a different context than closing a deal. I expected businesses to make a very small change in their way of doing things, in return for a much faster, better and cost-efficient product. I should have understood that it is my task to make a product that fits into their way of business. Sorry about the rant :) I paid a shitload of money to learn this one lesson, so it hits a few buttons when it comes up.
  • deepkut 15y ago
    Wow, thanks for the advice. I would love to chat with you if you have the chance.