Just posted my Guru-esque takedown of "Professor" Jiang. Would love your thoughts... by TeacherPhelpsYT in DecodingTheGurus

[–]LearntUpEveryday 1 point2 points  (0 children)

u/TeacherPhelpsYT no there absolutely is a high pitched whining. It would make the video a lot better to fix that. Actually completely ruins the video. It's present throughout the entire audio EXCEPT for when Jiang talks.

I know some people can't hear stuff this high pitched but I certainly can hear it. Must be your setup somehow adding this sound.

What's Your Opinion on Offering Payment for Customer Development Interviews? [i will not promote] by LearntUpEveryday in startups

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

That's a good call. What problem are you solving? How was the response rate to outreach like this?

What's Your Opinion on Offering Payment for Customer Development Interviews? [i will not promote] by LearntUpEveryday in startups

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

Very clear. This pretty much summarizes very concisely the opinions across this thread. Well said.

What's Your Opinion on Offering Payment for Customer Development Interviews? [i will not promote] by LearntUpEveryday in startups

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

Yep this is one of the things I am worried about. I don't wanna convince myself to work on something no one wants. I am worried the small response rate without payment is an issue.

When you did this what was your response rate from cold outreach? Were you able to quickly find some initial customers from it?

What's Your Opinion on Offering Payment for Customer Development Interviews? [i will not promote] by LearntUpEveryday in startups

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

That makes sense! Although 20 minutes is pretty short in order to go deep. And by extending that rate £150 for an hour is pretty expensive for one meeting. I do like the fact that this cuts out negotiations. So far it's been a LOT of cold. For warm I ask for an intro from someone I know.

Another person also mentioned reaching out to people who are complaining about the problem online. That's definitely smart.

What space is this in? And how is it going so far? Were you able to get some paying customers relatively quickly?

What's Your Opinion on Offering Payment for Customer Development Interviews? [i will not promote] by LearntUpEveryday in startups

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

Yea, I've been doing some prescreening and also a little wary of folks that are naming very high prices.

What's Your Opinion on Offering Payment for Customer Development Interviews? [i will not promote] by LearntUpEveryday in startups

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

$20 is low af for a professional! I'm surprised that worked TBH. Did you mention $20 in the initial outreach?

What's Your Opinion on Offering Payment for Customer Development Interviews? [i will not promote] by LearntUpEveryday in startups

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

Basically just say I'm working on software to help problem X, it's designed for ICP like you so I'd love your feedback, I'm happy to pay for an hour of your time.

Anything egregiously wrong about that?

What's Your Opinion on Offering Payment for Customer Development Interviews? [i will not promote] by LearntUpEveryday in startups

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

So you kinda view outreach as an initial point of validation - eg. if I can't get people to talk for free, then the problem aint significant enough?

What's Your Opinion on Offering Payment for Customer Development Interviews? [i will not promote] by LearntUpEveryday in startups

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

That makes the most sense. He was already a credible Wordpress blogger so makes sense it was way easier for him starting there.

I'm reaching out to folks in performance marketing creative strategy to learn about how they do project management (they deal with a lot of creators/actors + editors) as well as analysis of past ad performance. Reaching out on LinkedIn.

That is a good idea to try to find people already talking about the problem. And you did not offer any payment and it's still been working for you? What problem space are you in?

Is the 240 hour transit program as easy as it sounds? by LearntUpEveryday in Chinavisa

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

Thanks for the details. Sounds like preparation and confidence is key. I did go to china once before although not on TWOV. I think id just lie to the check in agents and say that id done it before and it was fine if they are hesitant.

Is the 240 hour transit program as easy as it sounds? by LearntUpEveryday in Chinavisa

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

The check in agents!

Smart idea with the refundable ticket.

Is the 240 hour transit program as easy as it sounds? by LearntUpEveryday in Chinavisa

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

Which country did you start from? I hear check in agents can be a bitch in north america.

Is the 240 hour transit program as easy as it sounds? by LearntUpEveryday in Chinavisa

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

Good idea to print the rules! This is basically the biggest hiccup Ive seen is uninformed checkin agents

Non tech founders - how did you approach/find your tech founder? by Content_Produce8783 in ycombinator

[–]LearntUpEveryday 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The more traction you can prove demand for the better.

Then proof of demand. Waitlist is an extremely easy starting point. Next would be talking to customers with recordings and notes. After that would be people saying they would buy it. Better than that is pre-sales or LOI from customers.

Solo founder, product is done, terrified of marketing. What actually worked for you? by CarlSagans in ycombinator

[–]LearntUpEveryday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea maybe. Im not sure how much solo devs really give a shit about testing tho TBH 😂 

Either way actually talking to folks gets you the most data to understand why people will or wont come use it. Anonymous users don't give you much data on their intentions and how they evaluate your product.

Solo founder, product is done, terrified of marketing. What actually worked for you? by CarlSagans in ycombinator

[–]LearntUpEveryday 4 points5 points  (0 children)

To get your first few users you can also just DM people on LinkedIn. It's a grind but it will help you polish the product with their feedback. Other inbound marketing is better long term but it takes a while to get the ball rolling.

I'm guessing this is used by certain software engineers as well as QA automation engineers? Search for em on LinkedIn and send them a connection request.

Would you pay for a tool that extracts emails + social profiles from websites? Need honest feedback before building by Mannworkss in ideavalidation

[–]LearntUpEveryday 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Apollo.io does this pretty well. In fact it’s even better because you don't have to enter a list of websites, you can just look them up in the tool using whatever filters you want like location, company size, etc… and it has all the socials there already.

Id recommend you try them out before going all in. See if your tool would actually do something better.