ASK-IH: How to proceed next?
I've so far interviewed around 10 prospects and they all seemed interested in what I want to build and sell. Those were different types of companies, from small to enterprise.
My idea was that I'd start selling pre-orders to finance the development.
However, I found myself in the following situation:
- Enterprise have their sales processes strictly defined and they are not ready for "new" ways of purchasing software.
- Startups, on the other hand, are very frugal when it comes to any expenses, even though, my offer gives them a significant discount if they take it now.
Moreover, both parties seem to want to see a proven track of record before buying anything.
My question now is whether I should continue searching for other prospect profiles and hopefully find those who'd get pre-orders OR just build whatever MVP I can come up with, test it with smaller companies (maybe even for free?), and use that data as my "track of record" when selling it for real.
What would you do, folks?
#ask-ih
proceed with caution. this is a trap a lot of people fall into. you never want to base business decisions on hypotheticals. For example, someone telling you they would buy your app is effectively worthless. Ask them:
why haven't you solved this problem before
what have you done to think about solving this problem
why dont the other solutions work for you
when they say they haven't tried to solve but WOULD buy your solution run for the hills. You don't want to create a market as a bootstrapper (unless you're really really special).
If no one needs your proposed solution so bad they're willing to pay for the most simple crappy POS mvp you can build in 2 weeks do not build.
As Jason Cohen says, you need to find the 1 feature they will pay today for. In his case it was super fast managed WP. (he has a lot more informed blog posts at asmartbear.com).
You should read "The Mom Test" to continue this above^
Both are valid strategies.
I think you should try to find someone willing to pre-pay, even if that means asking for a lower price.
As you know, words and actions don't always coincide.
I think getting them to prepay is ideal, if you can get them to do that. However, if you aren't able to get them to do that, it doesn't mean there's no market for your idea. Prepaying for anything is a hard sell, especially when it's new.
May I suggest a middle road/hybrid approach?
Talk to even more prospects, but don't pitch them your idea. Ask them in general terms what their greatest pain points are. Whatever gets mentioned the most, build a solution for that. Once you've conceptualized a solution, run it by them, by asking, "Will you pay for this?" not "Would you pay for this?"
Get those who say yes to sign a non-binding letter of intent, if they won't prepay you. Get 5-10 such letters, I'm sure your idea has legs.