«For many people, changing course is also a sign of weakness. It is equivalent to admitting that you don’t know what you are doing. I find this particularly strange. I think a person who can’t change their perspective is dangerous. Steve Jobs often changed his views depending on the situation, and I don’t know anyone who thought he was weak,» writes Ed Catmull in his book «Corporation of Geniuses. How to manage a team of creative people».
In these times of high technology, it seems that almost everything is available on the market. And yet, by some miracle, new start-ups magically appear and become successful not only at home, but also abroad.
So, what is the secret of their success? Here are some tips from successful Russian startups that have entered the international market.
Advice from ALT for startups:
— Start researching the focus market as early as possible before launching sales.
— Do not study clients in Russia and CIS, go straight into the location of focus.
— Attend conferences and meetups organized in the selected market, this will help you find insights.
— Join local communities in social networks/forums, actively communicate and comment — this will help build social capital.
— Work out the legal aspects beforehand, calculate the logistical costs, check the payment system.
— Try to sell the product yourself before you hire a native SDR (sales development representative). Only your own experience will help you build the right sales pipeline.
— Resolve the issue of telephony and messengers. If possible, combine all channels of communication in one CRM. The specifics of doing business in different countries makes it necessary to use more than 10 channels of communication with customers.
— Always sell the benefit, not the product; this is valued in any country.
Advice from PlayKey:
— Model the unit economics for someone else’s market. ARPPU, price of attraction and conversion to customer are likely to be different. The model should show whether it is theoretically possible to be profitable with this business in another market.
— Enlist the support of a mentor or consultant familiar with the market. This is especially relevant for entering Asian markets from Europe, for example.
— Model a budget for entering the market and experimenting with the unit economy there. Decide in advance what you want to achieve with that budget. It is clear that in practice things will not go according to plan, but the planning process will help to avoid getting stuck with launching and endless expenses for an indefinite period of time.
Advice from Brandquad:
— Each country will have different processes for introducing and selling the product. There may be 2-3 times longer deal cycle — compared to the home region, the processes will be slower, it will take a long time to establish yourself and it will take a long time to get into pilots and sign contracts right away. You need to be prepared for this from the very beginning, when developing a financial plan, set aside time for this in advance.
— Be prepared for the fact that you will have higher demands on product quality than on the Russian market.
— Look for support in entering foreign markets amongst the country’s export companies and beyond. For example, the Russian Promotion Group, which has opened its co-working space in the Dubai Internet City technology cluster, organizes meetings with local companies, helps with networking and participation in exhibitions. Participate in events organized by the countries’ chambers of commerce as part of strengthening business relations. Networking means a lot when entering new markets.
What do all the successful start-ups have in common?
Each of the founders of these firms saw something in what seemed to society at the time to be clearly a bad idea.
So, what should you do to make your ideas successful?
1. Create something that you would use yourself.
«As you consider ideas for a startup, ask yourself the question: what exactly do I need?» — wrote Y Combinator founder and entrepreneur Paul Graham in 2010.
Think of Slack, which created its own messenger internally because nothing that existed on the market suited them. Or the founding family of Houzz, who created their own network because they couldn’t find the necessary resources to do the renovation. Whatever you choose, in any case there will be a few people who will think the same way as you do. There is a proverb in Germany: «There is a lid for every pot». Don’t give up on the side-project idea just because you think you are the only one who needs it.
2. Listen to the market
When Twitch first started, it never had the gaming community as a priority. But when the founders saw more and more people streaming their games every day, they realized: this is what people want. In the beginning, Groupon, then still The Point, never set out to make money. It only wanted to unite for some kind of social action. But once users banded together to get a discount on a product, the creators of Groupon saw the full potential.
3. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty
WeWork, Buffer, HubSpot, Imgur and Oculus — their founders weren’t one hundred per cent sure what they were doing, but they took a chance anyway.
The truth is that you should just try it — then any start-up mistake can be prevented. Start small and see if your idea works. Create a landing page or blog, for example, send out cold emails to 100 potential customers and see if they like your idea. Side-projects are a great way to test the ground before you get serious about your next idea.
4. Colleagues and partners can approve ideas just as much as users
Startup founders are often advised to get idea validation from real users. This, of course, is important. But when you are looking for ideas for side-projects or just want to figure out if you are on the right track, it is also important to listen to opinions from the inside as well. Talk to your team, employees or partners about the problems they are facing, even if those problems are not related to your company.
As a company that creates a project management tool, it is important for Planio to be even more productive and efficient. That’s why they have made it a rule of thumb to look for validation internally before developing and releasing new features.
5. Momentum is important
What’s great about side projects is that there’s usually no pressure from the outside. They can be launched at any convenient time. But that doesn’t mean you can just sit back and wait for «the right moment».
Third-party projects are a chance to explore the future. It’s a chance to take advantage of modern tools to create apps and products that perhaps no one has yet guessed are needed. Think of Instagram, which was only created because of the hype surrounding geolocation services such as Foursquare. Instagram subsequently became the most popular social network for sharing photos.
Or even Oculus. Taking advantage of advances in technology and people’s imagination, they restarted an entire industry. All this happened because the founders were looking to the future. At the same time, they remembered to keep an eye on the course of events. It was important for them to know that they were channeling their energy into the right-side project, that it wouldn’t be wasted.
What does all this mean?
Side projects are an incredible source of inspiration, a way to experiment. Often the business ideas behind side projects are better and more interesting than your current occupation. Why not give it a try?
The material is selected using: