NOTE: Applications for TechStar’s next NYC program are coming up very soon: January 23rd. Apply here!
A recap: We came into Techstars convinced that our MVP (minimal viable product) was just a rebuild of Facebook’s Group feature with the right messaging/landing page on top of it to make it fit the classifieds use case. If Janelle’s List worked once, all we had to do was find a thousand Janelle’s to host their own list on our platform and we’d quickly be at a massive scale.
And in theory the most beautiful part about the product is that it should be viral! Connector type people who want to play Craig will sign up and invite hundreds of friends into their list. ”Why will they do this?” people asks. ”Ego, pride, wanting to play God, wanting to help their friends, wanting to be a big deal”
But it quickly becomes clear this wasn’t going to be as easy as it seemed. Nobody identifies themselves as a “connector” and few people seem interested in doing the heavy lifting of running their own marketplace site. So it’s back to the drawing board. What are we building, and what are we trying to accomplish?
Several folks identify with the pain of playing the middleman. We hear the same thing over and over “I get so many inbound opportunities and emails for people…i’m constantly playing middleman, I’d love a tool to help me with that”
Which brings us to chapter five. We start sketching out that tool — a tool to help middleman better connect their friends and solve crowded inbox syndrome.
Maybe we build the “tripit for opportunities” — you forward things to another email address and they sit on your “shelf” where you can figure out what to do with them next. Of course this means we’re building a workflow enhancement tool, which isn’t really exciting or clunky. And it seems clunky — I’m not sure the medicine is better than the disease.
Another mentor wants a tool that lets him send opportunities to his portfolio companies. Right now, he is using a hack. He’s using several different yahoo groups to send around resumes/jobs to different groups of people. Friendslist should be the “platform for sharing opportunities” => well that sounds compelling! If foursquare is a vertical social network for location, and foodspotting is the same for food photos, and plancast is for plans, then our site is for opportunities! ”I don’t know how it’s a business, but I’d use the product” he says.
A third mentor wants us to automatically figure out who to send inbound opportunities to (automatic friend groups) and says if he has to do any work or go to another site, that’s not useful. Yet another wants to define his audiences carefully when sharing opportunities — essentially google circles. And another mentor wants to opt-in to hearing about certain people’s opportunities (a la twitter follow), not have information thrust at him like email today…so how the heck could that work? A double opt-in follow model?!
Somewhere along the way one of the investor mentors gets really excited too: “This is BIG guys..this is the opportunity graph”. And we spend hours discussing whether the headline for the site should be “We help you share great opportunities” or “We help you find great opportunities.” It sounds completely absurd in retrospect, but we were too far down the rabbit hole to see it.
Weeks fly by and we’re no closer to releasing a product or having a solution we’re confident in. We meet with Nicole Giaros, who runs the adminstrative side of Techstars out of Boulder. It’s one of our most important meetings because we know she’s a down to earth “normal” (ie not an early adopter) which means she’ll have a good perspective.
Nicole listens intently as we explain everything. And then she says the smartest thing we’ve heard in weeks: ”It sounds to me like you’re making a something for somebody to do something.”
Possibly Related Posts:
- The Next Chapter: All Eyes on the Future (err, the past)
- The Friendslist Story [Chapter 4]
- The Friendslist Story [Chapter 3]
- All accelerator programs are not the same
- The Three Types of ‘Computer’ People
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Jonathan Wegener is founder/CEO of Timehop.com, a simple service that answers the question "What did you do this day last year?" Jonathan loves building technology products. Jonathan was once told in an interview that he "thinks too much." He didn't get the job. But it was the greatest compliment he's ever received.
This blog focuses on technology, business/marketing strategy, and startups. Number crunching and back of the envelope calculations are emphasized.
Jonathan spends his time working with @bdotdub and a great team on Timehop and writing about technology. He is the co-creator of Exit Strategy NYC, 4SquareAnd7Yearsago and lots of other stuff. He loves talking product.
Feel free to reach out via gmail: jwegener
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