So my competitor just signed up to my mvp..
Eeep.
Its a strange feeling - on one hand - awesome that my ads and first page ranking on google is working. On the other hand, it feels super awkard haha. I dont really know why though!
Just figured id post this on here as this is my first full release of MVP with ads and everything - documenting the experience!
Also, my email list has grown to a whopping 3 subscribers! :D
That's fine, It means that they recognize you as their future competitor. But, most important is how you get feedback from real users, so you can learn and improve quickly as possible...
Do you have any tips for the best way to aquire this feedback? I want it, im just not sure how to collect it.
I think the best way is to talk to your potential users personally. If you have already their email list, then start to send them an email. Remember, it must be a personal email, not email campaign.
If you don't have their email list, try to find them. I personally use LinkedIn a lot to reach my target users. Or you can use tools like RocketReach.
If you think those people are highly qualified users, then you should give a chance to meet for a one-on-one interview.
I think Alex Turnbull knows how to do it properly: https://www.groovehq.com/blog/customer-development
Asking on LinkedIn seems like a good idea, would love to see how you approach this? What kind of message do you use to get people to reply and doesn't too promotional?
It seems quite tricky, but sometimes work just fine, I just search person I want to target, connect, wait until they approve, then message them on LinkedIn message, or find a business email on "Contact Info" section (It will open once you've been connected)
But, sometimes you need a faster way, so once you get the name and company of person you want to reach out, you don't need to connect and wait, instead, you just check the possibility of their business email, the common pattern is
first_name@companydomain, eg: rizki@chatkoo.com
first_name.last_name@companydomain, eg: taylor.hatmaker@techcrunch.com
and test the email using a tool like hunter.io
then I email them, the simple message like this, it's just an example
subject: Quick Question
Hi {first_name},
I know your email from your LinkedIn, I am reaching out because I think you do a lot of {role} at {company}.
I have an idea to {product value}, but not sure if it will really work. I am not looking to sell anything, but I’d love to get your advice on my idea so I don’t build the wrong thing.
If you’re available, I’d love to chat for just 20 minutes – Thur or Fri morning?
Thanks,
Rizki
This is really awsome infos, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for that - its a great start. I will read the blog and send out a personal email with the launch of the actual product (I say actual, its the same product but with the ability to actually pay / use it :D
That's fine, they just test the waters to see if you are a dangerous competitor :)
what's your website?
My main competitor signed up with like 10 fake accounts since I kept deleting them. At first I was very flattered, but started to become very annoying really quick.
Having a better product priced a few times lower without any outside funding, it's a nightmare for a competitor....since then I got a few customers switching from them and no one to them(I can actually check that).
just curious, how can you check that?
I am not sure that deleting accounts created by a competitor is a good idea. If you do so, they know you are afraid (in some ways) and they may be attempted to create even more accounts with fake anonymous emails. In your case, I would profit from the situation, even do the opposite by asking questions or displaying fake content and bugs letting them believe you are a poor competitor ;)
I believe it was a good idea since it didn't get to see/test the strongest features....they are a bit lost, they shift their direction every 3 months....probably investors are not happy. By "default" I was afraid of competition since I was new and just entered the market(who isn't?). They are 10x-20x bigger than me and got almost their entire team trying to create accounts...tbh, they looked desperate.
All this gave me the idea to set the sign up allowing only emails associated to the domain name(which is also required on sign up). Free email accounts and invalid domains are not allowed which helped me cleaning the signups quite a lot.
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Haha I like the sound of that! Im about to launch the 'real' product this week. :)