#16: The problem with scratching your own itch đ©đ
Recognizing the often lost potential of early-stage research, the antidote to tech pressâ made-up realities, and doubling down on things you cannot write a check for.
Hi there,
Welcome to the sixteenth edition of The Baton. A fortnightly newsletter that brings you three, hand-curated pieces of advice drawn from the thoughtful founder-to-founder exchanges and interviews taking place on Relay and the interwebz. So, stay tuned!Â
In this edition, youâll find instructive and inspiring pickings from the brains of ProdPadâs Janna Bastow, Geckoboardâs Paul Joyce, and Help Scoutâs Nick Francis.
All drawn from a larger, equally earnest and insightful set of reflections, published here â SaaS Founders at Work: 23 Inspiring Heuristics and Hunches from 144 Years of Building Â
#1. Of all the enduring founding beliefs, scratching oneâs own itch, holds a towering presence. In a heartening note to her past self, ProdPadâs co-founder and CEO, Janna Bastow articulates how the worldâs at a loss when more and more founders pursue personal itches as the only âsuccessful starting point.â (Source: Relay)
Itâs true that we build ProdPad to success by scratching our own itch. After all, we were both product managers at the time and needed tools to help us do our jobs better.
However, I think itâs remiss to assume that the best thing I could have done was to solve the problem closest to me.Â
Had I taken a bigger step back, I could have explored a wider range of potential problems to solve, and likely found other opportunities that were just as, or even more lucrative than the path I went down.
I think the common trait of âscratching your own itchâ as a successful starting point for entrepreneurs is muddied with survivorship bias and the inability to measure what could have been.
I think that if more entrepreneurs spent more time in pure research and discovery mode, before picking a product/service to provide, weâd see a lot more value being created!
#2. The rosy, perfectly-arched world that PR spins is seldom real. We know that. Yet itâs hard not to let that dictate our own goals and aspirations. Bringing jolting clarity to the matter, Geckoboardâs founder and CEO, Paul Joyce, urges founders to weigh their own truths and reasons (Source: Relay)
Itâs easy to get into a downward spiral if you read the tech press or the humblebrags from founders of unicorns or the next new hotness
This sort of thinking can also impact team morale and has literally no upside
It seems rooted in that destructive human tendency to compare yourself with those around you
Comparing ourselves to others (esp carefully crafted PR messages) makes it easy to minimise your achievements and forget whatâs important to you
But thereâs a pretty simple antidote that works well for me when I start to feel like this. Being grateful:
Remembering why I started this in the first place, using that as my touchstone,
Focusing only on the things that matter, and
Acknowledging and embracing that Iâm exceptionally fortunate to be in this position
I started Geckoboard because
I believed this product wanted/needed to exist, and
I wanted to work in an environment that I felt was both positive and productive
By keeping those at the top of my priority list and hiring people with similar values then the tendency to to look outward and compare ourselves to others diminishes
The team and I really do care about how we work with each other and really care about the problem domain and believe in our approach
These are hard but incredibly rewarding challenges to work on, anything else is a distraction
If either of those things change in the future, then that might be the time to reassess, but as long as they remain true, then reminding myself of how lucky I am to be working on something I care about with people I care about is ample
It also helps that every hyper-successful founder Iâve spoken to privately about this is happy to acknowledge that this is just a cost of doing business regardless of size your business or how fast itâs growing
Things are always messy and chaotic even if it doesnât look like that from the outside
#3. Limitations and possibility are often held together in a familiar clasp. Help Scoutâs co-founder and CEO, Nick Francis recounts how a âbeautiful constraintâ of resources has helped them rescript conventional ways and pave a stand-out path in a crowded market. (Source: Relay)Â
I really love being in a crowded market. It means thereâs a big opportunity, the market/problem set are validated, and you have to be creative to stand out.
Having fewer people and fewer resources than other companies in a large market has been a beautiful constraint in my experience. It forced us to focus on a specific segment, be thoughtful about how we used capital, and to make big bets on the brand.
From a distribution standpoint, I describe it as doubling down on things you canât write a check for. We can assume all our competitors are very smart and will out-spend us when possible. But there are many marketing channels you can invest in that require commitment and effort â you canât just write a check to be successful.
Content marketing is my favorite, and we have invested most of our marketing efforts up to this point in content. Our friends at Wistia have a term called âBrand Affinity Marketingâ and weâre big fans of using these sorts of tactics to stand outâŠ
In terms of differentiation, we tend to overestimate the power of feature functionality in the buying process. Your company should probably be talking more about why your values mirror your customersâ values. Oftentimes people like to buy from companies that share their values and have a similar view of the world.
For instance, there are many ways to view customer service as a business â we differentiate by saying that we built Help Scout for the worldâs most customer-centric businesses.Â
We believe customer service is your most effective marketing tool, and weâve created products that embody those values. Companies that arenât onboard with that should probably choose something else. Itâs an asset for your brand to have an opinion, and to seek our specific types of customers.
The point is to make it about who you are more than what your product does. I can buy a jacket from hundreds of companies, but I always buy from Patagonia because itâs a company with values that speak to me on an emotional level. Thatâs the foundation of customer loyalty.
Liking this fortnightly assemblage of founding heuristics and what-I-know-nows? Forward it to your SaaS friends? :)
Until next time,