Sell → Service → Scale 🚀 (StartupWatching #83)

There is one question that can make or break any marketing campaign, but you never hear it asked at meetings: Does our product suck? It’s a scary thing to say because leaders don’t want to appear to lack confidence in their product, and team members don’t want to piss anyone off. But in Cliff Lerner’s experience, asking that question can be the difference between a launching a product that is dead on arrival, and building a $150 million dollar company. This is how.

Jackie Bavaro shares how you can learn to understand what makes a great product. It’s the ability to hone in on the important problems a product solves and come up with ideas to make it even better. 

It’s always a great feeling to reach your milestone. But just because you’ve launched your new SaaS product, doesn’t mean you’ve reached the finish line. Far from it, things are just getting started.. Great article by Travis Mathis.

“Growth hacking” is trying to convince you that you can quickly and easily generate new customers, make the most of old ones, and increase your revenue ceiling. Tricks like “viral coefficients” or “platform hacks” will help you skyrocket new users. And that’s not wrong, per se. But the sequence of these activities is wrong. Because sure: All growth hacks can work to one extent or another. However, the success of each is all going to depend largely on one little, teeny, tiny, detail: Your product. Here’s why.

Most entrepreneurs fail.It’s not their fault. It’s how popular culture, Silicon Valley (the series), and entrepreneur magazines headlines teach us. Ovi Negrean shares how you can drastically minimize the chances of your business failing through his Sell → Service → Scale methodology.