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Ask HN: Is this a good idea for a startup with a chicken/egg problem?

6 points by scobar ↗ HN
The chicken/egg problem I refer to is that our startup will be valuable to users when there are a lot of users. I think it was Paul Buchheit who said to start with something a few people love rather than something a lot of people kind of like. That's the advice I'm trying to adhere to with this idea. The challenge my cofounder and I face is that we're attempting to disrupt a very entrenched method of doing something. Our target users express that they'd love if our process became the new norm, but can't afford to neglect the traditional system while they wait.

So we intend to make our users fall in love with our vision and ethos before our service provides them the value they deserve. To show our gratitude to initial users we'll help them achieve their short-term objectives within the traditional system we intend to disrupt. Is this a good idea?

Hopefully this analogy will clarify any misunderstandings. Imagine Lyft when it started. An initial user goes through the effort to try it out, but there isn't a driver available to pick him/her up. Should Lyft show its gratitude by helping that user get a taxi?

5 comments

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emcarey
Yes, you want to prove to your users that you understand the problem and that you are the solution. You can be the solution without the product by helping them best use the traditional system you are trying to disrupt. Grab a good community of beta users and hook them into your market research. We started with a survey then a phone call and now we take them to coffee to really know what their needs are. As we build product, we're testing our UI and UX with these initial users heavily involved in our market research. We've found that they are more likely to provide feedback because we're truly building a product specific to their needs. Demonstrate you can solve their problem however you can then build the product of their dreams.
lobotryas
My detector's going off based simply on the fact that you're unwilling to tell us more about your idea. Do you believe that there are people out there who would beat you to the pinch?
scobar
There may be people out there who could provide a great solution to the problem we're trying to solve before we can. I welcome that possibility because I've experienced the problem myself, and I want a great solution to exist. The reason I didn't mention our idea is because my cofounder is still under the impression that ideas are very valuable, and asked me not to divulge it unnecessarily. I may not agree with him, but I've respected his request because I don't believe including our idea is necessary for this question.
keerthiko
If you are not in a hurry (disrupting entrenched mindsets shouldn't be expected to be done in a hurry) then yes, you want to gradually sneak it into their daily life with an offering that's closer to their current mental model for the activity.

With bitgym[0], we originally tried to make cardio-gaming a thing [1]. We still want it to be a thing, as when tried in a properly curated environment with the right expectations, it was far and away the best experience for users seeking fitness. As such, we've had to start from their current experiences, and engineer something that they can relate to better as we slowly progress towards our vision of getting everyone to play VR mariokart to stay fit.

It's slow work, but it's definitely something a few people love, and they are quickly seeing things the way we do :]

Just an anecdote, we aren't roaring away with success yet, but it seems to be working.

[0] http://www.bitgym.com [1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id483991355

thepredestrian
Just want to say that the name bitgym is super awesome. Not too sure about the service itself though.