{"id":698,"date":"2014-11-11T11:32:39","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T19:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.thinkapps.com\/?p=698"},"modified":"2016-03-31T17:22:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T00:22:19","slug":"how-start-startup-essentials-scaling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkapps.com\/blog\/post-launch\/how-start-startup-essentials-scaling\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Start a Startup: 3 Essentials for Scaling"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the founders of the Y Combinator<\/a><\/span>-backed startup Homejoy<\/a><\/span> wanted to disrupt the cleaning industry, they took a novel approach \u2013 they became a part of the cleaning industry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Right away they realized that they were bad cleaners, so they started buying books on the topic.<\/p>\n

But reading books wasn\u2019t enough for them to get the training they needed, so they got a job at a cleaning company. This became a valuable experience because, not only did they learn how a local cleaning company works, but they were able to locate the inefficiencies within the system and used Homejoy to solve those problems.<\/p>\n

Adora Cheung<\/a> is one of the founders of Homejoy, and she recounted this experience at a lecture at Stanford University as a part of YC\u00a0President Sam Altman<\/a>\u2019s series on How to Start a Startup<\/a>. Her talk<\/a> focused on building a product, talking to users, and growing.<\/p>\n

(For more startup advice, check out\u00a0How to Start a Startup: The Book<\/a><\/em>. It’s\u00a0the ultimate reference guide to creating a successful tech startup.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Building your product<\/h2>\n

Before you build your product the first thing you need to do is ask yourself: What is the smallest feature set that I should build to solve the problem that I\u2019m trying to solve? Cheung advises answering that question by talking to users, seeing what exists, and building to solve your users\u2019 immediate needs.<\/p>\n

The second thing you need to do is establish your product positioning \u2013 something that took Homejoy a long time to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we went to potential users to come on our platform they would kind of get bored after the first few sentences. What we found out was that we needed a one-liner. The one-liner was very important. It kind of describes the functional benefits of what you do,\u201d Cheung explains. \u201cAfter we changed our position to get your place cleaned for $20 an hour, then everyone got it, and we were able to get users in the door that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they changed their explanation of their product from a few paragraphs of text to \u201ca way to get your place cleaned for $20 an hour\u201d then people understood what they stood for, making it easier to get supporters.<\/p>\n

Getting users to try your product<\/h2>\n

Once they they were able to simplify their message, the Homejoy team could focus on getting users to try their product. They actually had a very hard time getting people to sign up, so they had to use unconventional methods, like handing out water bottles at a street fair on a hot day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started handing out free bottles of water that were cold. And people just came to us. I think we basically guilt-tripped people into booking cleanings. But the proof in the pudding was that I figured most of the people were guilt tripped into doing it, but then they went home and they didn’t cancel on us,\u201d Cheung describes.<\/p>\n

Now they had users and wanted to be able to get as much feedback as possible. According to Cheung, getting user feedback requires these tenets:<\/p>\n