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cover of episode Episode 763 | TinySeed Tales s4e8: One Last Pivot

Episode 763 | TinySeed Tales s4e8: One Last Pivot

2025/3/6
logo of podcast Startups For the Rest of Us

Startups For the Rest of Us

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C
Colleen Schnettler
R
Rob Walling
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Colleen Schnettler: 我最初专注于市场营销数据分析师,尝试通过冷联系LinkedIn等方式寻找客户,但效果不佳。营销人员通常拥有大量数据来源,但他们并没有有效利用数据库,许多人使用数据聚合工具,如Segment。我曾考虑开发数据聚合器,但这个领域竞争激烈,我没有独特的优势。我尝试研究GA4,但由于我对Universal Analytics 不是资深用户,我没有足够的理由去开发GA4相关的产品。后来我发现一个新的方向,一个客户需要提取他们自己的数据,这让我重新考虑了一个之前搁置的想法,虽然产品不同,但目标用户需求一致。目前,我面临着资金即将耗尽的压力,我给自己设定了截止日期,如果到年底没有达到目标,我就会放弃这个项目。在这个过程中,我学习到,找到产品市场匹配是一个模糊的过程,需要不断迭代,明确产品的价值主张,并过滤掉大量的噪音信息。与客户沟通的过程中,我发现即使客户一开始很感兴趣,最终也可能不会转化为付费客户,这让我意识到定义清晰的价值主张的重要性。 Rob Walling: 在创业初期,找到产品市场匹配是一个模糊的过程,没有明确的框架可以遵循。Colleen 的经历展现了初创公司在寻找产品市场匹配过程中面临的常见挑战,例如客户需求的多样性、市场竞争的激烈以及资金的压力。在与 Colleen 的对话中,我强调了设定明确的‘kill criteria’的重要性,即设定一个明确的截止日期和目标,以便在项目进展不顺利时及时做出决策。同时,我也指出,在创业初期,创始人需要依靠直觉和经验,做出许多基于不完整信息的艰难决策。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Colleen discusses the difficulties she faced with cold outreach, achieving a low response rate. She highlights the overwhelming amount of data sources marketers use and the absence of a clear problem to solve within the existing data aggregation tools.
  • Low response rate from cold LinkedIn outreach
  • Marketers overwhelmed with data sources
  • Lack of a unique value proposition in a crowded market

Shownotes Transcript

Is it time to set a deadline for when to quit your startup?

In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling reconnects with Colleen Schnettler, co-founder of Hello Query, as she tries to achieve product-market fit on a deadline.

Colleen reveals the struggles of cold outreach and the overwhelming data landscape while testing a potential solution. With a clearer vision and two paying customers, she reflects on the importance of defining her value proposition, and the critical timeline she has set for herself to gain traction before her runway ends.

**Topics we cover: **

  • (1:43) – Debating becoming a data aggregator 

  • (6:30) – Finding a new direction

  • (8:21) – Running out of runway

  • (10:39) – When is it time to quit?

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