Has anyone built a successful business in the industry they didn't know about initially?
I'm just wondering if there's anyone out there who identified a business opportunity in the market they had no idea about in the beginning but managed to build a profitable business. If so, I'd love to hear your story.
Hello there,
I kind of did. As a software engineer, I had no valuable experience in the HR field.
At the time, I was working as a consultant for IBM Consulting Services. I was working directly in my client office.
As many knows, consultants often feel they work for the client directly rather than working for the consulting services firm they work for. This happens for many reasons, but mainly because they lack touchpoints with their actual colleagues and bosses.
As I was seeing a lot of my fellow IBM colleagues leaving the firm to join their client businesses instead, I felt there was something I could do.
So I made a piece of software that would send a quick survey (5 yes/no questions + open comment) every week to all the employees of a company. Answers were not tied to an individual, i.e., answering the survey was anonymous (technically, I sent you a nonce token that would erase from the database once you used it).
It initially helped IBM to keep more employees and other companies which IBM talked to. They made most of my sale pitch. I eventually left IBM to work on that software full time.
My lack of HR knowledge made me put together software that was designed for the employees, not by the HR department. I guess that's what worked out.
I eventually sold my company to a large HR organization, which went bankrupt five years later. My product died at the same time.
When I sold that company, I started to freelance as a software engineer. I was frustrated with the poor options for freelance accounting at that time, so I created an accounting software for freelancers (https://www.momenteo.com), which I sold two years ago. Suffice to say I am not an accountant either.
So yes, you definitely can. I think it is a huge advantage to do so. Just make sure you can talk to people in that field when you have questions :)
Do you think it is different today? Content marketing demands you to write a lot about the field and expects you to be an expert on the topic.
That's not the only marketing channel. And even if it was there are ways around it like podcasting and interviewing experts.
You don't have to be the one that knows the most.
wow that's an inspiring story. Thanks for sharing. BTW, I don't think I quite understood your motivation behind working on that HR product. Did you work on it to better understand why your coworkers were leaving?
Thanks!
At the time, I was very corporate and very proud to work for IBM. I was 23 and leading a couple of projects as a senior software engineer. I could not understand why someone would leave such a great company, and I was trying to keep my colleagues I cared about close to me. I was also trying to help my "local chapter" of IBM Consulting Services to be as profitable as it could. I was [too] deeply involved.
I am now 34 and learned a couple of things along the way ;-)
What advice would you give to determine if you are too deeply involved or not?
I'd say if you're doing things outside of your job description for the good of company, then you're too deeply involved.
Being deeply involved is not a problem per se. The problem is when gratitude and recognition are not on par with your involvement. Frustration will arise in those case, so you'll know if you are too involved.
Crazy to say, but I had never really been in a "top-line" music studio, had no music industry experience, and I can't even sing or play an instrument...and I started Studiotime (www.studiotime.io).
Having said that, most of my friends are in the industry, so after I built and launched it (mainly just for fun and with an overwhelming inclination it was a needed marketplace), the learning curve was expedited since I had the needed industry insights, domain expertise, and industry guidance available.
Not quite sure if it was a good or bad thing, but I guess this is a real example of it being possible to bootstrap and build a successful revenue generating business in a market/industry you don't have experience in.
From personal experience of doing that for my first startup, the amount of energy and resources spent on trying to identify and build something for people I didn't understand in a field I didn't have any knowledge of, was mentally and financially crippling. Not saying don't do it... but the extra hurdles definitely work against you at every turn. It's hard enough to succeed and stay motivated in an industry you do already know. I wouldn't ever want to go through that again!
If you are entering a market you have no experience in, it would help to learn about it as you go along so you can answer customer questions.
I've built DaycareIQ/KidGenius in an industry I didn't really know about (childcare/daycare). It is very tough for a few reasons.
First, you don't speak their language, you don't understand their processes and this can be hard to learn. Take for example our first product attempt. Our idea was the launch an online waitlist system. Parents would create one profile for their child and put that child on many waitlists for daycare. As we saw it, this was an improvement of the current system which is parents individually put their child on separate waitlists (each with their own form, requirements and sometimes a fee). We built the product and when we went to talk with customers, they didn't want to change their ways. They didn't want their process or flow to change. Many operators had been doing it for 20-30 years and were still stuck with a piece of paper with names on it. We dumped that product and changed. It's really hard to build a product and know if there will be acceptance if you don't work in the industry or have good knowledge about it. I'm not saying it's not impossible to learn, just very difficult and creates extra work/presents new hurdles.
The second issue is passion. Often times if you aren't knowledgeable or working in the industry, it might also mean you aren't passionate about it. That passion is needed when you are up at 2am trying to find the source of a bug before your customers wake up and find it.
So today I came across this story on starterstory.com that is about this exact topic. I had to find this post again. The Founders didn't even own pairs of cowboy boots, yet created a $100m cowboy boot company! https://starterstory.com/stories/country-outfitter