anonfounder747

Got it, thank you. Will tread carefully.

Do you know of a text chat service that I can set up for anonymous users to join?

Great suggestion. Thanks.

Great ideas.. thank you. I love the refund idea, good way to get vital reason for churn.

Brilliant. I know what you mean, people don't want to offend so they prefer to stay quiet. Unless they can report it by bypassing the human. Will implement.

Wonderful insight that I will print and keep at hand. This is SO helpful.

Think about the person asking for help rather than people replying with a product recommendation -- I like this framing. Thanks!

I've been meaning to watch the my pillow guy. Will do today. Thanks for the tips.

Very useful stuff, thank you so much.

I had not come across these articles before. They are highly relevant to my situation. Thank you for your tip.

> preferring actual 1:1 user interviews instead

That's my gut instinct as well.

Thanks for the ideas on how to approach getting user feedback.

I took my time to read the patio11 articles you've shared (hence the delay in replying). They were excellent and practical.

> Probably people has more patience than me, but try to make it short.

Thank you for this feedback.

Thanks for the strategy.

About having dedicated pages with direct product comparisons, are there any downsides to doing that such as inviting legal or other problems?

Thank you so much for the encouragement.

Thanks for the insights.

> Companies with bright futures blow themselves up all the time.

I'm curious why this happens. Are there any telltale signs when a company is headed for blowup?

> 1) Find what their customers are complaining about on their forums, blogs, and social media.

I honestly did not think of this. It seems the obvious thing to do.

> I don't mean bug fixes, I mean conceptual problems, fwiw.

Thanks for this deep point.

> surely tech startups have much room to grow

Thanks for that example. Good reminder there's always room to grow.

Thanks for your message. I have to periodically get my mind out of this competition-obsessed frame and instead work on improving my product offering. The stress of competition is a part of life but I have to learn how to take it in my stride.

Yes, ABC (the competitor) is VC funded. They have funding from top VC firms, with unicorn valuation. Could you elaborate why you think they are extremely likely to fail?

Really good to hear those examples. That makes a lot of sense.

Thank you so much for saying that. I deeply appreciate your kind words.

> You can offer better support or you can offer something that a big company cannot afford like data exportability.

Thanks for the suggestions. Will look into how I can do these.

> VC financed companies need to show exponential growth to justify their valuations while you maybe can afford to invest in your users that is not profitable but that might give you an advantage in the long term.

I can see their messaging has become more convoluted, while the product is still good. Recent reviews by users also indicate they are not as attentive to users' needs -- perhaps a function of their scale. For these reasons, their rapid scale-up could be a competitive disadvantage in the long term, or they might have such massive mindshare (like they do now) that it will drown out alternatives like mine. The latter vision is the one that keeps me up at night.

> What's your answer to this?

My product does important things that ABC doesn't. Just that my product overlaps with the main 80% of the product.

> is it really a clone, or is it a clone-if-you-ignore-the-various-details?

It is the latter -- clone-if-you-ignore-the-various-details. But, people I talked to (people I consider important for my startup) are so enamored with ABC their eyes glaze over when I mention the differences, as though they feel they're insignificant differences.

> do you regularly integrate direct client feedback

I do this but not the charities, mixtape, etc. You could say my logo is actually cuter.

> Hang in there, define your goals, it really sounds to me like you are already done being awesome and are poking at legendary

Your comment made me cry a little and made me believe. Thank you.

I get the idea that you have a lot to say about aspects of business differentiation, useful to someone like me for sure. I hope you get a chance to elaborate either here or in a blog someday.

Thank you @magn1fico, for sharing the idea.

@tata71, I believe it can be done in a privacy preserving way. Think simple counting to answer questions like 'how many users clicked on this button?' without logging PII.

> The right kind of user will be begging to throw money at you. I agree, that's the best kind of user.

> If you have to be more aggressive, chances are you're targeting the wrong type of user. Very true from my experience.

Would you agree that identifying the right kind of user is the most important thing for a startup? Or can a startup be successful even if they have not nailed down the persona of the right kind of user?

Really like your suggestion of inviting for beta testing. I will look into it. Thanks.