What’s up folks. It is time for the monthly update. I started this series because I want you to see how I approach challenges and address them. More often than not you’ll be able to learn something you can apply to your own situation.
Here is the first one in case you missed it. We will be continuing with an update about the trucking app I am working on.
March Challenges and Activities
This month I got a lot of valuable feedback about how to embody my product. What I’ve found is that in general people are stoked about the product and willing to pay however there are some limitations they need me to overcome before they go all in.
Chicken & Egg Problem with Network Effects
Many of you will find that your product requires social proof or network effects to really hit its stride. Either the act of users using the product makes the product better (think Facebook/Fax machines) or your product has some element of status/groupthink that seriously affects purchasing intent (think restaurant that’s always packed).
This creates the obvious chicken and egg problem: If you need users to make your product/sales high quality, then how do you attract the first users?
In my case, the product partially relies on user generated data to make the app better. The truckers are effectively sharing updates with each other that make the overall product much better. So how do you attract customers and add value on Day 1?
Regional Density as First Pass
My initial approach to this was to rely on regional density. Get a bunch of guys all using the app in the same area in the hopes that the network density could make up for the fact that there’s fewer users.
While I will still keep this approach, it still limits my ability to acquire new users. I am restricted to only certain regions and have less bargaining power as I *must* work with companies with more truckers & known routes instead of opening things up to individual truckers.
Partnership to the Rescue
The goal is to be able to provide value on Day 1. I was able to scour the web then find and secure a partnership with a company that will provide me data free for commercial use.
I then spun up a chron job that periodically pulls from my partner’s API and populates it in my database:
Look at All that Sweet Sweet Data
With this approach, I give myself and my sales team a lot more optionality. I can now approach pretty much anyone in trucking and guarantee them that I’ll provide value on Day 1.
If you are in a similar situation, I recommend you find some kind of stop gap solution with a partnership or with some other sly roundabout way of overcoming the network effect challenges. Once you get the flywheel started, it’s hard to stop but it’s also very hard to get it started.
Tailoring Your Offering to Demographics
Due to my background, I initially launched the MVP on a Swift based iOS app. I got it out fast. I knew it could be a problem and set aside some dough to loan out iPhones to truckers.
However, after conducting research, I’ve found that so many of my user base is Android users. Think about it. Truckers are working class dudes. They’re not buying no iPhone for $420.69. They’re typically going to grab a lower cost Pixel or something like it.
For that reason, I am starting to cut over my mobile stack to React Native. With RN I will be more easily able to deploy to both iOS and Android devices. That will massively reduce my operating expenses and increase the network of drivers.
If you are starting a mobile app from scratch, I recommend you consider React Native. It is not for all use cases but if you are making an app that is relatively simple with fewer screen touches, the performance hits you take with RN will be outweighed by the agility of having 1 code base/engineer building for both platforms.
Closing Thoughts
That does it for the monthly update. Hopefully something I shared with you can be applied to your own situation. If you aren’t yet, I highly recommend networking with other tech entrepreneurs to compare notes & collaborate.
There’s nothing new under the sun. It helps to learn about each other’s challenges.
Next time I will be updating on this project as well as talking about a new very fast project I spun up that needs a little time to marinate.
If you have a question or comment on what I’m doing or any challenge you’re facing drop a comment below!
Good luck. WAGMI.
Recommended Reading
Check out the full post here.
TLDR:
#1 - Rework by Jason Fried & DHH- Two Tech Startup GOATs & They’ll Teach You Their Minimalist, Practical Methods
#2 - Atomic Habits by James Clear - Learning the Ins and Outs of Human Behavior Formation Is an Incredibly Lucrative Talent
#3 - High Output Management by Andy Grove - Former Intel CEO Shows You How to Use Engineering Principles to Build a Strong Business
#4 - Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink -Â Former Navy Seal Officer Teaches You How to Build a Team of Doers with Initiative
#5 - Deep Work by Cal Newport - Georgetown Professor Shows You How Connectivity is Massively Overrated, Focus is Underrated and How You’re Currently Fucking Up Your Productivity
#6 - Actionable Gamification by Yu-Kai Chou - Game Development Expert Teaches You How You Can Play 4D Chess with Incentives & Accelerate Growth on a Massive Scale
#7 - Don’t Just Roll the Dice- Use sound economics & psychology plus the wondrous flexibility of software to come up with a pricing model that actually works