There are effective accelerants you can add to your software product that speed up adoption, market breadth, and profit—so why don’t more of you use them?
When I review a company’s tech strategy and product direction, I’m always looking for relatively simple things the organisation can do, that I know from experience can reliably multiply users, revenue, and profit by a significant factor. Here are some of the most common, lower-cost opportunities I find in plain sight:
Marketing and implementing via a channel partner. Example: A client of mine sold their logistics service to local councils through a consulting firm that specialised in that market; once trained, the partner rolled it out to hundreds of their clients in short order.
Broaden markets to nearby locales or products with low transition costs. Examples: Dyson went from hoovers to dryers and fans; Unmade went from custom knitting to bespoke bicycle gear; Pirate.com took their unstaffed DJ studios from the UK to the rest of the world. Hi
Selling customers their own data, repackaged. Example: My first startup, TIM Group, found that the data we were transmitting for banks could provide a meaningful trading signal, if aggregated—and that signal rapidly became our primary product.
I’m mystified when I see so many software organisations doing the hard stuff to grow, like acquiring competitors or adding offshore team after offshore team. Try pouring some kerosene on the fire instead of just blowing on it.
This first appeared in my weekly Squirrel Squadron email, which goes out every Monday, and was originally posted on 21st November 2022. To get my provocative thoughts and tips direct to your inbox first, sign up here: https://squirrelsquadron.com