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Absolutely spot on. I would even extend this to developers. Why take a week to build a way to automate something that takes a human half a day when you don't kn
by drsim 14y ago
Absolutely spot on. I would even extend this to developers. Why take a week to build a way to automate something that takes a human half a day when you don't know if anyone is ever going to pay for it?
I don't remember the company, but I was inspired by a fresh fruit+veg box-delivered-to-your-door founder. He made all the deliveries himself to start with rather than building a grandiose delivery platform or hiring.
I started my B2B company the same way. Initially I copied and pasted my code into customers sites. My 'ordering system' was just a PayPal express checkout. Zero backend. Man was it dull. But as a developer I knew I could automate 90% of what I needed to, when I needed to.
Now it's completely automated apart from support. Meaning my notional margin (cost of sale being my previous contracting rate) is at 85%. And I know I've just written the code I needed to so as to not do the mundane manual tasks anymore.
- sigil 14y ago> I don't remember the company, but I was inspired by a fresh fruit+veg box-delivered-to-your-door founder. Could it have been Manuel Rosso of Food on the Table? He was the "Concierge MVP" example from Ries's book. They started by meal planning for a single family. If I'm remembering this right, he and his chef co-founder walked the grocery stores each week looking for the best food values, then drew up the week's menu...for that one family. http://www.foodonthetable.com/ http://www.foodonthetable.com/ It worked, and they automated things as they scaled. > I started my B2B company the same way... Now it's completely automated apart from support. It's great to hear this. A film industry friend and I started a company last year with a very similar approach, but we're earlier along than you are. So far so good!
- drsim 14y agoAh, it could well be the Food on the Table guy. All the best for your company!