Every night as my clock passes midnight, I reach for my phone and log a number into a to-do app. That number is the daily download count for my app FindIt. Every morning, I wake up and immediately check on my international downloads to get an indication of how the day is going to go. Some days are better than others.
While I became an entrepreneur during my time at HBS, I’ve find myself transforming into an MIT entrepreneur. What does that mean? Well, there is a stereotype that Harvard entrepreneurs tend to build services oriented businesses (2-sided networks) and tend to focus on business model innovation.
On the flip side, MIT entrepreneurs have a reputation for building or licensing really cool technology or products first and then trying to find a way to turn that into a business. We joke that they have more of a “if you build it, they will come” Field of Dreams sort of mentality and yet I’ve found myself falling into that trap.
I have spent the past year and a half working on how to help people access information more easily to be more productive in the workplace. While much of that time was spent trying to understand the core problem and building a technology that can quickly handle and search across billions of emails and files, I have fallen victim to the siren’s call of product. The reason for this is that FindIt is... really, really good.
It’s so good that we have had really strong growth thanks to word of mouth and favorable press attention. The euphoria of being a “hot app” is addicting and in an attempt to recapture that feeling, I found myself putting my head down and focusing solely on making the product even better. If I build it, they will come... or so I tell myself. What I am coming to realize though is that I can’t continue ignoring marketing and a thoughtful approach to user acquisition if I am to build a real company.
My sole focus each day needs to be how to find and communicate with that next customer. Rather than building amazing products that no one will see (unless the App Store gods look kindly upon us and feature it) I need to spend equally as much time (if not more) searching for amazing distribution channels.
The lesson here? It’s all about sales... even when it’s free.
Unfortunately, that’s the one subject that is rarely taught in most MBA programs and so it has taken me this long to learn these lessons that a good salesperson knows intrinsically. Sales takes daily effort, it’s a volume game in terms of acquiring and qualifying leads, and it never ends. To make matters worse, more you sell today, the more you have to sell next quarter in order to beat your numbers.
It may seem like stating the obvious, but history has shown again and again that the best product doesn’t always win but rather the company that executes the best and has the best business. Hopefully I can learn these lessons quicker going forward so that I can build a great business rather than becoming just another great product that didn’t make it.
So when will this be available for android?
Working on the Android app as we speak. I'm hoping version 1.0 will be in the Play Store this weekend. :)
Thanks for the post, it was interesting.
A great product has many characteristics. In the app space, the two defining characteristics of a great product are:
FindIt clearly falls in the category of productivity apps.
When you say that FindIt is "really really good", it seems like you are alluding to the technical aspects of it. From looking at the app description, I don't see how it would be useful to me. In-built search functions of existing smartphones are more than enough for my needs. Of course, this is from the perspective of a junior finance professional--other socioeconomic groups may find it incredibly useful.
Thus, I contend that FindIt is not a great product.
Much respect though for actually trying to be an entrepreneur. Hope your other endeavors work out more favorably.
Thanks for the feedback. Actually, the only conclusion you could fairly make is that the app description is not very good. :)
Yes, technically it's very good but it's also socially considered good by users (4.5 stars in the app store) and it has also been professionally reviewed by many tech publications in a very positive way. A hammer's objective quality at hammering (it's intended purpose) does not change if a carpenter wields it vs. a florist. The relative usefulness of the tool for that individual's needs is what changes.
As far as this endeavor goes, it's actually working out great. We have a great start from a traction standpoint, strong investors, and momentum on our side. It is simply a reflection on the fact that the journey toward building a real business is long and it takes concerted effort on a daily basis.
Once you get into the real world and reach a point where you are constantly drowning in data, emails, reports, filings, meetings, et al... you might gain an appreciation for the value proposition of the app... Which, based on the inherent lack of cost (haven't looked into it but it's probably a "Freemium" model) is at worst neutral, and more likely highly positive.
@eskimoroll I can certainly attest to instances where this would have been a God-send for me during my banking days. Emails you received months ago were eventually moved and searching the inbox doesn't work... Were the search parameters more dynamic, I probably could have saved myself hours of work / backtracking.
Keep up the work, I think this is a really awesome product and I think one that actually is more marketable than you think. I think the story / marketability has more upside than the product has room to improve.
Thanks for the vote of confidence! We are using a Freemium model where Gmail, Dropbox, and Google Drive are free and we'll charge in the future when we support Microsoft Exchange, Box, Salesforce, etc.
Definitely will focus on marketing even while being knee deep in product stuff. Can't wait to hire a few more people so that I can spread the work around a bit.
Apps that are making money today are all backed by powerful marketing machines. In a market as crowded as mobile apps, that is bound to happen.
Absolutely. I have a deep love for marketing and now am learning the skills it takes to be an effective marketer for mobile apps. It's a whole new ballgame for me and the learning curve is steep but definitely fun.
Looks cool. Do you have a technical background? I'm building an app at the moment as well.
While I've done some light coding in the past, I have a business background. One of my cofounders is the technical one but we're going to be hiring a few more developers soon to help us out. We used a contract developer (referred by a friend) for the app build which was great but we're bringing all that in-house soon.
I am trying to see the value in the app (maybe I just don't get it) and/or any avenue towards revenue and eventually profitability. Can you describe exactly how it works (as compared to using a traditional in software search function) and any insight regarding the path towards monetization? I have traveled down a similar path over the past 18 months with an app that was highly specific to the PE industry that I had been working in and have faced similar issues. One roadblock that we ran into was believing our own bullshit (thinking we had a great product when maybe it was not as great as we thought, not necessarily implying that the same can be said for you) and wanting to unnecessarily improve the product (and invest more capital in the idea) before first building a solid and sustainable user base. We started adding a bunch of bells and whistles and gameification components that we probably should have held off on until phase 2. Our concept was eventually proven right when a well-funded start-up recently launched something very similar.
Have you ever not been able to find a file that someone asked you to send them or couldn't find a specific email that you're looking for? We make searching across all your accounts (multiple email accounts, cloud accounts, etc.) easy to do using your phone. We have a speed advantage over the built-in search because we are doing the search on the server side rather than having your phone search it's local cache first and doing server calls. However, more important is the fact that using simple and intuitive filters, we put the power of advanced boolean search in the hands of everyone. Instead of typing "Contract from:Bob has:attachment filename:pdf" (exactly in that way) to find a contract from Bob, I just type the word contract, select Bob as the person it came from, and select the Document file type. Super easy.
We have thousands of users right now with a meaningful percentage using it daily. These are professionals ranging from consultants to lawyers to casual users. The challenge now is to go from thousands of users to hundreds of thousands and eventually millions of users. That's the hard and fun part!
So... you are saying that the legends of the game really didn't come to play baseball in Iowa? :(
Great use of $250k and 2 years of time. We need entrepreneurs that actually create something. We don't need anymore apps.
We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters
I am not really amazed by all this apps, sure they are helpfull but I can't think of any apps that has really changed my way of living or considerably improved my efficiency. Ultimately it's still all about Microsoft Office.
This didn't really make any sense
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