Mike Pryke’s Post

"Before you jump into building your startup, it's important to validate that the problem exists, and that your solution would solve. Here’s some ways to do that: Talk to potential Users/Clients: The best feedback comes straight from potential users. Get out there and chat with people who would be your target audience. Ask about their pain points and see if your solution clicks with them. If your product involves different stakeholders, make sure to talk to all of them. I highly recommend reading The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. It’s packed with practical advice on having conversations that lead to honest and useful feedback, without the bias from friends and family. Create Landing Pages: Set up a landing page that explains your product or service. Include a call-to-action, like signing up for a newsletter, early access, or even prepayment. Tools like Webflow or Carrd make it easy to build professional-looking landing pages quickly. Watch the sign-ups and feedback to see how interested people are. If your product isn’t free, include the price and even a payment link for early access or extra features. It’s key to test whether users are willing to pay for your solution. Your product might be useful, but if no one is willing to pay for it, it's better to find out early. Run Small Campaigns: Try running small, low-cost campaigns to gauge interest. Use social media ads or Google Ads to drive traffic to a simple landing page. This can help you see what parts of your idea get the most attention and interest. Building the landing page is not enough, you also need to distribute it. Build a Small MVP: Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test your idea. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just needs to show the core value of your product. No Code platforms like Bubble or Flutterflow are great for building an MVP quickly and cheaply. You can save time and money and make sure you’re building something people actually want. #Startup #Validation #NoCode #ProductManagement #TheMomTest #Entrepreneurship"

The Step-by-Step PLG Playbook for Startups This is part 2 of a comprehensive 5-part series that will guide you through the process of implementing Product-Led Growth at your company. Each part dives into a specific aspect of PLG, providing actionable insights and best practices to help you execute successfully. In Part1 of this series (From Sales-Led to Product-Led: A Guide to the PLG Model | by Liat Ben-Zur | Jul, 2023 | Medium), we delved into the fundamentals of product-led growth (PLG), its importance, and the unique momentum it’s gaining in the SaaS world. Now, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and dive into the practical implementation of PLG in your startup. Here’s how you can start implementing PLG today: 1️⃣ Define Your Ideal Customer: Understand who your customers are and what they need to create an intuitive experience that resonates. Example: Calendly simplifies scheduling for professionals who value time efficiency. 2️⃣ Identify Core Problems: Pinpoint customer pain points to build solutions that offer real value. Example: Notion solves the issue of fragmented work tools by creating a unified workspace. 3️⃣ Design Intuitive Solutions: Make your product simple and user-friendly. Example: Figma lets teams collaborate on design in real-time, straight from their browser. 4️⃣ Seamless Onboarding: First impressions matter! Simplify signups and guide users through your product. Example: Loom makes video recording and sharing incredibly easy. 5️⃣ Build Engagement Hooks: Keep users coming back with features like gamification or personalized content. Example: Headspace uses streaks and reminders to keep users engaged in their meditation practice. 6️⃣ Encourage Sharing: Make it easy for users to share your product. Example: Revolut grows through referrals by rewarding users for bringing in new customers. 7️⃣ Optimize Conversion Funnels: Use data to experiment and refine your funnels. Example: Netflix nails onboarding and engagement with personalized recommendations. 8️⃣ Foster Advocacy: Turn your users into advocates by delighting them. Example: G2 motivates users to share reviews, creating valuable UGC. 9️⃣ Drive Ongoing Innovation: Never stop improving your product based on feedback and data. Example: Airtable constantly rolls out new features based on user needs. PLG isn’t just a growth strategy—it’s a mindset. How are you leveraging your product to drive growth? Let’s exchange strategies and insights! 💡 #ProductLedGrowth #SaaS #Startups #CustomerExperience #GrowthHacking #PLG #Innovation https://lnkd.in/ewuRrtQH

Starting your own startup journey can be an exciting yet challenging endeavor. Here are some steps to help you get started: Identify a Problem or Opportunity: Think about areas where there's a need for improvement or where you see potential for innovation. Look for problems that you are passionate about solving or opportunities that align with your interests and skills. Conduct Market Research: Once you have an idea, conduct thorough market research to understand the demand, competition, target audience, and market trends. This will help you validate your idea and refine your business concept. Develop a Business Plan: Create a detailed business plan outlining your goals, target market, value proposition, revenue model, marketing strategy, and operational plan. A well-thought-out business plan will serve as a roadmap for your startup journey and help you secure funding if needed. Build a Prototype or Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Develop a prototype or MVP to test your idea and gather feedback from potential customers. This will allow you to iterate and improve your product or service based on real-world insights. Secure Funding: Determine how much funding you need to launch and scale your startup. You can bootstrap, seek funding from friends and family, apply for grants, or pitch to investors. Be prepared to present your business idea convincingly and demonstrate the potential for growth and profitability. Build a Team: Surround yourself with talented individuals who share your vision and complement your skills. Assemble a team with expertise in areas such as product development, marketing, sales, finance, and operations. Create a Strong Brand: Develop a compelling brand identity that resonates with your target audience. This includes designing a logo, website, and marketing materials that reflect your company's values and unique selling proposition. Launch and Iterate: Once you're ready, launch your product or service to the market. Gather feedback from customers and use it to make continuous improvements. Stay agile and adaptable, and be willing to pivot if necessary based on market feedback and changing circumstances. Market and Promote Your Startup: Implement a comprehensive marketing strategy to generate awareness and attract customers. Utilize a mix of online and offline channels, such as social media, content marketing, email marketing, advertising, and networking events. Focus on Growth and Scaling: As your startup grows, focus on scaling your operations, acquiring more customers, and expanding into new markets. Continuously monitor your progress, adjust your strategy as needed, and stay committed to achieving your long-term goals. Starting a startup requires dedication, resilience, and a willingness to learn from both successes and failures. Stay focused on solving real problems, delivering value to your customers, and building a sustainable business for the long term. #startupindia #websiteDevelopment

Bad pricing can sabotage your startup! You can have product features and market fit. None of it matters if people never make it to your product. A poorly structured pricing strategy is like an unappealing storefront. It can deter customers, stifle growth, and lower your company's value. Here is what to pay attention to ↓ ☑️ Signs that your pricing strategy needs a revamp - High Churn Rates: Are customers leaving soon after joining? - Low Conversion Rates: Plenty of interest but few conversions? - Customer Complaints: Frequent complaints about pricing or value perception. ☑️ How to Fix Your Pricing Strategy 1. Understand Your Customer's Willingness to Pay: - Conduct surveys and interviews to gauge what your target audience is willing to pay. - Use A/B testing to find the sweet spot for pricing. 2. Align Pricing with Value: - Ensure your pricing reflects and quantifies the value your product delivers. - Create different tiers that cater to different segments of your market. 3. Simplify Your Pricing Model: - Keep it simple and transparent. - Clearly communicate what’s included in each tier and avoid hidden fees. 4. Leverage Data for Continuous Improvement: - Regularly analyze data to understand how pricing changes impact behavior. - Be ready to iterate and adjust your strategy based on feedback and data. 📈 Case Study At a B2B e-commerce startup I mentored, we faced a high-volume, low-margin challenge. By fine-tuning customer personas and running pricing experiments focused on activation and retention, we: ↳ Increased monthly GMV to $700K ↳ Boosted profit margins by 70% ↳ Successfully raised $4.5M in seed funding ✅ Let's Discuss: → Have you struggled with pricing your product? → What strategies have worked for you? Share your experiences and tips below! ♻️ Found this useful? Repost to help others ♻️ ____________________________ Hi! I am Christos. 👋 I am passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, and their potential for positive change. When not posting, I help product-led startups scale. Feel free to follow or DM me. I love making new connections!

As an early-stage founder, you've poured your heart and soul into building a product that solves a real problem. But how do you know if you've truly cracked the code? The answer lies in achieving product-market fit. Product-market fit is the holy grail of startup success. It's the point where your product resonates with your target audience, and they can't imagine living without it. But how do you measure it? Rahul Vohra, founder of Superhuman, has a simple yet powerful approach to measuring product-market fit. In this post, we'll dive into his framework and provide actionable tips to help you achieve product-market fit. His approach is centered around a single metric: the percentage of users who would be "very disappointed" if they could no longer use your product. Here's how it works: 𝟭. 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀: Reach out to a representative sample of your users and ask them one simple question: "How would you feel if you could no longer use [Your Product]?" 𝟮. 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲: Calculate the percentage of users who respond with "very disappointed." This is your must-have metric. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿: 𝟰𝟬% According to Rahul Vohra, if 40% or more of your users say they'd be "very disappointed" without your product, you've achieved product-market fit. This means that your product has become an essential part of their daily lives. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗼 𝗜𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝟰𝟬% Don't panic if your must-have metric is below 40%. This is an opportunity to iterate and improve. Here are some actionable tips to help you get closer to product-market fit: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀: Conduct customer interviews to understand their pain points and gather feedback. 𝟮. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀: Analyze your data to identify users who are already experiencing high value from your product. Understand what they love about your product and how you can replicate that for others. 𝟯. 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀: Focus on building features that address your power users' pain points and needs. 𝟰. 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲: Continuously measure your must-have metric and iterate on your product until you reach the 40% threshold. Achieving product-market fit is a milestone that can make or break your startup. By using this simple yet powerful approach, you can measure your progress and make data-driven decisions to improve your product. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩-𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘? 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙬. #productmarketfit #superhuman #rahulvohra #startup

Founders need to be well-rounded with solid experience to maximize the opportunity for startup success. However, reflecting on my own journey, I’ve realized that three critical traits a founder must possess are the ability to adapt quickly, embrace change, and operate in uncertainty for an extended, and often unreasonable, amount of time—while simultaneously building and leading a growing team. Building a team is one of the most challenging yet rewarding parts of starting a company. Startup teams must be extremely cohesive, highly agile, and accept that a significant portion of their efforts will fail and need to be redone, sometimes for the 10th or even 100th time. We are constantly testing paths to reach "hockey stick" growth. There is both an art and a science to the process. The science involves analyzing the data from each test, while the art requires reading between the lines, trusting your gut, and deciding whether it’s the wrong path—or if you just haven’t let it play out long enough. For example, over the past six weeks, we've run a high volume of Facebook ads for Entry Envy. When someone engages with us from an ad, they’re likely at the beginning of their customer journey, but not always. When they land on our website, they could be someone who has followed us on social media for years, just saw the ad, and clicked - ready to buy. On the other hand, they may have never heard of us, clicked the ad out of curiosity, but they’re far from ready to hand over their credit card for a $129 non-impulse purchase. After all, they’re selecting a sign for their home that every neighbor and guest will see, and it will be screwed into their siding or brick. Our "add to cart" rate is high, but our conversion to checkout is low. We’re testing variables — Is there a disconnect between the ad copy and the website? Is the initial one-time sign purchase priced too high? Are customers put off when they realize there’s an optional subscription attached to the product? Or, are they simply at the very beginning of their customer journey with us and don’t yet know, like, and trust us enough to buy? None of these answers are black-and-white. 25 agencies are going to reach out to me after this post to convince me they can solve our challenge. That is NOT why I am sharing this! We will keep testing to find the answers - the process can be tedious, expensive, time-consuming, frustrating, and disheartening for team members who are trying their hardest, but we'll get there. The startup world is rough. Founding teams work long, hard hours for unknown long term payoffs, but the stats on startups are grim. Is the founding team the right team to get the company across the finish line? Can they see the vision and believe in it for long enough to make it happen? Can the founder(s) sustain the energy and enthusiasm needed to lead the team and the company through the abyss for years? Believe in your product, build the right team, trust the process, and keep going.

The Minimum Viable Product concept is crucial in modern product development, especially for start-ups. It focuses on creating a streamlined product version with enough features to engage initial users and gather feedback, aiming to reduce time to market, optimize resources, and enhance success probabilities. The MVP philosophy centers on building the smallest viable product for launch and market testing. Unlike investing extensively in a fully-featured product, companies focus on a functional version addressing core issues. This allows them to gauge user interest, accumulate insights, and make informed decisions for subsequent iterations. A key benefit of the MVP approach is risk mitigation. Releasing a minimal product early enables companies to test assumptions and validate market demand. Positive responses empower iterative expansion based on user feedback, while tepid or negative responses allow for a pivot or idea abandonment without significant losses. Speed to market is critical in today's business environment, and the MVP strategy expedites development, facilitating swift market entry and user acquisition. Simultaneously, it enables learning from user behavior, refining the product iteratively. The MVP methodology champions a customer-centric approach by involving users in early development stages. This ensures tailored offerings that resonate with the target audience, increasing the likelihood of widespread adoption. Well-known success stories like Dropbox, Instagram, and Airbnb exemplify the MVP approach's effectiveness. These companies launched with minimal features, testing and gradually expanding based on user feedback, highlighting the MVP strategy's potency as a catalyst for innovation and market success. In short, the Minimum Viable Product concept marks a paradigm shift in product development, stressing speed, user feedback, and risk mitigation. Prioritizing essentials and delivering a functional product early enables businesses to adapt quickly, innovate effectively, and boost the chances of a successful market launch. Visit our website 🌎 at https://zurl.co/uEVN. #mvp #funding #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #founders #startup #SME

After 6 years as an entrepreneur, here are 5 invaluable lessons I've learned along the way: 1. Build small, launch fast: Spending years telling the story of my startup without actually building the solution taught me the importance of building and launching quickly. Instead of waiting to perfect every feature, focus on building a minimum viable product (MVP) and iterating based on feedback from your target market. 2. Marketing is key:As a tech founder, my instinct was to dive straight into coding. However, I've realized that marketing and validating the product or idea are just as important as building it. Gathering feedback through conversations, surveys, or setting up a landing page can help validate your product-market fit early on. 3. Be selective with advice:While listening to customer feedback is crucial, not all advice is created equal. Avoid getting bogged down by opinions from non-customers that may not align with your target market's needs. Stay focused on solving real problems for your customers. 4. Move fast, iterate faster:Time is of the essence when building a startup. Aim to launch your MVP within a short timeframe and iterate based on user feedback. Speed is key to staying ahead of the competition and refining your product to meet market demands. 5. Focus on profitability:Building a sustainable business requires a clear path to profitability. Instead of relying on the "build it and they will come" mentality, prioritize developing a viable business model early on. Generating revenue, even in small increments, is essential for long-term success. Whether you're just starting out or a seasoned entrepreneur, I'd love to connect and share experiences. Feel free to DM me so we can support each other on our entrepreneurial journeys! Photo: I saw a MrBeast Feastables for the first time and had to buy one. Hi, I'm Emmanuel, a Software Engineer passionate about building secure and scalable SaaS applications to solve real-world problems. Let's collaborate and bring exciting projects to life. Reach out to connect and explore opportunities together. 🚀 #Entrepreneurship #StartupLessons #TechFounder #SaaS"

Although 99,9% of startups fail - can product managers and entrepreneurs avoid this? Why do they fail, really? Most probably, because they run out of money. But why is that? Here are some reasons that I managed to brainstorm: 1. Planning and not doing. Teams often have set up task managers, a roadmap for 3 years ahead, and brochures, but never reach out to their persona with an e-mail or LinkedIn message. 2. There is a giant already taking up all the paying users on the market. Described in more detail in my previous (*rant) post. Start with a small market you have access to and know well, then scale! 3. This startup is just your first-born mistake. First-time founders will most likely have to iterate, change, and transform their business to hit Bullseye. 4. There is no real problem. You didn't ask your persona whether they even have the problem you are solving and whether it's a big enough problem to pay money for. 5. Not enough attention to competitors. The way for your business to survive is to outcompete the others (thought from 0 to 1 by Peter Thiel). So make sure to subscribe to their e-mail list, track shifts in features, value proposition changes, and traction channels. 6. Poor marketing. People need to know about your product for it to exist at all. 50% (and that's the bare minimum) of your time should be dedicated to building a community, e-mail outreach, speaking engagements or any other channel you find smart and working. 7. Wrong team. Make sure to shape your team as you go, so that each individual is personally involved and has a unique skill to bring to the table. 8. Feedback resistance. Founders are the evangelists of their business, so hearing it is ugly is more than unpleasant. Learning to balance feedback and critical thinking with a strong stand is important. Anticipating the 1000 reasons why a buisiness fails is mission impossible, but the more context you acquire with time, the closer you get to becoming the next Facebook, Dropbox or Airbnb 💪. Each happy startup is different, but all failed ones are alike. There is no one way - you are the expert! And if reading this post started your imagination as to why ideas fail - feel free to leave a comment, interested to hear your thoughts!

''Lean startup model is the best to creating products'' says almost everyone. But, there are a few problems with that, and there is a better approach. Let me explain: 🦈 Challenges of Lean Startup: 1. The Lean Startup encourages agnostic experimentation instead of starting with a compelling strategy. This leads to products without a clear direction. 2. The focus is MVP For MVPs and based on early feedback, entrepreneurs are then encouraged to either: -- Persist if the feedback is positive. -- Pivot some dimension of their product idea if the feedback is negative. -- Perish if the team doesn’t have any clear ideas on how to pivot. This led to failing fast and abandoning a product idea early based on customer feedback. 🙂 Ben Silbermann, co-founder of Pinterest, said he was glad he didn’t read The Lean Startup while building it because it likely would have led him to give up on the idea too early. 3. Incremental Products: 🙂 Gagan Biyani, Co-founder of Maven and Udemy, puts it this way: “If you rely on your customers to tell you what to build, you will invariably build incremental improvements instead of delivering a novel breakthrough.” 4. Neglecting Growth: Focusing solely on product development and neglecting user acquisition strategies can lead to products with no users. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of @a16z and Netscape said: “We see the Lean Startup methodology being used inappropriately as an excuse to not take sales and marketing seriously.” So, what is a better approach? I think: A) Qualitatively measure your responses and feedback B) Create a sellable/marketable viable product C) Have a rough product strategy in place. D) Don't wait for permission to start selling or getting waitlists. If you solve a KEY issue, start right away after completing the first 3 steps. What do you think? Did I miss something? #productledgrowth #gotomarketstrategy