Jimmy Rose is the co-founder of Content Snare, a tool for collecting documents and information from clients. In this episode, Jimmy shares his startup journey, including finding product-market fit, what worked in marketing, his approach to hiring, and more.
Key Takeaways
Pathway to MVP:
Started as a completely different idea, a briefing tool.
Found that chasing information from clients was a bigger problem after talking to 15 different agencies.
Once the audience was identified as agencies, started creating content right away, using Jimmy's knowledge and SEO techniques.
Presented the MVP as a sneak peek with a few screenshots and a link to buy.
Way under-charged at $60 for the year, which led to high churn and not enough buy-in for feedback.
Feature Management:
Don't use a feature voting board; it becomes a dumping ground.
Keep tabs on what people request on intercom.
Connect the dots to work out what's going to be a good commercial choice.
Now put feedback into an airtable and use the RICE framework to evaluate the features.
Finding Product-Market Fit:
Initially, accountants were written off as the ideal customer profile (ICP) due to personal bias.
However, once this segment was identified, things became much easier.
Accountants are tech-forward and understand the value of their time.
Marketing:
Content and SEO have always been Jimmy's favorites.
Use partnerships with influencers, webinars, podcasts, and guests.
Gabriel Weinberg's book called Traction was helpful.
Run tests using the framework to ideate which works best for the business.
Unexpected Problems:
Felt like pushing crap uphill, not knowing what was wrong.
Kind of had product-market fit, but not knowing for sure.
Churn was equal to the growth rate, and felt like everything had been tried.
Only got better once a better fit was found.
Hiring:
Job posts should be written like a landing page to sell the company.
Throw in things that give people an opportunity to talk about themselves.
Use test tasks for content and WordPress developers with a set of instructions to narrow down candidates.
Almost know most of the applicants just by email and test tasks before even talking to them.
Mistakes
Undercharging for the product, which can lead to high churn and not enough buy-in for feedback.
Key Lessons
Targeting a different segment can make a significant difference in finding the right product-market fit.
If you're constantly getting good feedback, but can't work out why you're not growing, there's probably something wrong with product-market fit.
Targeting a different segment can make a significant difference.
Run tests using a framework like Traction to ideate which works best for the business.
Job posts should be written like a landing page to sell the company.
Use test tasks for content and WordPress developers with a set of instructions to narrow down candidates.
Relevant Links
Gabriel Weinberg's Traction
Growing Content Snare to 1k paying users: A founder story | Jimmy Rose