[6 months later] 4 unexpected lessons I’ve learned after going through Y Combinator this year

[blurredcontours]

@tictoc Thanks for posting this. We're starting to look for early adopters and I've definitely gone too broad just looking for sales as opposed to the "hair on fire" type. Thanks to this, I'm gonna refocus on finding the right people to start out with when the holidays are over.

 

[tictoc]

@blurredcontours Glad that was useful!

Once you do, it'll be so much easier to grow your customer base

I recommend approaching those conversations not as "sales" but more of a discovery. You're exploring the problems people have and whether your product solves them.

Something else that will help - look for people using alternative solutions. Ask them what they like / dislike about them. If someone is using an alternative solution, that means they care enough about the problem to want to solve it.

Hope this helps!

 

[613jono]

@tictoc Thanks for sharing, great read.

 

[vijayaraju]

@tictoc Wow this is amazing and I love the idea! I’m an app developer if you need any help I would love to help out. I’m currently working for a startup that partners with Shopify atm in the iOS mobile side (Swift). I would love to learn more about this project!

 

[dellaa]

@tictoc Great post. Are you guys planning to add any other countries apart from Canada and USA? We would subscribe today if you could offer U.K.

 

[tictoc]

@dellaa Thanks so much for your kind words! We do plan on adding UK numbers.

DM me your email and I'll add you to our waitlist for international numbers

If you have customers in the US, you can use OpenPhone in the UK for talking to people in the US and Canada. Not sure if that applies to you

 

[jnhermann]

@tictoc Hair on fire lesson is absolutely eye opening for me. So many instances where we have done focus groups for feedback on products yet like you say, the people giving feedback need to be well curated and experience first hand the problem you are trying to solve. Brilliant insight thank you.

 

[tictoc]

@jnhermann I'm so happy to hear that. All the best as you incorporate this in your work and good luck in 2019! Happy New Year!