HACKER Q&A
📣 oakenfloor

How would you target businesses with this software service?


Say you've built an internal communication application like Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Slack and Zoom.

With an app like that, how would one get their first few users?

With it being a crowded, well-established market, would pre-established businesses be willing to ditch what they already use for (what seems like) a small benefit? or if not how would you target newly-formed businesses which haven't made a choice yet? could you target within-business teams rather than whole businesses?

Would you choose advertising, content marketing, talking to people (where would you find people to talk to?), or something else?

  👤 themodelplumber Accepted Answer ✓
I personally wouldn't target businesses. I'd network with people who are people-centric and who like to try new things. Those people would form the business connection for me later, by simply being employed, or by owning businesses.

Then I'd say, "hey I got a new thing, wanna try it?" and if they say no, they are going against the grain of their own psychology by definition. So your base hit rate / sampling rate will be higher.

To find people like this, what you'd do is ask around. Asking around is different for everybody, so you'll need to develop your own asking-around science/art, probably by looking into your past a little bit to see what kind of person you are, and what that has to say about what might work.

For some people it actually helps to ask a matchmaker, like a literal matchmaker-type person. "I'm looking for somebody like..." Just as an example.

Good luck, sounds like you have a wide open field in front of you & some fun times ahead.