The Hardest Thing About 0-to-1
I'm pretty new to the indie hacking game, less so startups - I've worked at 4 different startups of varying sizes (pre-seed, through to YC grad up to acquired series B) as a product manager. PM is a very loose job description at a startup though so I've done everything from run standups to company accounting.
Because of that, I thought I knew how to build tech companies. I was typically the only PM on a team and worked with teams who had little to no vision - so that gave me full creative license to build what I wanted.
So building something from scratch can't be that much harder?
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I decided to work on a startup at the beginning of 2024 and since then I've joined forces with my talented cofounder, Kiran and begun building whom.so - cold outbound for the modern day.
But it's been one of the hardest challenges of my career to conceive our product.
Working in an incumbent tech company only really gives you the illusion of choice. Yes, you can build whatever feature you like but only within the confines of the existing product. Going from v1.9 to v2.0 isn't that challenging - there are only a few sensible paths to take.
Starting from 0 is exponentially harder. If you're equipped for it, there are a million different routes to take.
I've found that following traditional wisdom will get you a decent way (stay close to customers, get something out to market fast, etc), but it's not a playbook you can complete.
At some point, you need to find something you care enough about and commit. And so here's the single most practical bit of information I can give away from my journey so far:
Be clear on your principles from day 1. And be candid, nobody needs to read it other than yourself. Do you care about design? Innovation? Speed? Which products do you admire? Which do you hate? What're your opinions on pricing? Do you want competitor parity or to set a new bar?
It doesn't have to be exhaustive but getting these things written down narrows your options considerably. Which ultimately helps you get from 0 to 0.1 faster.
Maybe this isn't that novel an insight for a lot of you. But I'm hoping that people at a similar crossroads might find this helpful.
And remember, there's room enough for new products in every market - you just need to firmly carve out your niche and being principled from the outset will help that happen.
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Amen to carving out your niche! Pretty much everything is so hyper-competitive that you really have no choice but to focus on a target market. Otherwise, you'll get drowned out by all the noise.
...and revise that niche as you generate more business, because with that comes more data that can give you an infinitely better understanding on your business and your target niche
Yup. Always keep iterating!
Cannot agree more with this:
I'm curious, when you talk about staying close to customers as a marketing company, would you consider the consumer to be part of the customer base or not? It seems to me that in marketing, both producers and consumers are frustrated. Producers struggle to deliver the right product to the right consumer, and consumers can't seem to find the right product to meet their needs. As a marketing agency, are both ends considered equally important, or is there often a greater focus on the producer side? As a consumer myself, I've gotten the impression that marketing agencies tend to spam consumers because there often isn't a better way to showcase the product to everyone (code emailing being one form). On the other hand, this creates friction, leading consumers to develop a negative opinion towards marketing. I think the issue here is not with marketing per se, but with ineffective marketing. I'm not sure if your clients have any concerns about addressing this issue, or if they just want to get their product in front of people, even if it means resorting to spamming.
It's an interesting point but I think the answer is actually quite simple. As a buyer myself, I found that the cold emails I reply to are the ones where you can tell you're being treated beyond the budget you hold.
Where people have clearly taken the time to go out their way to showcase a tool to you and you personally, and why it would make sense to your organisation. It's so obvious when it's a sequenced email so I tend to avoid that. The reason we get sequenced emails is because there's little alternative for many sellers, they just aren't able to 'personalise' at the level of scale they need to hit targets.
Treat the cause, not the effects!
I agree with this. In our business I have this principle that we need to make the customer feel like they're getting such an amazing deal that they're actually ripping us off every step of the way. It helps build an INCREDIBLE customer base and focuses you on the right things.
That starts with outreach.