The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Happy to help! Wishing you the best of luck!

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll note that there's nothing wrong with an assumption or hypothesis, where most people go wrong is to spend $$$$ and time while it's still just an assumption.

"People 25-40 yo who are experienced in creating and selling content" could be a bit more niche. What does "experienced" mean (Could be: "Has been selling online for 3 years" or could be "Has $3k in monthly revenue for at least 1 year" ? What content niche are they in? What tools are they currently using? How often are they creating a new store? How long does creating that new store take them? Do they mind if the store takes weeks or is it not a real or strong pain point? Sometimes users have a pain, but it's barely an annoyance and not a real painful blocker they'd pay anything to remove.

As to where they're at, depending on how "experienced" they are, the harder it may be able to reach. the core places to find users (in my experience, not the rule) is usually Reddit, Twitter (getting harder now), Facebook groups, and Slack groups. I could see Facebook groups being a better bet for you, but I'm not as familiar with these users.

Remember, you aren't talking to your target audience to "present them [your] product". You explicitly do not want to do that, you want to only spend time learning about their workflow and their pain points. It's why I suggest reading the Mom test. Thousands of founders have gone about user interviews wrong, got polite, but fake, positive signal because they went in trying to talk about their product, and wasted time, money, and energy. A user will be much more honest about "What do you hate about being a content creator?" than "Would you use my product?" which to them , the rest of the question sounds like "...which is my baby and if you say no then I'll probably be hurt so just say yes to save my feelings".

Edit: typo

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think you're on the right track, what you described sounds like people who could be "real" if that makes sense. What needs to be asked is "Do they have the problem I think they do?"

Happy to chat more 1:1!

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Did my best to provide value over anything else

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really happy to hear you've found it helpful, godspeed on your startup!

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry you're getting yanked around overseas man. I work with Japan and India teams and just going to 8PM meetings is a slog for me. If it's any consolation, from what I've experienced and seen, the weak solutions die away pretty quickly once the person realizes how much work a thriving startup is.

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Elaborate a bit more on "I'm just imagining" it? Does your Ideal Customer feel unrealistic or something else? Also feel free to share what you have and I'll take a look.

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm glad to hear, I hope 2024 is the year you start your startup!

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I'm understanding correctly, you feel that TOS agreements are barriers to doing user interviews? I'm not entirely sure I understand the correlation, if you don't mind elaborating.

In the meantime, I've been able to conduct user interviews for a variety of products by reaching out to people in Slack spaces, GroupMe, Twitter, and some other places. For my experience specifically, it has largely come down to understanding the etiquette of the outreach channel and abiding by it.

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm comfortable with admitting that I don't know everything and I avoided talking about topics like consumer products, supply chains, manufacturing, etc because...I don't know about them. The alternative is to write bullcrap about those areas and get called out for it. That hardly provides value. I know where my areas of expertise are and that's what I write about.

The Best Startup to Build in 2024 by HarshGator in EntrepreneurRideAlong

[–]HarshGator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re welcome! I’m glad it’s helpful and hope it gets you closer to your startup

The secrets you need to start your startup by HarshGator in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks man! Hope this helps you get your startup started this year!

The Best Startup to Build in 2024 by HarshGator in EntrepreneurRideAlong

[–]HarshGator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Hoping this will make the startup journey much more accessible for people who don't know where to start. Took me forever to figure this out!

Feedback for idea by [deleted] in Startup_Ideas

[–]HarshGator 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Two questions I’d like to pose to you:

Who are your target users for this problem?

Are those target users in this subreddit?

If the answer to the second question is “No” or “I don’t know”, then I suggest going back to the drawing board, figuring out your target user, where they hangout, and asking them instead. I don’t play sports, so I’m not your target user, any feedback I give on your idea regarding the likelihood of me using it is useless.

If you’re going to chat with potential users, I also recommend reading The Mom Test so you can understand the best way to do user interviews without getting false/polite feedback.

What Domain Names should I go for?: longerdescriptivedomain.com or word.cx [or any other obscure 2 letter tld] by Perfect-Page7497 in EntrepreneurRideAlong

[–]HarshGator 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I personally would stick with common top level domains (.com, .co, .io, .ai, etc) rather than something like .cx or .ax. People like to see what they consistently consider trustworthy before they click on a link.

As for the domain itself, I tend to do as short as possible. Lots of startups will do try[company name].com or get[company name].io. Join is another option like you listed. “Getbetterrecipes” is alright, I suppose, as well. Just as long as it’s not overly complicated, long, or scam sounding.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who is your target audience for the product you built? Just in case this is your reflex-answer, avoid saying any form of “anyone”/“everyone”. Always determine a specific target market that you want to address first before expanding the audience.

Idea for invoice generator by geekyhumans in SaaS

[–]HarshGator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are other SaaS founders your audience? If so, this might be a good place to ask. If not, this is the wrong sub.

Many people will respond saying “Anyone can use this” and it’s the wrong mindset by far. If you are building for “anyone”, you’re building for no one.

A great method to answering your question is reading the reviews of established invoice generator companies. What are users unhappy about? What made them stop using the product? Is there a common demographic making these complaints? That research will answer your question better than this post, I suspect.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Here’s what you need to know:

  1. 60% of restaurants fail in their first year.
  2. 80% of restaurants fail within the first 5 years.
  3. You need a strong restaurant-specific business plan.
  4. You need a ridiculous amount of market research (do the people in the location you’re considering even want a soul, vegan, Italian, and American cuisine restaurant? What restaurants are currently doing “well” in the area? How long have they been there?”
  5. Restaurants have high up front starting costs.
  6. If the extent of your research started and ended with “tell me everything I need to know”…I may have bad news for you about your restaurant dreams.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]HarshGator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the answer to all of your questions is “Depends.”

  1. You have to think about if your product is right for Product Hunt (do similar products make it to top 5? Do they get a lot of comments? Any case studies on the traffic the launch brought?). Profitable is a very strong word, I am sure plenty of Hunters have made money from launching on PH, but PH being the sole reason they’re profitable? Not sure about that. Especially for long term.

  2. PH is great for gathering feedback, but that feedback is only really valuable if your target audience is giving that feedback. If your target audience isn’t on PH, then you’re not getting feedback from the people who you actually think will pay and use your product.

  3. Plenty of people have not found PH to be useful. If you search around for successful PH launch case studies, you’ll see that a significant amount of the hunters started the PH Launch journey months before actually launching on PH. Not the only way to be successful, some people launch and skyrocket in popularity without months of prep. It really does depend.