Growth Hacking -- getting your first 1000 customers

Being involved in early-stage startups, we always think about getting 100,000 customers, 1 million customers etc, when we pitch to investors. Because that's where the money is. However, what REALLY is difficult (and one of the many major reasons startups don't even get past the initial phase), is how to even get your first 100 and first 1000 customers. Customer / User traction builds upon EXISTING customers/users. Virality, no matter how inherent and how great, also builds upon existing relationships. But why doesn't anyone talk about the initial growth? The first 1000 customers cannot be obtained by virality nor networks. After the first 50-100 customers that are usually family/friends, where do we get the remaining 900 people to start building traction?

Finally, this very important but often forgotten topic was addressed at a recent meetup I attended, organized by a team of students from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, called "Igniters". The speaker was James Kennedy, founder of piehole.tv. They had recently obtained their first 1000 customers, so James was a perfect person to speak about the topic -- both success and fresh in mind. A few take home points that I personally felt were new and useful:

1. Brainstorm on 30 different ways to get leads, and 30 different ways to get conversion. Getting leads (the connection and the list of people) and conversion (leads becoming sales) is very different, so methods for both need to be brainstormed separately. 
2. Delete the 1st 20 things on both lists. WHY!??!?! Didn't you just brainstorm 30, why delete 20 of those now? The reason being -- the first 20 is probably extremely common, and everyone else is already doing it! Not to say that you shouldn't use any of them anymore (tried and tested), but if you want to be different, or if you aim to disrupt, go for the last 10 that you had to squeeze dry your brains to get to. 
3. Test only a couple of methods each month, using a metric to measure effectiveness of each method. Discard the ineffective ones after each month, and test new methods. Keep using the effective ones, and eventually dedicate most of your resources to the most effective.
4. A/B testing. Optimizely is a useful site to help you do your A/B test. (Hey, they have big-name customers such as Walt Disney Company, Fox media, Starbucks, techcrunch!) 

Let me know if any of these were useful in helping YOU get your first 1000 customers! :)

Why Can't Scientists be Entrepreneurs?

It's not the first thing people associate together -- Scientists and Entrepreneurs. Why? Because of the many (stigmatic) differences between the two.

1. Scientists are practical; Entrepreneus dream big.
2. Scientists are analytical; Entrepreneurs are creative.

3. Scientists are conservative; Entrepreneurs are risk-takers.

As I went through business school, majoring in entepreneurship, I constantly struggled with these thoughts, of whether I, with a science PhD, would fit in with the business crowd? How would I have to adjust to be an outstanding entrepreneur? Am I an oddball?

Through the process, I realized (to my joy) that there are actually many qualities of a good scientist that makes a good entrepreneur:

1. Passionate and motivated. It takes a whole lot of passion and motivation to do research, when you're the only one who knows (or believes) it will work, when many other researchers are trying to prove the opposite, and when all other life's entertainment has to take the back seat. Entrepreneurs have to dedicate their life to their business too, because otherwise no one else will.

2. Never give up. A PhD is not an easy route, and it takes a lot of grit to get to the end. The same goes for business, when many times you only have yourself and your business to believe in. It all boils down to faith.

3. Used to the notion of "first winner takes all; second gets nothing". In science, it is a race to publish. If your competitor beats you to publishing the same discovery/invention, the novelty in your work is completely lost, and there is no more value in everything you've dedicated your life to the past few years. The same goes for many start-ups, where the first start-up to deliver the product to market (provided it is of good quality) captures a huge market share, gains critical traction, and no competitor can fight them. (Think facebook...)


So, if you are also a scientist, and have secretly desired to start your own business but never dared to voice out the "ridiculous" dream, stop keeping it a secret now! Be brave, go ahead, and shout to the world. You've got what it takes! :D