Can you convince a market to adopt your solution?

Discussions
#1

I’ve written about this before, but I think this is the best I’ve articulated it:

I’d love to have a discussion here about this idea. What do you think? Do you agree/disagree? Why?

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#2

It is quite an old idea that instead of moving users to your product (it is hard) it is better to move your product to users (learn what users want and change the product).

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#3

Nice article Justin. I also enjoyed you discussing this on your “Build your SaaS” podcast. The topic certainly resonates as I keep thinking we’re in a pond and should be looking for a river. Whatever happened to “if you build it they will come” :slight_smile:

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#4

Yes, Jordan Gal and Scott Bolinger recently discussed this as well:

The full episode is worth listening to:

#5

I cannot actually understand what you advising/advocating. Many products represent a discontinuity with current practice.

  • automobile
  • web browser
  • personal computer
  • phonograph record
  • lightbulb

Most innovative products start in a niche.

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#6

@skmurphy those are examples of scientific advancements/innovations (often funded by the government or academia). They’re not great proxies for bootstrappers starting a business with limited resources.

A few examples:

  • The development of the automobile has a long history, with early innovations coming from academics, and the church. The development of the automobile has had tons of state funding over its history: “In 1875, State of Wisconsin offered a $10,000 award to the first to produce a practical substitute for the use of horses and other animals.”
  • Web browser: "Berners-Lee wrote what would become known as WorldWideWeb on a NeXT Computer during the second half of 1990 while working for CERN, a European nuclear research agency. "

Generally, bootstrappers shouldn’t be really inventing anything. That’s too resource + time-intensive for someone self-funding a business.

Bootstrapped founders have to identify a need that customers already know they have. (The goal with bootstrapping is not really to change the way people behave).

Instead, we’re trying to recognize where people are already in motion and build solutions for the direction they’re headed.

We don’t create the waves; we ride them.

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