Having sold Now Novel at the end of last year I had some time for reflection. I have been working on Now Novel with (amongst other talented people) Dagmar Timler and Bridget McNulty for the last 10 years. I said that I had a full head of hair before starting to work with my wife and my sister (a sad lie ๐จโ๐ฆฒ ), but I can’t overemphasise the joy in working with people you trust and respect.
Itโs instructive to be in the driving seat from first idea through launch to growth and expansion to a final sale. This meant a heady mix of exhilaration, frustration and a whole lot of learning. Iโm not (yet) driving my Lamborghini, but being in the driving seat gave me a number of insights, here are the top 10:
๐ญ. ๐ฆ๐ผ๐น๐๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ๐บ๐
I mean itโs obvious right? But alarmingly easy to impose your ideas on the product and not be guided by the customer. My first version of the survey I sent out to understand the problem only had preselected options to choose from, no open fields for what people actually wanted to say. This means that the initial insights we got were only from my ideas, not what people actually thought.
We got way better at this; lots of meetings with prospective customers, heatmaps, chats to customers, surveys, customer service synthesis, AB tests etc.
Synthesising all of this together to understand what the customer challenge is and what you should use your resources to build is another difficulty, but the first step is to be tapped in to what your clientโs problems are.
๐ฎ. ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด
Iโm an enthusiastic guy with a lot of curiosity. This can be a problem ๐
When you have finite resources you need to focus on your core product and improve that. The allure of the bright shiny thing that will change the customer experience, improve acquisition, conversion and retention and save the day is constant. These technologies and opportunities need to be carefully evaluated against resources required and potential impact vs current initiatives.
Inevitably if you understand the customerโs problem and are building something to fix that this is where you should be expending your efforts, not chasing other ideas.
3.๐ง๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฃ
When we started Now Novel we built a grand and glorious question and answer infrastructure. It worked and we sold the product, but it wasnโt perfect. You need to ask yourself what is the minimal viable way you can validate and learn to move to the next step. And then iterate.
I used paper prototypes and sat with people as they went through these (which was good), but we could have done more non-scaleable things to start off with. By doing this we would have learned more quicker, and could have got a shortcut on some of the learning. As we moved down the path we sold things before they were fully developed (e.g. inviting people to join a waitlist to validate a product before we launched it)which saves a lot of time as you don’t need to make the product before building it.
If you change your focus from product development to learning then youโll progress faster.
4. ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฏ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ถ๐ ๐ธ๐ฒ๐
Not getting your product in to the hands of customers is an existential threat. If you donโt get new prospects, you have no customers and you die.ย Itโs also very tough (and I think becoming even more challenging in the age of AI). Being bootstrapped is challenging when competing against well funded entities. They can afford not to get great ROI off their efforts and can do more speculative things. We kicked ass in content marketing getting to 400,000 monthly unique users. Google is a capricious beast and staying ahead of the algorithm is challenging. We couldnโt get paid acquisition to work despite hammering away at it. As with most startups we had one main acquisition channel, which is an all your eggs in one basket philosophy.
These were some of the challenges we went through, but it underscores the message, get great distribution of your product (ideally organic)
5. ๐๐ผ๐ปโ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ถ๐๐ผ๐
A lot of things could impact you: The customer changes, COVID happens, competitors arise, AI and industry trends. If you continue offering the same product all the time you lose.
We pivoted a couple of times; adding coaching services and creating cohort based courses are some examples. These were necessary product changes based on what the market was offering and changing customer requirements. Without change youโre no longer relevant and destined to lose. This corroborates the first insight of solving real problems and being close to your customers.
6.๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ป
Constraints are great. It doesnโt seem like it, but you just have to work around what you have in order to win. It forces you to be more innovative, it forces you into activity and it makes you prioritize better. Having too much budget can make you lazy and less focussed. You have to enforce the discipline though. The bloat happens easily; this tool, that employee and the other consultant all add up over time. Everything has to pull its weight and deliver a return or else it needs to be trimmed. Even when you think youโre running lean if you examine everything you can find areas where youโre overspending.
Staying lean isnโt just about spending money itโs abut time management, how do you do more with less. Shipping is so important and constraining your features when launching to get the validation that you’re going in the right direction helps you keep up your speed.
7. ๐๐บ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ธ
We benefited from the smart guidance of a lot of people over time. When youโre up against it you can have a lack of vision or separation from your problems. A fresh set of eyes is helpful to get you to cut through and understand what you should be doing. Special shoutouts to Dietmar Timler and Rutger Peters. First principles solid thinking is not as common as you would hope and they were very kind with their time, intelligence and perspective.
People are (generally) happy to help, so hit them up
8.๐๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ป๐
I always like to equate myself to the beautiful cockroach. It has the tenacity to weather all indignities, adapt, thrive and carry on. My business mantra is to be more like the humble roach. There is a fine line between persistence and stupidity, but I think you want to go right up to that line. Building a business is tough and takes hard work and sacrifice and you need to carry on through a lot of knockbacks or else youโll give up too easily.
Saying all of that, knowing when to fold is a very important skill. There is an opportunity cost on your time.
So keep running, but know when the swatter is coming for you ๐
9. ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ป, ๐๐ฟ๐, ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐, ๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ฒ
Because youโre lean and bootstrapped it means that you can’t employ a specific expert for each role. This means that you (and the team) need to share and wear many hats. This can be uncomfortable for people playing out of their comfort zone and without all the information. However its also exhilarating to learn new stuff and do things. The best way to test your imposter syndrome is to do something. Then you move from imposter to bad practitioner ๐
YouTube, blogs (and now AI) will take you a long way.
Temper this with the fact that you can get a lot further a lot quicker with a professional. I believe I have learned the skill of knowing when to go with the expert, but watch this space.
10. ๐ง๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ณ-๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ต ๐๐ผ ๐๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐๐
This may even be the biggest one. You donโt realise how inextricably your self worth and identity get mixed up with your product. When a sale goes badly or well you feel it. If youโre killing it with unique users you feel validation. The dream of making it big is so intricately tied up in what youโre working on that its about you as much as about the product. You’re invested in a job , but you’re much more identified with your product. Youโve incubated it and invested it with a lot of hopes and dreams and so the inevitable fluctuations are tough.
My approach: drinking, crying and thrashing the kids helps..
JK: the usual tropes; meditation, exercise, nature and family work to keep my equilibrium.
Ultimately, staying grounded through the ups and downs allowed me to focus on the bigger picture and keep moving forward.
Brendan McNulty 