Bootstrapper.com - Confessions of Serial Entrepreneurs

I get asked every so often to help out companies that aren’t seeing much traction.  After some successes and failures, I’ve come up with a flowchart that seems to help. (If you’ve ever met me in person you know I just LOVE my flowcharts!!!- Dork Central right here!)
In my mind there are four reasons why  software may not gain adpotion.

1. The product is not filling a market need. Ie. NO ONE CARES!
2. The value proposition is not clear. Ie. NO ONE UNDERSTANDS.
3. The experience is aweful. USERS RUN AWAY SCREAMING
4. The experience is hidden. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT YOU DO!

Mind you this is probably an oversimplification, but humor me, nonetheless

I will address each of these issues in a separate post, So lets start from the beginning…

Does anyone really care?

When trying to answer this question, be able to pinpoint who your customer, why they would use your product or service and articulate this clearly as your statement of business. Remember, don’t try to be everything to everybody.

Things to think about when trying to figure out if there is a legitimate need.

1. How big is your addressable market - the number of people who make up the potential pool of clients/users?
2. How much of this market can you realistically expect to capture?
3. Are you really solving a significant itch for people in this market by making things easier/faster/cheaper?
4. Do you offer something unique or are you what I like to call a “Me seven”, a clone of something else with an insignificant improvement? The world can only support so many social networks, adnetworks, or video sites. So chances are unless your product is a real game changer in a crowded space, it will fall on its head.
5. How many other companies are doing something similar in your space? What is the financial health of those competitors?
6. How do customers/users  of those other providers feel about their vendor/ service?
7. Is there an industry leader?
8. What is that leaders market share?
9. How are you different? Why are you better?
10. What prevents any of your competitors from stealing your market share? These are your barriers to entry.
11. Would you pay to use your own service ?
12. Would you ask your friends to ask their bosses to use your service?

If you can’t pinpoint who you are “selling” to and concretely determine why they would adopt/buy from you in one sentence, then you need to rethink your focus.

Your entire product design, sales and marketing strategy and pitch should flow from a pinpointed statement of business.

So what does this look like when it is done right?

Let’s look at a company like angelsoft. Their focus is clear: They create software to help Angel investor groups manage all the document exchange and conversation involved in evaluating early stage companies– a process which was previously relegated to email or a shared webdrive or some poor intern stuck in a closet.   Angelsoft’s customer is your average angel group and their value proposition is simplifiying a complicated and messy process. - Easy and to the point.

What do you think? Do you know of any other companies who have done it right?