I woke up this morning and decided I'm not building a McDonalds. I'm building a fine-dining establishment.
My operations partner and I have been clocking crazy hours to reach our Jan 18 launch date for our first digital product, which is a workflow template that we're developing based on methodology honed during my first-hand experience at high-growth startups (like this one and this one). Our objective is to make this workflow (built on Notion) and decision training (videos + content) a lot more accessible to founders and operators of all stripes.
It's not just a Notion template. It's a Growth System.
And it's not just a passive income generator (God willing). It's the first digital product which is an expression of my firm's mission. That is to help mission-driven driven teams make smarter growth decisions.
I want us to see a 99% satisfaction rate, and I'm willing to put money behind it (money back within 30 days; no questions asked). Call me a perfectionist. I'll take it as a compliment.
I want us to onboard dozens of individuals and teams at first, not 100s. I believe this go to market strategy will help us develop deeper relationships with our early adopter base, position our team to help drive results through coaching and guidance, more efficiently squash bugs and identify areas for improvement.
We want to deeply understand product usage stats and behaviors, and play a role in shaping customer stories and testimonials. Yes, our low-touch product revenue is going to take a hit, but we can afford that right now and I believe it's a wise bet. I'm grateful we have the luxury of moving a bit slower with a rolling launch.
While I do envision selling 100s of copies of the app this year (I recently posted that ambition to twitter, so now you know it's real😂), and then 1000s longer term, I'm not willing to sacrifice value add and customer delight for speed to market. When it comes to business strategy, I'm challenging myself to think in years, not weeks. This is going to be a large shop, not a superstore.
I won't bore you with any more details about my why and my decision process, but know that there was a much longer personal journal entry preceding this post.
Here's a taste of what we have in store for our customers:
You can register for early access to the Growth System through this form.
To bring the restaurant metaphor full circle...
In fine-dining (vs fast food), the food usually tastes better—and as a restaurateur, you tend to care a lot more about getting things right for your customer.
It's about creating that first magical experience, but more importantly, it's about leaving a lasting impression which keeps your customer coming back. And it's about creating a snowball effect where each new customer becomes your patron and advocate, talking about their experience to others.
From Day 1 it's all about the relationship. And in business terms, that relationship is almost entirely one-sided, with the restauranteur going above and beyond to get things right.
Looking forward to hearing from you, and helping you (at some point this year) make smarter growth decisions.
❤️
Inspo
Nick Kokonas - Know What You Are Selling
Nick is the CEO of Tock and co-owner of some of the world’s best restaurants & bars: Alinea, Next, and The Aviary. (via Colossus / Invest Like the Best)
That's a huge bummer since you just "woke up up this morning and decided..." Did you text or FaceTime your partner at all about your decision? Were they upset at all? I feel for you because founder disagreements can be really hard—I've been through it! I hope you two can resolve your conflict!
That's a bummer. I don't want you to be mad at yourself for failing yourself by having too many customers. If that happens, it just happens, you know?
Good advice. We should all wait for the Growth System not the template.
hey @MostlyHuman, appreciate you taking the time to leave feedback. I thought I might get flack for my comment about communicating with my partner. Generally speaking, he and I are very close and divide up decision areas. I own major product decisions and go to market strategy, both of which have been evolving on weekly basis since we signed an agreement in early Dec. It actually started as an online course so the product evolution cycles have been quite drastic. We have at least a dozen customer feedback calls (and counting) to support these shifts. This is not an excuse and I fully agree with your sentiment about keeping the team aligned. I'd venture to sum this up in one word: Trust.
Also, while yes, I "woke up and decided this morning," I'm bringing over a decade of experience growing privately held companies including two very large startups, I work with many early-stage startups in a mentor and client capacity on a regular basis, and I read a lot. (ex: Some decisions, like this one, might be more intuitive versus "data-driven," but there's a lot of decision context).
Re - scale. I recommend you listen to this 1-minute quote from the founder and CEO of Tock. If that doesn't change your mind, you're probably not our customer. And there are plenty of other growth frameworks for you to benefit from.