from Hacker News

Customer Development for Web Startups

by white_eskimo on 2/25/10, 2:05 PM with 8 comments

• by whyleyc on 2/25/10, 3:15 PM

  Interesting post, but the first flow-chart seems to perpetuate the (Silicon Valley oriented ?) mindset that a startup should be pursuing:

    * Rapid growth
  
    * Frenzied hiring
  
    * Profitability relatively late in the game
  

  What about different approaches to building and running great companies ? Why not:

    * Focus on the product and passionate users (ala Paul Buchheit and Gmail)
  
    * Focus on exactly how you make money from that product
  
    * Hire incrementally at (or just before) the point you are profitable
  
    * Accept slower (less fashionable and exciting ?) growth
  

  Maybe that would help align our thoughts around what it takes to build a sustainable business rather than just coding great features ?

  It also has the added advantage of freeing you from the hand of the VCs and looking over you shoulder fretting about your burn rate.

• by jeremytech on 3/2/10, 12:58 AM

  Customer development is an often overlooked process that boils down to understanding what is actually useful for the end user or customer, rather than what the entrepreneur thinks is useful.