Loading...
Answers
MenuIf I dont live in the U.S but have a great idea for a simple re-use/rebranding of a common product that will fit the U.S market. What do I do?
Its a sport textile product that is easly accessible (also for re designing) and cheap to produce. I simply want to remarket it for a slightly different purpose. But I wont be able to handle distibution from where I live. is this even possible?
Answers
It is, but you have to understand that you will need to:
-Find a partner in the US, or and
-Get a company that will do the distribution for you
-License the product to another company to produce
If I was you I would listen to this podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mixergy-interviews/id348690336?mt=2&i=333880076
from the guy that brought the UGG shoes to the U.S. Also buy his book, really good
After you (1) work out the important distribution and licensing details, circle back and we can (2) talk about naming and explaining that rebranded product. Then you're ready to (3) market it and sell.
This article is based off of a question posted on Quora:
"What's the best way for a first-time entrepreneur to determine product market fit?"
Based on the way the author framed it (using "first-time entrepreneur"), I assumed he was or is under a tight budget. If this is the case, he will have certain limitations in testing and determining PMF - namely, he cannot simply task this off to an agency (not would I suggest that be the only way he or any startup test PMF before launch). I would suggest the following regardless, but it is especially necessary under tight budgets OR if an investment team needs these questions answered before deciding to fund a project.
First, I agree (in principal) with The Lean Product Process:
1. Determine your target customer
2. Identify underserved customer needs
3. Define your value proposition
4. Specify your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) feature set
5. Create your MVP prototype
6. Test your MVP with customers
Where I can add value is by walking you through one approach I have used for steps 5 and 6 in more detail below...
Aside from what you would discover in articles online through a simple google search (I took the liberty of summarizing some good one’s below), my approach to determining PMF very early on, and very inexpensively, has been to:
1. Find/buy an affinity domain name phrase that exemplifies your value prop (i.e. "EasyInsuranceRate.com" for insurance quotes). The reason you test PMF through a vanity URL first is because you want to know if the value proposition can stand alone and sell without a bunch of PR and fluff around it. You want to target your specific market, in the easiest way possible. Find a phrase that relates to your market will bring more users to your platform than a more unrelated name. This will be your landing page in a sense. This is the attention-grabber, and it needs to be simple.
2. Build out the microsite (simple Wordpress install or a landing page builder tool will do) under this domain with the same copy/creative they plan to use on your branded site. This technique is being used by large companies like Snapchat and Spotify. The idea here is to actively engage the user in clicking onto a that microsite in order to narrow down the focus of your product.
3. Create a the hook (an offer to get involved in a beta test, be shipped a sample, sent a coupon code...). Before selling an audience, you need a way to understand if they want what you're selling. Email capture is a good start. Create a good hook that is relevant to the final product and highlight that offer on your microsite's home page.
4. Launch traffic to this funnel from a variety of target persona's/interest/demo's. Invite potential prospects in by using descriptive words that would produce interest in your product. Watch the wording of these CTAs.
5. Use ads in ^ campaigns to test out the copy and call to action you are considering. Ads are placed everywhere on virtually every website today. Use this to your advantage and make buyers feel almost obligated to click/browse your page by posting intriguing ads on your page.
This process allows you to see real numbers and costs to market your product/service to those audiences. If they will buy from a vanity URL, or even leave their information to receive early access, you can feel confident a percentage of those will sign up or buy your product at least once.
Review all results and data. If all is going well - engagement is high, CTR is over 3% on ads, you are capturing emails from over 5% of traffic... You can be confident you have PMF.
As you progress through your PMF determination phase, the questions you need to get answered to get to a product market fit answer:
1. Who are your first 20 customers and what did it cost/take to acquire them?
2. Will online audiences buy your product or sign up for your service after clicking an ad?
3. What were your unit economics for the above ad channels^
4. What changes when you add credibility to you sales funnel (influencer mentions, testimonials, client logos…)?
Related Questions
-
Is it better to have focus on one service offering or have many service offerings to gain more market share, faster?
I think there are great lessons to be learned from Exec. They started out wide, but have gone very deep on cleaning. It depends on the core thesis of your vision. Do you have a different product experience that could be competitive to existing marketplaces? Or are you just going for land-grab? The most important thing to understand about the services marketplace business is that it's a very localized business operation. I believe that if you're just looking to make money, the best way to do this is to go to "secondary markets" and build up marketplaces with a plan to sell to someone who has already raised great VC and has a presence in the major markets. If you are looking to compete in major market cities, then the safer bet is to find the very deep opportunity unless you really believe your customer experience can beat the established players. Happy to talk this through with you in more detail.TW
-
How do I become a mentor at 500 Startups?
As a 500 Startup mentor I would suggest the following 1) Blog about distribution, design and data. Those are the things that 500 values most and usually the fastest way to get on their radar. 2) Interact with @davemcclure (and all other partners) on Twitter 3) Attend geeks on a plane or other events they host. It's all about relationships and perception, so create opportunities to increase the probability of showing them that you have skills that are relevant to the companies they invest in. Hope that helps.DM
-
What is the best way to distribute a new cosmetic product to distributors and hair salons?
I am the founder of a cosmetic company that bootstrapped from nothing to a 7 figure business. It sounds like you are really at the beginning stages of business and there are a lot of opportunities for you. You've got a lot of work ahead of you and you need to build some infrastructure. Your brand is going to be one of the most important things to establish and you won't be able to sell to distributors, salons, or consumers without a clear message of what your company is about. When it comes to distribution of your product, you can either work with a distributor, sell directly to resellers, or sell directly to consumers. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. You'll have the most margin with direct to consumers - but you need skills on ecommerce. When you sell through a distributor you lose tons of control, but you can expand your reach quicker. You also have the slimmest margins; but you don't need to invest as much into sales. Selling direct to salons is a time consuming process; but you have more control of how your product is displayed, and the perception the consumer has of your products. So much of cosmetics is where your product is currently sold. If it's sold in mass market retail, no salon will want to carry it. But the direct answer of your question is you simply need to sell your product to anyone who's willing to buy it. Pick up the phone, hustle, and win over those customers.EB
-
If Facebook were starting today would it be a better strategy to sign-up one college at a time or sign-up collages across the country?
Think big. Start small. You should always think of the bigger picture (i.e. Facebook for everyone in the world), because you want to make sure that you enable yourself to grow towards that point. Using Steve Jobs' analogy, it's about anticipating where the dots will be. Or as Wayne Gretzky puts it: skate to where you expect the puck will be, not where it is at the moment. Having this bigger vision in mind, will help you move forward. That said, always start small. If you can make your product or service valuable for a small group of people (that are also representative of a bigger population), you can definitely figure out ways to reach those people. The initial challenge though is to make those first 10 / 100 / 1000 people really use your product or service (and preferably pay for it).AP
-
How do build a empowered and motivated engineering team?
I am assuming your question is more pertaining to empowering and motivating (rather than hiring). I can outline some of the practices I have seen really result in high motivation and sense of ownership among engineering teams: * Empathize - Your engineering team will work well and be more motivated if they see you as one of them rather than a person who doesn't understand their function. Show your geeky side to them, and show that you understand their thought process and drivers. * Pick their brain on big and small decisions (roadmap, usability, whatever it is) - Product teams value being heard. The more you position yourself as someone who is WANTS to listen, is keen to have their inputs, you will be surprised at how involved they can get, and also how you can actually tap into a lot of smart ideas/thoughts from them that you can develop on. * Take care to explain - show how you arrive at decisions. Share your research, competitive analysis, and even your thought process on arriving at a feature set or list of things for a release. Its stuff you would have worked on anyway - so no harm sharing with more eyes! * Share customer feedback - nothing motivates your engineers than a positive interaction with a customer. Get them to see customer feedback. Have them sit in and observe some of the usability studies. (B2B - have them see you do some demos or do a successful sales pitch) * Send out interesting articles, insights, business and tech articles with your comments/highlights to them on a regular basis (maybe twice a week?) - maybe even some analysis you did on competition or customer feedback * Engineers like working with people they feel are competent and complement the work they are doing to build a great product. So make sure they see how everyone else around them is also doing a good job and adding value and contributing to the success of the product. * Be transparent about the product/business - Make them feel they are responsible and involved in the business, not just technology. I've seen engineering teams happy about their annual goals having components relating to making revenues, keeping customers happy, or reducing costs. If they are enthused about the business as a whole, they will be more motivated with their engineering efforts * Have a mix of little experiments, R&D, attending to engineering debt, in addition to bug fixes and new features that each engineer gets to spend some time on (based on their interest) * Finally get to know each of your engineers personally, and be aware of what their priorities are. Each of us has different motivations in life, so there is no silver bullet to motivate people. When they know you care for them, they are more motivated :).SG
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.