“Can this startup be marketed profitably?”
“Can the profitable marketing scale?”
Of course you can’t definitively answer these questions until you try marketing the product. But, if you aren’t pretty confident that the answer to these questions is yes, you shouldn’t launch the business. Too many people start trying to build a product and believe they’ll figure out the marketing piece later. Some get lucky, but the majority fail.
If you start your business with these questions in mind, you are much more likely to build a successful business.
Andrew Chen
Brant Cooper
Dave McClure
Eric Ries
Jamie Siminoff
Steve Blank
Hi Shawn, I came across your blog following the fremium chain of comments. You have a very interesting job/career/hobby/passion! You mentioned you would be interested in sharing ideas with VC backed startups on your blog. I started an online business http://www.graduatetutor.com but it is not VC backed as yet. I was wondering if you had any thoughts or ideas to share with us? Look forward to hearing from you. Best regards, Senith PS: I wasnt able to find an email to mail you directly. Dont know if it was intentional!
Hi Senith, My email address is seanwellis (at) gmail dot com. Feel free to email me any specific questions or post them her in the comments so others can benefit from the answer. As much as I want to, I don’t have time to go through the website and send general feedback. But again, happy to answer any specific questions. Good luck with your venture!