

Ask HN: What should I do with a product that I built but could not market? - noobplusplus

I started on my own. I have been sleeping over my startup for the past 9 months. The first 3 months went into reading about lean startup, and learning about it.
Next customer interviews, and prototype, then full fleged product, then iterated after few more customer interviews. It all took around 7 months.<p>Assembled a team on equity, they both did not agree together, one told me to get rid of the the other, having done that, the other felt insecure and left. Today after 9 months I am alone the product is sort of a classified(but much more than that).<p>Marketing is a big challenge. The product is ready, what should I do with it, it is a consumer application??<p>If anyone is interested, you could mail me anstrew99@gmail.com
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PaybackTony
Generally speaking, I've tried to stay away from messing with products or
services that require a lot of marketing, and go with ones that tend to market
themselves. General ideas (such as classifieds) have big potential, but
require the most work to get sustainable traction.

With that said, building the product is half the battle. Put it up by
yourself. The biggest question you need answered right now is what do random
visitors to your service think of the overall concept? Any flavor of
classifieds websites will have some kind of critical mass, but that wont stop
a few visitors from making an attempt at using it. If you get some positive
feedback, or even negative, use it. If it's positive, it will go a long way in
finding a valuable partner. It will give you hard data to share that will
start to pave a path for you.

The problem with splitting a pie that hasn't been baked is that nobody knows
what the flavor will be. You may be a great baker but the consumers are the
ones who will inevitably decide your offering (Apple).

Once you get a basic data set from those few visitors you were able to
convince to at least give your service a glance, now it's time to grow your
inventory. The best things you can do as a lean start-up is find some mutual
business relationships. Can car dealers post some of their inventory on your
site? If so, they would love to do it and it gives you a little bit of
content. There are many other similar circumstances you can find yourself in.
I find it most effective when you can get other businesses to sell your
product for you because it enhances their own.

To get back to the root answer here, my suggestion is do a solo soft launch.
Gather usage data from early visitors, and use it to grow your inventory and
perhaps more importantly, find a valuable partner.

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ulisesrmzroche
If you are selling a product that someone buys for themselves, not for their
company, then it is a consumer application. However, since you are running a
classified you are actually in the consumer-to-consumer model though some of
its practitioners call this the "two-sided marketplace" which sounds snazzier.
Admittedly, there are some differences from other kinds of advertising, but by
and large advertising is mostly the same, so the same techniques used from
other advertising cross over.

The first thing to remember is how you make money. You make money by getting
together buyers and sellers. You are expected to get out of the way and let
them get to their business. However, in order to have any hope of success you
have to attract buyers and sellers, so they have to know your there. You must
differentiate from your competition loud and clear. So how do you do this?

Research has shown that the most successful commodity products differentiate
themselves in one of two ways. Either by low cost or by having the best
reputation for quality or service. Advertising can help you spread the news
about any price advantage you may have, and it can work wonders in creating a
reputation for quality or service. And if it works for bolts, washing
machines, and lawyers, why not for your classifieds? If your headline doesn't
mention that you are cheaper, provide high quality or great service, then I
advise you to change that. This will immediately work and create more
traction, enough true data at least, so that you can start measuring it with
your metrics tools and make it grow.

If you find yourself that you need a hand with your startup, you can send me
an email at ulisesrmzroche@gmail.com or go to ulisesrmzroche.github.io to
learn more about me.

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allenp
Some ideas:

Could you turn it into a white label app and sell it to businesses for their
own internal use or to other entrepreneurs?

Could you find a niche that needs this sort of app with certain features
tailored to their needs. Example: Auction software (general idea) made
specifically for buying/selling live aquarium fish (custom/niche).

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Techpope
Am I right to assume that you can technically handle the idea on your own? If
that is the case I would launch and try to get some people to use it(I know
that it sounds easier than it is). If these people really like it, there's a
chance that it could take off on its own without any significant additional
promotion.

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Sealy
Launch it as a single founder. If its ready, then there's no harm in seeing if
your product can gain traction by itself. What's the worse that could happen?
If it takes off, you won't need to ask people to come on board, they will be
asking to join you.

~~~
noobplusplus
Your product, can't get traction on its own. It needs focussed effort to gain
traction.

