How do I gauge interest in my startup concept?

[tootie]

I'm trying to rev up a startup with a couple of friends. We're all devs and we're just sort of throwing up code and ideas towards an MVP. We're doing a B2B SaaS thing that already has a pretty big market. We're just trying to iterate on existing products and beat them on price and style. We really know nothing about running a business or getting customers. Obviously we can't predict the future, but should we keep hacking at our MVP, or should try to find early adopters to help guide our features?

[ScottWhigham]

We're just trying to iterate on existing products and beat them on price and style. We really know nothing about running a business or getting customers.

There comes a point when you just have to decide which questions are the most important ones to ask "the community". You only have (a) so much time to ask questions, (b) so much patience from your audience/viewers/commenters, and (c) so much knowledge with which to sift/filter through the answers you get and decide what's good/bad/etc. So given that your time is a valuable resource, you can't waste it asking the most basic of questions (as you've done). There are better resources available for the low hanging fruit - you should spend your time researching how to create a great product and less asking people generic questions.

Upon reading that, I realize it sounds a bit harsh but it's the truth. I read a lot of things on HN and think, "This is what a founder should know, and if you have to ask such a basic question, you aren't 'there' yet. You need to do more fundamental work to learn what starting a company is all about." You've asked a generic question that has 10,000 answers. Let's say that 50 people respond - they will respond with 50 very different answers (b/c you've made the question so broad and basic). Which ones will be 'right'? Perhaps all 50. How will you know which one to do? How much time will you spend attempting to follow someone's advice only to find out it was a "dry hole"? Spend more time coming up with a quality question and you'll likely get quality answers.

Of course, this is HN and sometimes people surprise you with great answers that meet what you need.

[OnyeaboAduba → ScottWhigham]

One of the best responses Ive seen on here in a while

[beat]

So you're going after an existing market with existing products, trying to "beat them on price and style".

That won't work.

Changing products costs, more than just money. So people and businesses won't change what they're currently using unless strongly motivated to do so, either due to the shortcomings of existing solutions (which would have to really suck), or because your solution actually solves problems that existing competitors do not.

If you go after an existing market on price, the established players can simply underprice you until you die. If you go on style, they have at least a chance of improving their style - assuming style really matters in a B2B context anyway. But really, you need a bigger differentiator than price/style, or you'll find yourself in a race to the bottom against players with a strong competitive advantage over you.

[hkarthik → beat]

I agree 100% with this. It takes a lot more than style and price to sell an app.

You need to understand the customer base a bit more. The best pricing and the most style may not be enough of a differentiator for many of the potential customers you are courting.

Get involved in selling the product before you build the product. It's way too easy to end up building the wrong thing if you don't talk to customers early.

[ulisesrmzroche → beat]

beat is completely right. Just to add on a bit to the risk aspect, you have to keep in mind that the sales process is much longer because your customers are groups of highly-informed individuals discussing how spending their money might affect their whole business.

The way to sell b2b apps is to focus almost exclusively on branding and positioning at first. It is very hard to find early adopters here. They need to feel safe about using your product because buying unfamiliar brands implies financial risks. Or maybe they they don't like it, or it doesn't meet their requirements, and there's also a lot more politics involved.

[BastianH]

Not a professional in this field, but still have some tips that might help:

* Market before release. Don't build your product and release when it's finished. Try to get people on board as early as possible

* Write mails to pretty much everyone you know and don't know (Blogs, Teachers, Family)

* Be careful when telling people about your idea. Don't be aggressive, accept and value their opinions, maybe give them a little something when they are interested (a test account, small plan etc.)

* Maybe throw together a beta/alpha

* Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKYkmYuk5l8

Hope this helps. Good luck!

[helen842000]

You need to spend some serious time with people that use your competitor's product day-in day-out.

Ask to sit with them, watch them work. Find companies that use it, ask why & when they chose it. What kind of agreement they're on.

Often moving away from a crappy product is really really difficult if you have to take your data with you. That's often the main reason crappy products stay in business is because people are scared attempting to even broach the subject of leaving because it's a major overhaul.

Don't compete on price - ever. Customers that move to you because of price will also move away when a competitor prices lower, and there will always be someone willing to cut margins low enough to put you both out of business.

Compete on quality, insight, deeper research into how the product is used.

[shawnreilly]

I would recommend The Lean Startup by Eric Reis. I wouldn't want to try and generalize the book, but essentially you propose a hypothesis, and then test your hypothesis using a Build/Measure/Learn feedback loop. This creates an environment that trains you to validate your ideas/approach, which in turn facilitates the most effective use of your (and your team’s) time and resources. Anyway, getting back to your question, I would do both concurrently and use the feedback from your customers to validate the features / functionality you build into your MVP.

[ig1]

Find customers.

Trying to win on price is a bad idea, it's a painful race to the bottom. It's a much better idea to speak to people who need your product and understand what are the major pain points with the current solutions they're using and figure out how to solve them.

[manasnutcase]

Find some customers before building the product. Make sure you build what they think they need.. not what you think they need.