[ $davids.sh ] — david shekunts blog

📟 Product Market Fit for Technical Startups 📱

# [ $davids.sh ] · message #177

📟 Product Market Fit for Technical Startups 📱

A classic startup - having a technical innovation gives a bonus, but it's not the main driver of the business: Uber, Facebook, Telegram

A technical startup - is based on an advantage that has emerged due to a specific technology: OpenAI, Boston Dynamics, Protocol Labs

So, if in the first case, without touching the market, it's not even worth starting development, then in the second case, IMHO, it's worth doing everything possible to first find the market and then develop (and yes, this is not always possible)

A practical example: we developed automated plant growing systems, gradually cutting a prototype, but understood that first, we need to find a need and a market, and only then dive into the technology

The first market we discovered was the Russian growers, but it's extremely gray, so we didn't go there

Then we attended several events dedicated to technology in the agricultural industry (exhibitions, meetups, company reports, etc.), and there I met several companies and funds with which we held meetings, discussed the product, and shook hands (for example, Vkusvill was ready to buy the hydroponic blueberry technology and only that, but for a lot of money)

All the companies we communicated with were interested in the fact that the prototypes were only in the development stage

And along the way, we also won a tender to supply such boxes to institutes and technical colleges for students to study plant automation and experiments

I ultimately didn't live to see the first big results, because this type of development physically requires about 2-3 years of experiments, which I didn't have the strength for, but our chief engineer is still working on this topic in another team and is developing devices in this direction (https://t.me/hydroponylab)

This is what I'm getting at: never be shy and don't look for excuses why you didn't go to buyers/investors

If you have a cool team and a good pitch, they will listen to you, support you, advise you on someone, give you something useful, and maybe even make a preliminary agreement

  • @ Ivan ITK 🚫 · # 532

    Great experience, David! It was interesting to read. I'll add regarding any cool idea, you always need to have networking with funds. It's free there! People will help at an early stage to expand your network in the right direction, give recommendations on further steps, and perhaps they already have valuable analytics from experts on your market. This is a truly important and correct step at an early stage, and you shouldn't be afraid that someone will steal your technology and do it better. The idea itself will die as soon as it's born; it's worth nothing. Its entire value is only when it turns into a company with capitalization. And that's a long road, or an incredible stroke of luck 🦄

    And I also wanted to tell you about a project like qdrant, which grew out of one Andrey Vasnetsov, who, during the COVID period, sat at home and solved work problems, a task, which resulted in a product that went open source. A couple of posts on Reddit, and major clients and investors came, and as a result, without any analytics and completely by chance, a company appeared with a round in a new fast-growing segment.

  • @ [ $davids.sh ] · # 533

    By the way, one of the first to help us and give us access to various specialists was the FRII fund)

    And we found a person who was involved in a similar area there, and bypassing the accelerator, he started helping us with everything because they were interested in these technologies, and there was no such track in the accelerator.

    In short, yes, funds are a top-notch thing.