Scaling can wait!

Get to know your customers first...

In order to scale you have to have a pretty good idea about who your customers are, what they see in your product or service and most importantly… what kind of improvements do they dream of?

At the beginning of your startup journey, it is easy to get carried away and focus on scaling your product or service without making sure that you really know your customers. Honest opinions and wishes from your early movers can lay down the roadmap for a scaling that originates from real genuine needs and wishes from real genuine customers. That is a thousand times better than convincing yourself that you know what tickles people. 

Most startups do not start with hundreds of thousands of customers. Most start with a few. The precious few. When you get your first customers it is time to stop innovating for a brief second and start listening in order to adjust your service or product. Listening to your first customers, adjust your services or products to their needs and win them over one by one. That is the key. Making people love your company is the best form of scaling platform you can get.

Brian Chesky the Founder of Airbnb used to go door-to-door in New York just to have a talk with early users about their experiences when using the app.

“I would literally sleep on their couch” 

- Brian Chesky, Founder of Airbnb

When going to your customers do not ask about small stuff and adjustments. Ask about their dreams. Ask about what their ultimate product or service would look like? When getting feedback, think about what ideas are scalable to a mass market and which are not.

This will get you going in the right direction.

Best regards
The Heroic Rhino Team