This is my first attempt to connect the two interests of my life – open source software & start ups. Would love to know your views & counter views.
Imagine you are an aspiring entrepreneur, you have an awesome idea, and a great plan to execute – what would be your greatest fear? Let me guess, “what if users don’t like the product, what if I fail against competition, what if I don’t make lots of money”. One solution to this, is positioning your product properly in the market, everything else follows.
I will take the example of Taiga – an open source project management tool, and try to explain how they managed to get 18000+ users in just 3 months of existence, that too without spending a single penny on marketing.
Even if you have an awesome product, getting the initial traction is very important. It is only after reaching a critical mass that you can expect strategies like word of mouth to work. Lets analyze various factors that helped Taiga:
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Initial traction: Even before they launched, Taiga created a positive anticipation among users, making sure the excitement was high at the time of launch. Finally when they launched, they were ranked first on hacker news. This was partly due to the great product they had and partly because of enthusiasm already built around the product. Key take away: Hustle as much you can, even before your product is launched. Anticipation of your product will surely set you on the path of initial traction.
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Positioning the product well: There are several project management tools available currently, and many of them are open source / free to use. So, the first question any prospective user will have – why a new project management tool? Taiga answered this question on their homepage, clearing any ambiguity the users may have. They highlighted the problems in current tools, clearly indicated the pain points and then described how would they solve it. Key take away: It is very important that user/customer understands your product easily. They should know the problems your product aims to solve. Only then they have a solid reason to try your product.
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Open source: Taiga is open source – as you know, this means you can download the source code, customize it as per your needs, use it on your servers, all without paying a cent to anyone. This may seem silly to some, why would someone work hard on a product and then give it for free? But, the real thought behind it is – free as in freedom, not freebie. So, being open source actually helps Taiga get improved over the time as more and more people who adopt Taiga will contribute to it in some or the other way. Also, since there is no upfront charge to get started, there is no financial barrier for people to try Taiga. Key take away: Getting started with the product should be as easy as possible, the more hurdles – whether financial or technical, the more unlikely it is that people will try the product.
Photo credit taiga.io. Get in touch https://twitter.com/tiwari_nitish