Founders should seek funding when they have a clear market opportunity, defined customer base, and a product with impressive adoption rates.
Campus Angels Network’s Post
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Adopting an innovative mindset can help you find new and better ways to address customer pain points. Learn how to become the disruptor in your market. #InnovationMindset #Disruptor https://vist.ly/3cvbh
How to find opportunities in the market -
https://excelbizsolutions.com.au
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Understanding User Perspective: During the problem stage, founders conduct market research and customer discovery to gain insights into the problem they're solving. Testing product ideas and prototypes helps identify what resonates with potential customers and users. #UserPerspective #ProblemStage https://lnkd.in/eZjiXFmj
The four stages of Startup building; the problem stage - Ian Dixon - Growth Advisor
https://growthadvisor.uk
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My first startup crashed at a price of poor cash management. Balancing costs and value is an art. I mastered this art by tracking these three startup metrics. 1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) This metric measures the total cost associated with acquiring a new customer. Why? ↳ To assess the effectiveness of their acquisition efforts. ↳ To make informed decisions on resource allocation. 2. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) How much revenue does each customer bring over their lifespan with your company? Why? ↳ To understand the long-term value of their customers. ↳ To craft customer retention strategies. 3. Customer Retention The ability of a company to retain its customers over a specific period. Why? ↳ High retention rates indicate satisfied customers. ↳ Businesses can reduce customer acquisition costs and increase revenue through repeat purchases and upsells from loyal customers. Customer retention is the most important of all. What is the purpose of bringing 100 new users every month when you cannot retain them till the next month? It shows how much your product is loved. Each of these metrics offers a lens through which you can view your business's health and trajectory. Track them rigorously. The fate of your startup depends on it. #StartupMetrics #CustomerRetention #BusinessGrowth
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Author of Scale Up Faster, Inc. Magazine Columnist, Sell-Side Advisor, Business Growth Coach, Speaker, 6X Founder with 4 Exits, Online/Mobile Voting Founder and CEO, and Classic Rock Drummer.
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁/𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵. Many companies take customer feedback and either don’t do anything with the input or make only incremental improvements to their product or service. You can more predictably and successfully launch new products by working closely with your customers and community to invent new products and services that serve them better. Doing this effectively means launching new offerings you know will surely hit the mark. Silicon Valley and the tech industry refer to this as finding product/market fit, but I don’t see it used more broadly, even though it’s an incredibly powerful concept for all businesses. To nail this, you must be great at listening to direct customer feedback and, more importantly, customer cues. In my research of the fastest-growing bootstrapped companies, most of the companies I studied effectively ignored their competition and created their own path forward. They could do this because they deeply understood their markets—either because they were their own customers like Farmgirl Flowers or because they had a customer feedback loop and engagement process to learn what the market was actively looking for. As Christina Fiasconaro, 振平 韩’s EVP of Supply told me: “𝘞𝘦’𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. 𝘞𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘱.” An example of co-innovation is OneScreen’s “Guru button.” Sufian Munir, the CEO of OneScreen, told me that they saw so many electronic whiteboards in classrooms with layers of dust from non-use that they started asking their customers why they weren’t being used. The teachers didn’t have the time for extensive training and didn’t want to appear ignorant in front of their students. To solve this problem, they hired a small team of engineers and created a “guru button” that, when pressed, teachers could get instant help 7X24—at no charge. The Guru Button helped OneScreen compete more effectively, take market share, and grow faster. What’s your ”Guru Button,” and how are you co-innovating with your customers to ensure more successful product and service offerings? - Pete Find out more > www.scaleupfaster.com #growthhacking #businessowner #businessgrowth #entrepreneurship #scaleupfaster
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Marketplace traction is extremely hard to get when you are just starting a business.. It requires serious patience, persistence, as well as a good valuable product. In order to have a great product, there needs to be some sort of value associated with it. This could be a good bang for you buck, something that solves a daily issue, or even something that saves you time. There are so many ways and different things that can help add value. Once a product is created that adds a true value to the consumer's life, there will organically be traction. Once traction starts picking up, then the sales will start converting and the company grows. This all happens in orderly fashion with every company. However, it is important to remember that value needs to be created first in order to get traction. Once the traction is established, this is a direct indicator that there is value created! Link: https://lnkd.in/gbsVZRBQ
Validation: Be Sure Your Startup Vision Isn't a Hallucination. 2 Minutes to See Why
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🌏 Thailand Business Expert | Founder & CEO, Aditya Group | Entrepreneur | Business Consultant | Inspiring Growth & Creativity | Empowering Businesses | #AndeInspires 🚀
🔍 Why You Shouldn't Develop Products Before Evaluating Customer Demand 🔍 In the fast-paced world of business, it's tempting to dive headfirst into developing a product or service without thoroughly evaluating the demand for it. However, taking the time to assess customer demand before investing significant resources can save you valuable time, money, and effort in the long run. Here are a few key reasons why: 1️⃣ Customer-Centric Approach: By evaluating customer demand first, you adopt a customer-centric mindset. Understanding your target audience's needs, preferences, and pain points allows you to tailor your product to meet their specific requirements. This approach increases the likelihood of creating a solution that truly resonates with your customers and delivers value. 2️⃣ Market Validation: Assessing customer demand provides market validation for your product or service. It helps you determine if there is a viable market for your offering and if customers are willing to pay for it. This validation reduces the risk of developing a product that doesn't have sufficient demand, leading to potential financial losses. 3️⃣ Competitive Advantage: Evaluating customer demand allows you to identify gaps in the market and gain a competitive advantage. By understanding what customers are looking for and where current solutions fall short, you can position your product as a unique and compelling offering that addresses their specific needs. This differentiation can give you an edge over competitors and increase your chances of success. 4️⃣ Resource Optimization: Developing a product without evaluating customer demand can result in wasted resources. It can lead to overproduction, excess inventory, or investing in features or functionalities that customers don't value. By conducting thorough market research and customer analysis, you can allocate your resources more effectively, focusing on areas that will drive customer satisfaction and business growth. 5️⃣ Iterative Development: Evaluating customer demand before product development allows for an iterative approach. You can gather valuable feedback, make necessary adjustments, and refine your offering based on customer input. This iterative process increases the chances of creating a product that meets customer expectations, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Remember, understanding customer demand doesn't mean you have to abandon innovative ideas. It's about ensuring that your innovation aligns with customer needs and market trends. This is an extension to my YouTube content - Why 90% of Startups fail - https://lnkd.in/gGgg47U6. Do subscribe. #CustomerDemand #MarketValidation #CustomerCentricity #ProductDevelopment #MarketResearch #BusinessStrategy #Innovation #CompetitiveAdvantage #ResourceOptimization #IterativeDevelopment #Entrepreneurship #StartupSuccess #MarketAnalysis #ProductMarketFit #CustomerNeeds #andeaditya
Why 90% of Startups Fail | Top 10 Reasons and Valuable Tips for Young Entrepreneurs
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People-First Operator & Team Builder 🌟 | Revenue & Growth Leader 📈 | Edtech Nerd & DTC Expert 🤓| Mom x 3 💪
Don’t skip customer discovery. According to HBR, this is the NUMBER ONE reason start-ups fail. I would argue that this is also why new products at big companies fail. We justify building based on capabilities we have, ideas executives have, or technologies we think are cool. Then we go to customers and try to get them to like it. This makes marketing and sales’ job 1000% harder. Who wants to sell a solution without a problem? Starting with customer discovery means: 🤔 Problem definition- Conduct rigorous interviews with potential customers and which resist temptation to pitch our solutions. 💡 Solution development- Once we have identified priority customer segments and gained a deep understanding of unmet needs, the team needs to surface a RANGE of solutions (without bias to what we have already.) 🎯 Solution validation- To evaluate the demand for the favored solution, run a series of MVP tests. What’s interesting about this is that there’s a lot of overlap between problem definition and persona development. We need to define WHO our product is for and WHAT they care about before creating solutions or building MVPs to test against them. Nail this and the product marketing, positioning, and differentiation are so much easier. Plus, when marketing, product, sales & tech leaders partner on customer discovery, we achieve alignment before talking to customers. Do you know how much better it looks when we're all singing out of the same hymn book? 📖
Why Start-ups Fail
hbr.org
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Implementing Growth Marketing Implementing Growth Marketing Strategies 📈: It’s about process over hacks. A systematic approach and understanding user psychology are key to driving growth. How does your organization align marketing, product, and engineering for better customer retention? #BusinessGrowth #Innovation https://lnkd.in/eD266GJb
How to Get Users and Grow - Alex Schultz, VP of Growth at Facebook - Stanford CS183F: Startup School
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Founder & CEO at ProcUrPal | Leveraging 24 Years of Leadership Excellence from Lenovo, Xerox, Sify & Reliance | "Innovative Leader of the Year Award"- Business Connect Magazine| WAHStory "Spotlight Award 50Under50" |
#VikiStartupDiary : Join me as I navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, sharing insights, lessons, and inspiration along the way. Post #42 Customer #Acquisition vs #Retention: Finding the #RightBalance for Startup Success As founders navigating the dynamic startup landscape, we often grapple with the question: Where should our focus lie, customer acquisition or retention? In the fast-paced world of startups, the quest for growth often centers around customer acquisition. While gaining new customers is essential for expansion, it's equally crucial to focus on customer retention. Why is this balance so important? 🔍 #Acquisition brings in new customers, expanding your reach and driving initial revenue. It's the engine that fuels growth and attracts investor interest. 🛡️ #Retention, on the other hand, nurtures existing relationships, boosts customer lifetime value, and turns one-time buyers into loyal advocates. A loyal customer base not only drives repeat business but also lowers acquisition costs in the long run. Striking the right balance between acquisition and retention is key to sustainable growth. Here are my 5 tips to help you navigate this balancing act: 1 #UnderstandYourCustomerJourney: Map out the customer journey to identify touchpoints where you can enhance both acquisition and retention efforts. 2 #PersonalizeCustomerInteractions: Use data-driven insights to tailor your marketing and customer service strategies, making customers feel valued and understood. 3 #InvestInCustomerSuccess: Provide exceptional post-sale support to ensure customers derive maximum value from your product or service. 4 #FeedbackLoop: Establish a feedback mechanism to continuously gather insights from customers, enabling you to refine your offerings and address any concerns proactively. 5 #CommunityBuilding: Foster a sense of community among your customers through events, forums, or social media engagement, encouraging interactions and loyalty. In conclusion, a balanced approach that harmonizes customer acquisition with retention is essential for sustainable growth and long-term success in the startup world. Let's aim to build startups that not only attract new customers but also nurture lasting relationships, laying a solid foundation for growth and innovation. #StartupSuccess #CustomerAcquisition #CustomerRetention #BalancedApproach #SustainableGrowth #ProcUrPal
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DEMYSTIFYING PRODUCT-MARKET FIT: A PATHWAY TO START-UP SUCCESS A startup might be delivering a cool answer to a problem, but if the problem isn't affecting a large enough group of potential customers, that business won't have the market needed to exist. That’s why a huge 42% of startup failures were due to poor market fit (CB Insights). Now it is more clear why achieving product-market fit is a crucial milestone for the success of any startup. Discover what is Product Market Fit and how to achieve it at our blog: https://lnkd.in/gugSpmv4. ----- Enosta - Unbox Your Growth ✉️ [email protected] 📬 m.me/enosta.agency 🌏 https://enosta.com/ 📍Da Nang, Vietnam - Melbourne, Australia #Enosta #Productmarketfit
Understanding Product Market Fit: Definition, Examples & Strategies
enosta.com
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