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Why Startups Need to Focus on Sales, Not Marketing

• mathattack 12y ago
  This is so unbelievably true. I worked at a firm where the opposite was true. The VP of Marketing spent a lot of time inviting himself to existing customer meetings, wasting exec time on magic quadrants, and hiring his buddies to do marketing collateral. Inevitably every hour of their time took up four of executive, sales and developer time. It was impossible to point to even one sale that they influence. This could also be due to their incompetence, rather than a general condemnation of the topic.
• paul 12y ago
  Exposing yourself to the direct, harsh feedback of the market is key. I've noticed that bad founders will do just about anything to avoid this. Instead of selling, which is hard, they spend their time going to conferences and meetups, trying to do PR, talking to biz dev people about partnerships, etc. It all sounds like work, but mainly serves to insulate them from the harsh reality that nobody wants their product.
  • jt2190 12y ago
    In addition, people are socialized to avoid giving insult, so even if they hate your product they won't tell you to your face. If all the user feedback you're collecting is positive but you're not seeing user uptake, you're probably not getting honest feedback.
    • paul 12y ago
      That's why I always tell them to get an LOI. Often people will say, "that sounds great, let us know when it's ready", and the founder will mistakenly think that's a sale. Even asking someone to sign a non-binding LOI forces a lot more honesty.
      • wmeredith 12y ago
        LOI?
        • sebg 12y ago
          Letter of Intent - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_intent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_intent
        • hansyeakel 12y ago
          Letter of intent. Pre-selling also works well in these situations to judge actual demand.
      • deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
      • SteliE 12y ago
        I always like to ask "What will it take for you to become a customer of ours?" The key is to keep following up with questions until you arrive at a point when they say "and yes, then we'd buy" See more about it here if interested: http://blog.close.io/sales-hacking-kung-fu-how-to-virtually-close-every-single-customer http://blog.close.io/sales-hacking-kung-fu-how-to-virtually-...
      • hglaser 12y ago
        This was one of the most helpful pieces of advice I ever got as a founder. Pre-product, when customers would say "Yes, I would buy this," we asked them to sign a non-binding LOI to that effect. Nowadays, if a prospect says they'll buy when we have feature X, we ask them to sign a modified customer contract that says they don't have to pay until we mutually agree that the feature is done. It has saved countless developer months spent on features that were not the real reason the customer didn't want to buy. And it sometimes causes the prospect to start saying, "well, actually, the issue is..." and then you can get the real feedback.
      • bernardlunn 12y ago
        Forcing to a yes or no is key. I prefer yes, can manage no, but I have no way to manage maybe, it just closes other options without delivering results.
    • AndrewKemendo 12y ago
      Here is what I found when I was out selling: The only thing worse than getting a no is getting nothing. At least with No, you get feedback and that is valuable. The only way you can get to "no" or "yes" is by pushing the customer to give you an answer and people in general are hesitant to be that pushy.
  • gk1 12y ago
    One way to get that direct feedback is through usability tests of your product. All I mean by that is conducting somewhat-structured conversations with prospects as they explore your product. I did just this with a startup recently, and the feedback we collected was immensely helpful and very insightful. For those interested, I wrote about it here: http://www.gkogan.co/blog/usability-testing-case-study/ http://www.gkogan.co/blog/usability-testing-case-study/
    • emilioolivares 12y ago
      This was a great write-up, you should post to the main site.
      • adrianhoward 12y ago
        If you want to start doing usability testing I'd recommend getting a copy of Steve Krug's Rocket Surgery Made Easy (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-yourself/dp/0321657292 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-yourself/dp...). It will probably take you less than an hour to read and will stop you making the basic mistakes I see folk new to usability testing make.
  • djb_hackernews 12y ago
    As a former cofounder on the technical side I ran into this exact situation with my cofounders. Do you have any advice for past me to encourage selling and discourage "networking" activities in a way that doesn't look like the tech person is telling the business person how to do business things?
    • griffordson 12y ago
      Partner with proven ethical sales people rather than B.S. artists. As a technical person working a job, the best way for you to meet such people is to work with them in a technical capacity. If your current job doesn't give you opportunities to work with the best sales people in your company (including traveling with them to meet customers), find one that does. And if you are a cofounder, whether technical or not, you are a business person first. If you aren't sharing your opinions on the best way to sell to your prospects you aren't doing your most important job as a founder.
      • ehurrell 12y ago
        I'd second this, I remember something that really struck a chord with me was Eric Ries saying, in a LeanConf Interview session that a founder does whatever is needed for a company to survive first and foremost, and the technical aspect is just the fact that you have more experience in that area.
    • rhizome 12y ago
      Well, if they have to be told that networking is not sales, is not bringing money in, then you shouldn't worry about it looking like you are telling them how to do business things. You're just telling them to do business things.
  • rtx 12y ago
    I think one way around it would be to outsource you lead gen. You will at-least have a willing audience when you present.
    • ghiculescu 12y ago
      This sounds like another cop out. If you really have a good product, get a list of customers who'd benefit from it, then start calling. You'll learn a lot about how good your product actually is.
      • rtx 12y ago
        You don't exactly get such lists. We don't have a filter for customers with needs. So the best option is do an manual filtering. This can save valuable time for the sales time.
        • ghiculescu 12y ago
          Bollocks. If you can't - at least in broad terms - describe the kind of business/consumer that would benefit from your product, then are you really ready to start selling? And if you can describe them - then surely you can get a rough idea of where they hang out, who they are, etc. Otherwise you are just throwing darts blindly and hoping they hit.
        • grayclhn 12y ago
          >You don't exactly get such lists. A lot of people would argue that this is a key part of understanding your market. If you don't have a such a list, it probably makes sense to hustle, cold-call, talk to people you know closer to the industry, etc (i.e., exactly the same steps people are describing as "sales") to get one.
        • vidarh 12y ago
          The problem is an outsourced lead gen company will not understand what signifies a good lead if you don't, and they will call people and pick up on the wrong things. Using outsourced lead gen. is great if you can describe exactly how their staff can identify what makes a good lead, and can follow them up closely to give feedback about which leads were good and which weren't, and why. But unless you've done the whole process yourself first, you're unlikely to know exactly how to best instruct them.
  • EricDeb 12y ago
    Frantic energy as a defense against impotence.
  • jf22 12y ago
    This is exactly why I left my last company. Two other co-founders where obsessed with doing this type of shit.
  • Alex3917 12y ago
    While this makes sense, if you use what you learn doing sales to actually improve your product (or the pitch, engine of growth, etc.) then you're back to doing marketing.
  • tptacek 12y ago
    When I said yesterday in a thread about Perfect Audience (which just sold for 25.5MM) that Brad Flora was my working definition of "hustle", and someone asked me what I meant --- this is exactly what I meant. He would describe what he was doing to move sales processes forward in Chicago and I would react by wincing, and then amazement. This is also why one of the most powerful bits of advice I've ever picked up from HN is Paul Graham's (paraphrased) "if nobody makes fun of your crappy product when you launch it, you waited too long to launch". For a lot of developers, the resistance to sales shows itself in a strong feeling that the product isn't done, isn't ready. The Steve Blank process is a pretty good antidote to this. Also: startup hipsters and MBA types will talk down cold-calling, but I have a friend hustling a pretty complicated product right now and I have watched him make cold calls work. Again: wince, then jaw drop. Then learn.
    • cjf4 12y ago
      Beyond the value that you get from whatever sales from cold calling, it's a character building experience. It sucks, it's a grind, but you're definitely a more resilient person after dogging through 200 phone calls where no one wants to talk to you.
    • davemel37 12y ago
      Anyone who thinks cold calling doesn't work is living in a bubble. It is still the quickest way to reach your prospects and one of the most effective forms of marketing when you crunch the math properly... http://affordablemarketinglists.com/why-cold-calling-works-in-2013-infographic/ http://affordablemarketinglists.com/why-cold-calling-works-i...
    • tlogan 12y ago
      Simple advice: if somebody expresses even a slight interest in your product keep calling until you get firm "no - I don't want your product" (preferably not yelling at you). And founder(s) MUST BE doing that 'till company has maybe 5 to 6 employees. Even if founders are not "good in sales". When company is early, there is no "good in sales": it is just if your product solves the problem or not.
    • staunch 12y ago
  • silverbax88 12y ago
    I have to say there are so many conversations I have (usually consulting with someone looking to do a startup) and one of the first things that comes up regardless of the market/problem is "maybe we could do some machine learning..." and I immediately think "you're doing it wrong". I didn't start making significant sales in my businesses until I learned to stop focusing on the tech stuff and just throw together a manual process and start working on selling.
  • notastartup 12y ago
    beautifully put. medicine really is bitter but it makes sense.
  • ehurrell 12y ago
    One of the hardest things is seeing this happen, because there can be a lot of pride and hubris associated with doing good PR, biz dev etc. A lot of the time this comment, which is true and I can't emphasis it enough, will hit a wall of resistance for whatever reason.
• hkmurakami 12y ago
  "All too often, I’ve seen founders build some initially mediocre product, announce it to the world, find that users never show up, and not know what to do next. As well as not getting any users, the startup never gets the feedback it needs to improve the product." Ah, the Hollywood launch... (http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch13_Hollywood_Launch.php http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch13_Hollywood_Launch.php)
  • gk1 12y ago
    Didn't know it had a term. I made a little comic about this: http://www.gkogan.co/blog/simple-user-acquisition-comic/ http://www.gkogan.co/blog/simple-user-acquisition-comic/
    • soneca 12y ago
      Nice comic, but i don't believe a website is the most important part of the conversion. At least for the first users, you should convert them yourself, making them want to buy/use your product even before they visit your website. This way you have face-to-face conversation and feedback. This way you will learn about strategies to sell that work. This way you don't go nuts on AB tests e SEO optimization when you only hundreds of random visitors.
      • gk1 12y ago
        Good point, though I don't see why you can't do both. Very early on, of course the single most important thing is talking to users. You may not even have a website at that point. But once you're past that -- even at the point of getting dozens of somewhat target users per day -- why not leverage the site to convert while you sleep or while you do more one-on-one outreach?
        • soneca 12y ago
          Sure, you should have both. But I think the myth of "convert while you sleep" is dangerous. Your site should be just a communication support, exactly the same function of your business card. It must make you look professional and trustable. But only that (at the very beginning). Only after you know, from personal experience and buying customers, what specifically make you sell more, then you go on thinking about leverage your website.
• klunger 12y ago
  This was a great article. I just wanted to add the logical extension: the need to be flexible and a willingness to "pivot." The process of getting your product out there manually can give really focused user feedback that will help to refine the product in a smart way. Painful at first, yes, but ultimately very valuable.
• aashaykumar92 12y ago
  Great article, but I have a situational question: Let's say a company has grown at a 10% weekly growth rate and is now at 500 users. But as they try to sell to more people, they realize they are no longer growing at 10% and their growth rate is stagnant or decreasing WOW. Does it make sense to continue trying to sell OR focusing on user feedback and improving the product? I assume 'both' will be a popular answer but why? If you know your product is currently subpar, why not just build until the next iteration is ready and then start selling again?
  • josho 12y ago
    Do you know why new users are not signing up? If you do then consider signing up new users on condition that you fill that gap. If you don't know why the growth rate has fallen then fill in that knowledge gap however you can (ie. talk to your prospects).
  • diziet 12y ago
    500 what? Free users? Paying users? Paying what, $5/month? $500 / month? $200,000 / year?
    • infinitone 12y ago
      Building on his example (cause i'm in a similar situation), lets say its paying users at $60/month.
  • emmett 12y ago
    Part of the sales process is taking the sales feedback and using it to improve the product continuously. If you're not doing that, you're missing the core point which is to improve the product.
  • jodrellblank 12y ago
    Your growth rate is decreasing? That implies you're still growing, so why is that evidence that your product is "subpar"?
    • 12y ago
• ironchef 12y ago
  I disagree; however, I think it may be because of her definition of marketing. She states "Sales and marketing are two ends of a continuum." Marketing is creating, delivering, and communicating value to your users / customers. Startups need to do both. Well. You need to create a product that gives value to customers (whether that be through elimination of pain or creation of new value) and get it into their hands. That involves both sales and marketing.
  • deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  • porter 12y ago
    That's corporate marketing, not startup marketing.
• mikeknoop 12y ago
  The interesting thing to me is how quickly you transition from Sales oriented -> Marketing oriented if things are going well. Early product/market fit can act as a bit of a guide for when to do the transition.
  • mrkurt 12y ago
    Yes. And how painful it is if you wait too long to transition.
• KeenanSteel 12y ago
  Maybe the HN crowd has a different view of marketing than I do. Our marketing team relies pretty heavily on getting user feedback. We'll listen to individual calls to make sure the site answers questions potential customers have. We'll run surveys and over the shoulder tests to understand intent, concerns, and confusion. My background is in marketing, and I'm confused by this parody of a marketer who doesn't know how to gather and apply user feedback to the product and site.
  • gk1 12y ago
    (Another marketer here.) From my experience, the HN crowd knows better. The author is just painting this a black-and-white issue (either you're doing completely oblivious and vague marketing, or you're doing nitty-gritty hardcore sales!). Of course, this doesn't at all reflect what companies are actually doing. If the gist of the article is "speak more with your users," then I strongly agree with that. If it's "marketing is useless for startups," well that's simply wrong.
  • hkmurakami 12y ago
    The thing is that all of us have different interpretations of what Sales and Marketing represent. Thus I look past those terms and look at the activity she describes instead. When I look at what she describes, I feel that it is simply a repackaged form of customer development. But for a WSJ audience, I understand the need to frame it in familiar terms.
• safun 12y ago
  If you study your target audience properly and with the right tools to analyze data, you can market narrow and deep. Sales should be #1 priority, I agree, so you can continue to collect feedback and make product iterations but saying marketing is broad and shallow is an incorrect statement. Digital marketing tools have evolved in the past few years and it's a lot easier to measure success on specific tactics. I think the old school mentality of marketing is "spray and prey" and if that is what one's thinking of marketing is, then they are not doing marketing correctly. The job of the marketer is to make the life of the sales person much easier so that the conversations they are having are meaningful and have greater chance for conversion.
• logicallee 12y ago
  "why startups need to focus on cash collection (accounts receivable), not sales."
  • rlucas 12y ago
    "why startups need to focus on comprehensive changes in owner's equity, not net income"
• angrymouse 12y ago
  "How should you measure if your manual efforts are effective? Focus on growth rate rather than absolute numbers. Then you won’t be dismayed if the absolute numbers are small at first. If you have 20 users, you only need two more this week to grow 10%. And while two users is a small number for most products, 10% a week is a great growth rate. If you keep growing at 10% a week, the absolute numbers will eventually become impressive." Doesn't the 10% growth (but actually just 2 more users) thing sound like vanity metrics? I don't see how 2 more users is that great by making it seem bigger? Better than nothing, better than non-paying users maybe but it reminds me of a Publishing company i used to work for who once internally touted their 100% rise in video revenue (ignoring the fact they had 5 or 6 times the amount of products released at the beginning of that month and had no video product with a projected profitable lifecycle). Covering user acquisition in unneeded and transparent vanity metrics seems to me to be unnecessary, especially when you are asking customers for brutal reality.
  • nostrademons 12y ago
    Because then next week you go out, shoot for another 10% growth, and get another 2 users. The following week, you go out, shoot for 10% growth, and get 3 more users. And so on. The point is to set some concrete, measurable goal for the week so that you know you're always making forward progress. I had a boss once that told me the point of Agile & 2-week iterations isn't to be optimally efficient or to do progress reports for the hell of it, it's to make sure you're always progressing forwards in a well-defined direction. The biggest risk for a project or startup isn't really moving too slowly (unless you're moving really slowly), it's going around in circles.
• rtx 12y ago
  I am shocked at how many people have proclaimed that using the telephone to source opportunities is dead. We have proven this model to be extremely successful, and have tied incentives to ensure that we are promoting the right behavior. For instance, we reward our inside sales team for setting up qualified appointments and provide an additional bonus if their appointments turn into closed deals. Lists on the internet are in abundance, and should be leveraged to their fullest capacity. In my experience, if you are calling a prospect with genuine intent to uncover whether a problem or pain exists, and are respectful and intelligent in your dialog, you will uncover great opportunities at every turn. We try to help start-ups by providing the initial lead at SalesZip.com
• mandeepj 12y ago
  http://www.janjuaclothing.com/ http://www.janjuaclothing.com/ - This is my start up for selling women's designer clothing. I tried lot of things to get the word out like facebook marketing, adwords, email marketing, exhibition, brochure distribution, regular updates on facebook page, deals having upto 30% discounts, spying on twitter for competitors and their customers to see what kind of conversations they are having and what they are doing, regular updates to website for look and feel as well as making it faster and faster. I reached few affiliates but they were asking for upfront money so I stayed away. The site was launched about 9 months ago and I have zero sales so far, that is making me sad and sometimes I lose my moral as you can see I have done lot of work. Spent countless hours during day and night. I am not sure what I am missing. Next things I have planned to do are - SEO, print advertising. Any help that would result in sales would be greatly appreciated.
  • untilHellbanned 12y ago
    Wow, really nice site. I'm sorry to hear it hasn't been taking off for you. The original post talks alot about finding a core group of users. Can you just focus on a few people who you think would like to use your site (Indian women?).
    • mandeepj 12y ago
      Thanks for nice words. Yes, indian women clothing as I currently can't compete with macy's , banana republic and guess by solely selling western clothes. We have dresses, indo western clothes besides traditional indian clothing. We have a physical store in mohali, India too. Lot of people tell me the clothes are expensive but there are sites selling same kind of clothes between $7000 - $15,000. My margins are around 5% - 7% after giving 30% discount so bringing prices more down would be a financial suicide.
      • afarrell 12y ago
        To which audience are they selling clothes at that price? Brides?
• polymath88 12y ago
  I thought they went hand & hand, no?
• kamilszybalski 12y ago
  "At Y Combinator, we advise most startups to begin by seeking out some core group of early adopters and then engaging with individual users to convince them to sign up." Sounds like marketing and user acquisition to me...
  • gsharma 12y ago
    I think the article's message is same as "Do things that don't scale". Marketing is something used to get users in large volumes (certain groups) vs sales is more of a one-on-one approach. Once you have figured out what works in these one-on-one sessions, you take that message and scale it up as your marketing message.
• libertine 12y ago
  Something doesn't add up to me: either we lost de definition of Marketing, or Markteers that start-ups get are not doing their job. Marketing is the way to get sales. We measure the success of Markteting by sales. It's the whole purpous of it. If the focus on Marketing is not being reflected on sales, then their Marketing Plan is not working. I think it's as simple as that. The broadness of the audience is irrelevant when it's clear what is the target for your product - everything outside the target shouldn't count. It all comes to the hold saying: if you want to please all, you end up not pleasing anyone.
  • 3am 12y ago
    You have a brand new account, but you also have the most insightful comment on this thread which (no offense) is kind of sad. If a founder doesn't understand the sales funnel and how marketing integrates with that approach, then they are not being mentored properly. If they are doing marketing spending without measuring the conversion rate, they're probably tossing money out the window.
• Macsenour 12y ago
  I was at a board game convention, as a venue to launch my site gamerustlers.com, and although we got great reactions, what I really cared about was how many people walked up to the kiosk and actually signed up. The second metric was how many signed up on their phones. While in Beta the site is free so I can't call them "sales", but there is a HUGE difference between someone saying "Hey, great idea" and that person actually signing up, even when it's free to do so.
  • xgarland 12y ago
    And I believe there is also a huge difference between someone signing up for your product and someone actively using it after signing up. In my experience, I found that many people will sign up for a product out of general interest, but won't do much beyond that stage.
    • Macsenour 12y ago
      I agree. Signing up for free, then actually using, THEN using it when it has a fee. All of those are additional levels.
• deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
• spiritplumber 12y ago
  I'd rather startups focus on delvering what they promise.
• corwinstephen 12y ago
  Even though I agree, this is a combination of baseless speculation and pontification which I find to be obnoxious.
• cmapes 12y ago
  Startups selling a business product need to focus on a salesforce, direct marketing methods that are profitable, and getting in front of real paying customers. But startups producing social media products, or consumer applications that are freemium or passively monetized will not benefit with sales. They need marketing via PR, social media, or viral mechanisms baked in early on into the app. Let's not overgeneralize.
• csdreamer7 12y ago
  Would anyone be interested in purchasing software that allows you to secure wipe your phone or Linux laptop remotely? Yes you can secure wipe your phone, but that's tied to the user account. What if you wanted to secure wipe data on the phones or laptops you give you to employees (esp. less technical capable people that lose their phones)? I noticed that most options only allow encryption and are Windows only. However since most developers us private source control (and BT Sync), your likely not going to lose much work. I know I would feel better if my data was deleted. What do you think? Give me some of that direct, harsh feedback?
• cjf4 12y ago
  All small businesses need to focus on sales. Sales gets you cash, sales lets you talk to your customer, sales is king.
• Noxchi 12y ago
  Marketing is salesmanship in media. If you do marketing first, you're putting the cart before the horse. You should do sales manually first before you try to automate it away with marketing, because the feedback you get will give you extreme leverage in your marketing later.
• Georgess 12y ago
  I guess it depends on a startup. You can't just go to the street and try selling your product(well you can) but you need to identify potential customers which is marketing..
• kirkus 12y ago
  It's all about hustle and how startups are different to big companies. Every startup CEO should be talking to customers every single day.
• esamek 12y ago
  But you also don't want to focus just on sales. In the end, every business model will have a more optimal and less optimal emphasis on sales, marketing, user feedback, etc... Most B2B and B2C startups may in fact need more focus on sales...but a B2B2C company may find it misleading. If your customer is not your end user, focusing on sales and not marketing can actually be quite dangerous.
• kelvin0 12y ago
  Being able to cope with 'rejection' on an ongoing basis makes you much stronger in many areas of life. From finding a mate all the way to gathering sales for your product. Rejection should not be taken personally most of the time, it is just a signal that you should interpret as your 'hustle' needs refining...
• quaffapint 12y ago
  I made a huge mistake with the saas listed in my profile. I threw up a poll on my existing site, some people said, yes, they would like a hosted saas version. I then spent 6 months making it - without speaking to anyone further. It's now been 6 months since launch and its just cobwebs. Speak to people first! Don't waste 6 months or more just doing the 'easy' tech stuff. Found out now that no one actually would be willing to pay for it.
  • Major_Grooves 12y ago
    but have you actually phoned up any of those people and tried to persuade them to use it? If you've just validated the idea with a poll, then thrown it up waiting for them to use it you may have a long wait. I bet you can persuade some of them to use it if you literally hold their hand all the way. I'm discovering the joys of fast screen-sharing for demos. (I use join.me).
• jeremypotvin 12y ago
  Great article and great advice. I do this every single day. Acquire one customer at a time, work with them patiently, learn from our interactions, and continue to build a better product. We acquire new customers through referrals, Google, and traditional sales. A very important part of the sales process is nurturing them through the trial period - get them to paid no matter what. If you aren't doing one on one sales and working with your customers you will never figure out what the "what" is and you will never be able to replicate it with technology. I know I have 30 days to impress and win a new customer and convert them. The most useful tool that I have to help me with this is intercom.io. Their automated time and event based messaging can interact at key moments when I can't always be there. Any time they need me, I am one click away. It is a fantastic platform.
• pushkargaikwad 12y ago
  I am running a one man bootstrapped startup (I prefer to call it a business then a startup) inBoundio, which is a marketing software and for me, having 1 paying customer is more important than 100 users. I get paying customers through sales, users through marketing. For Startups, Effective sales will make your marketing better.
• dschiptsov 12y ago
  Focus on sales? Does it mean "selling crap to crappy people" and other "sales techniques" as seen on The Wolf of Wall Street?)
  • simonw 12y ago
    Not in the slightest. When a product is new it doesn't matter how great it is if there's no one finding the right customers for it and helping them understand why it's right for them.
    • dschiptsov 12y ago
      In case of a normal, fair product customers usually need no help, they could figure everything out even better than "sales professionals" because they are using/consuming similar products, like with a "fair" booze or a fresh meat.)
• thinkerer 12y ago
  Im currently working on a start-up and can relate to this. The truth always hurts and people worry that their dreams will be dashed or the need to correct things early on which is most times, tremendous hard work (But it becomes crazy amount of effort if the change is much later on). I targeted a low price, sales-free model, until i realized cost is not the key issue, getting feedback is! Hearing what people want and need is crucial! Its the reason why small firms are more nimble, simply because they move fast and are able to change rapidly from the feedbacks they received. Also important is that through talking, I noticed many times, people not only like to share painful experiences, they kind of impart their "ideal state" solution to you which can be incredibly helpful from a different perspective standpoint as well as a imaginative point. In fact, I would rather spend more time talking to people in person (which I am doing now) than to rub shoulders and network. Its like delayed gratification. Have incredible amount of pain upfront so there will be less (much less) hiccups later on in development.
• fivedogit 12y ago
  In my three previous businesses, I hustled and cold-called my way to paying customers (or at least valuable pilot programs) each time. But these were enterprise (B2B) businesses that could cut relatively large monthly checks. The reward was absolutely worth the lift. That said, I'm having a hard time making the leap that for some consumer internet products with hefty cold-start issues cold calling is still a viable strategy. For a product that has no network effect and is useful for the first user (e.g. Google search), sure, I'll buy it. For a product that needs 10+ people to start getting useful (e.g. Facebook), sure. But for a product that needs multiple thousands of users to start getting useful, how does cold calling still make sense? These 1x1 users would come to your product, say "Um, it's a ghost town.", and then leave, never to return. Wouldn't the founders be better off putting effort into PR (TC, Pando, etc)? TLDR. I'm not arguing that non-scaling hustle is not important -- I've seen the results myself, first hand. But doesn't the type of product really dictate how effective it will be, and therefore, how strongly should be prioritized over other avenues?