Welcome to the Dreamit Dose.
In the next five minutes. We're going to talk about
that if you want to be wildly successful as a startup,
just having a great product is not enough.
You have to be clever on more than one axis.
How do you do it? Let's dive in.
So at Dreamit, all the time we see startups that come in and they say
I've got a great product. And we say really, what else?
And they're like, what do you mean what else? We've got a great product.
And we say, you know what, that's not enough.
If you have just a great product it's being single threaded.
It takes more than a great product to be truly successful.
As a matter of fact in the different verticals where we operate at Dreamit,
like SecureTech, UrbanTech, and HealthTech, we'll see three, four,
sometimes five companies a year that have nearly the same identical product.
So we always think to ourselves. Are they clever on more than one axis?
What do I mean by that? Are they clever in other ways like their business model,
their business strategy. Maybe it's their pricing, their distribution, their operations,
the way they acquire customers.
If they can be clever on more than one axis,
it gives them more chances of differentiating and winning.
Otherwise, if you're just single threaded, you're only clever on one axis.
It's like a barstool that only has one leg.
You really don't have much of a chance to win and you're probably going to fall over.
So let me give you a fun example. Here's what I'm going to do for my startup.
We've got a great product. We have the world's best mousetrap.
And you're thinking to yourself the best mousetrap. What, are you kidding?
I mean that's the classic joke. It's a great mousetrap.
But wait, there's more.
See, I have a business model advantage and a pricing advantage.
My mouse trap. Let me tell you what the price is. It's free.
It's a pay for performance mouse trap. That mouse trap is absolutely free.
You only pay me, and you pay me three dollars, only if I catch a mouse.
So I've really kind of messed around with the business model
and I've messed around with the pricing.
But hold on, I have another advantage. I have a distribution advantage.
You see, I have Home Depot and Lowe's both competing to give away my free mousetrap.
Why? They use it as a loss leader.
Put it all the way in the back of the store because they know that
when somebody comes in for their free mouse trap,
20 percent of the time they're probably going to buy
something else and add it to their basket.
And I actually have them competing regionally
for exclusive distribution partnership and we're also talking about it for the
online store that you get a free mousetrap when you buy a certain volume.
So I'm clever in four different ways.
Not only do I have the world's best mousetrap, but I also have a business model advantage,
a pricing advantage, and a distribution advantage.
Do I have your attention now?
Let's talk about how to do it for your startup.
I know I'm going quickly.
Please leave your questions in the comments section.
And make sure to subscribe. We have a lot more coming.
So how do you do this?
Remember, the first step is to realize that if you feel you're just clever
in your product you've got to push yourself.
You and your team have to think hard.
How can you be clever on more than one axis?
What are some examples of that?
For instance, maybe it's your pricing strategy.
If you're B2C company, everybody else sells one way
but you sell on a razors and blades model.
Or you're a B2B company where everybody just sells a normal SAS pricing,
but you use a different pricing model.
For instance, you say we'll be pay for performance.
If you don't succeed, you don't pay us.
So you differentiate on pricing.
Maybe it's in the distribution strategy. Maybe it's in the online marketing strategy
where if you're trying to acquire customers just from a marketing point of view.
It's not just that you're doing a Google AdWords campaign,
or a Facebook campaign, or something straightforward on LinkedIn.
But there's some unique clever aspect in the way that you're acquiring customers
and marketing to customers that's really unique to what you do.
So let me give you one more example that you all know. Airbnb.
Are they clever in just one way? Absolutely not.
From the beginning they were clever on more than one axis.
They came up with great ideas around
how to do photography around inventory and make that kind of scalable.
But probably the most interesting way they were clever on more than one axis
is they came up with a hack for demand. How did they do it?
They went into Craigslist, created some special software,
and were able to post Airbnb listings on Craigslist.
It was a total hack.
But they were able to get into where demand was unbelievably strong
and, for them, free.
Not trying to do Google AdWords. But a really unique way.
So right from the get go Airbnb was clever on at least three different axes.
That's it. What do you need to remember? It takes more than just a great product.
You have to force you and your team to figure out how you can be clever
on more than one axis.
And then once you've figured that out, just make sure you're really clearly
differentiating that and expressing it to customers and investors.
That's what you need to do. And oh by the way,
if you need a great mousetrap, DM me.
That's your Dreamit Dose in five minutes.
I look forward to answering your questions in the comments section.
We'll see you next time.