Building something new | Former [Startup CPO, Product@Alphabet, McKinsey] | CS@IITBombay
TL;DR: Testing a marketplace #idea - expert network for #startup #gyaan and #userresearch. Leave a comment/ DM me if you want to be in a followup. Startup #founders often need to talk to "someone in the industry" to - validate an idea - gain a better understanding of a user problem - understand current practices/ processes, typically something they wish to change for the better - many more such things Usually, founders tap into their networks and cold-email via LinkedIn, and something works out. But this approach seems to have several problems - doesn't work as well for founders without strong existing networks, from school/ friends/ family/ current employer, etc - is quite inefficient in that it has delays in chain mails, introductions, etc - asks a favour of the person being asked to get on a call, and if they have limited bandwidth, forces them to prioritise arbitrarily Expert networks like GLG are typically costly (and cost hard cash, in any case) and usually do not cater to this audience, or even have all the right people on board. Startups don't have #cash to pay such services. Question 1: Is this a real problem? If no, tell me more! Question 2: If you are a founder, and we found you your target #expert quickly and effectively, would you be willing to pay them in kind? (details tbd) Question 3: If you're on the other side, what's the min. value prop for you to want to be on such a network? Is "get to hear from startups sooner, and some in-kind benefits" appealing? In-kind could mean early access, swag, right-to-invest, karma points, etc!
founder dating / co founder lab - these two services used to exist way back when i was starting up. definitely helped me in many ways. your idea could be a feature in those services. i did bounce off a few ideas there, and got good feedback / advise from folks from the industry
Q2: Yes!
Q1: yes, real problem.
Q1: Yes Q2: Yes, need standardized acceptable in-kind benefits “dinner/coffee/drinks when you are here due on me” is all talk and never executed! Q3: could be early access or right-to-invest or something else, mostly anything offered in gratitude.
For Q3: make it a DAO
Entrepreneurial Product Leader | Head of product @Zyod | Ex - GoMechanic | Blending Tech & Design for Impactful Solutions ?? ??
2 年There is a community for product managers on slack, called creator of products, they do this. Most of us volunteerly participate in beta testing. But yes. If there will be a service like this definitely it will solve a lot of our problems. Reaching out to people for feedback is a time consuming process but it's a necessity for the business. If you can save ours time so there won't be any problem in paying for that. For Q3 - Early access to the product, discounted rates for the subscription or a free tier for personal and limited use will be more rewarding .