What does a tech-product start-up need initially? It is not money, not more people to join the team according to me.
It needs validation, feedback, users, inputs and all of this comes from Real Customers like you & me. If a product start-up gets real users, customers who engage in day-day usage of the product, they automatically become the following:
The Product Manager, The Well-wisher, The Marketer, The Adviser, The First Investor, and Friend.
Then can come re-iteration, product tweaking, more sales, more customers, more tweaking, more code, more tweaking, more selling and once you have a little bit of traction, then can come the People to join the team (Who will be excited by progress) and the Investors (who could now see Traction).
If the First Customers can do so much for a start-up, then why not the eco-system get stronger by becoming early adopters and customers of more Indian Product companies ?
At Exotel we have been very very progressive on this front as much as we can be and there are limitations as we are a B2B company in India, but we do our bit.
We signed up initially with these companies – HireRabbit (now in TechCrunch) ,MuHive (Social Media Engagement Tool), are looking at Pacebale right now and are always willing to experiment and try new products. We have been very lucky ourselves, there have been companies in the ecosystem who signed up with us though they might have had a more “Known” brand to take, but the entrepreneurs and teams in those young fast growing companies decided to go with us. Carwale, Olacabs, Babajob, CA Club India, Practo, Akosha and more here.
A very small thing I try and do every time on Twitter, is keep connecting people who might have a use of each others products. Prominently I push all Start-up folks on Twitter to use some of the new Cab/Auto aggregators like Olacabs, Taxiforsure, Cabs4Hire, Autowale, Savaari, Yourcabs instead of a Meru or Easy as it helps these young companies get more business and test their mettle. Another thing to do is keep connecting folks looking for Maids/Peon-clerk jobs to Chachii/Mypeon type services or help E-Commerce service/product providers get in touch with E-Commerce companies. There are in-numerable examples of what people already do and we should participate in it.
At the end of the day, if the product/service is good and adds value, the customer will stay and be all of the above.
If you were not given a shot once in your company or by your bosses, employers, customers would you be in this position today? Think about that, and help make the eco-system stronger. You have less to lose and lots to give.
If you think I can help you get connected to someone who could use your product/service, feel free to reach out.
