Ask IH: What do you want to know about an early stage startup?
Hey IndieHackers,
I'm launching a product of mine (UserCompass) in a couple weeks, and I'm toying with the idea of transparency, especially in the early stage of launch to initial customers (0-100 maybe?). I've started down this line by doing a "daily twog" but I'm contemplating taking that up a notch.
My question to IH is: What info would you want to know about that launch to initial customers stage? There's a lot that can be shared, some automatable and others more manual, but really there's no point in sharing unless people are interested in what is shared. I could give some examples but I don't want to bias the responses, so I'll leave it open here.
I'd love to hear people's thoughts if you get a mo. Cheers!
I would be interested in the process of directly talking to your first 100 leads and customers, their raw comments and excuses for not buying, and how you evaluate the feedback and bake it into the next iteration.
Nice one, thanks Kenn. Agree that process is key, will bare that in mind and share what I can there.
I would be interested to know the tactics that you're using and are not working as you expected rather than the succesful ones.
Many people focus only in what have worked for them and try to explain why, but almost nobody tells what have not worked for them and why they think it happened.
Oh cool, so try to even out the stories, rather than just success stories which everyone shares, talk about the ones that didn't work out and why. Overall gives a better indication of what to expect from using different tactics/channels.
Thanks Palmerotti 🙏
Yes! Maybe it's a personal opinion but I tend to trust and empathize more with people who talk about their "failures" transparently. I know they are honest because they're showing it to me.
I also find more valuable their content when they talk about their "successes" because knowing where they've failed help me understand why and how they've success. It's the full picture.
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I would be most interested in your engagement and conversion numbers. E.g. how many people you have signed up for your launch list, what your tactics for reaching out to them will be and how many people convert at what stage. Also same for whatever other marketing channels you're using to drive traffic. Just general transparency about # visits, sign ups, revenue, etc. and the tactics you're using to get them.
Hey thanks Cory! That's super interesting. So primarily funnel stats, and a little explanation around them, if I understand you right? Cool, that's really useful to know.
If anything else comes to mind definitely let me know 🙌