Dear Technical Founders (Part 1)

Dear Technical Solo-founders, 

You are wonderful, creative, genius people when it comes to bringing ideas to life. I’m writing to you a few letters out of admiration, love, and encouragement. A problem you’ve shared with me often is that life has its own agenda more often than not.

Why Isn’t Your Product Selling? 

Why is the market this hard to enter? You’ve tried everything—SEO, engaging with online communities like Reddit and forums, and even gathering emails for cold outreach. Well, it may come from a number of different issues, and I want to share a few of the things I’ve learned with you all.

• I’ve seen some of you lean too much into your technicals during sales calls. As a founder, it’s natural to be proud of the intricate workings of your product, but buyers—especially in B2B—are usually more interested in the outcomes your product delivers. Shift the conversation as much as you can to the specific problems your product solves for the buyer. It’s the IT team that’ll care about the technical details after contracts are signed, but decision-makers want to know how your solution saves them time, money, or resources.

• Another area to examine is your product demos. Set out an intentional, clear, narrative that shows how the product fits into your buyer’s workflows, and set expectations on how often they can realistically use your product.

• Your promise is much bigger than what you fill

• Sometimes the problem you’re solving is simply too small. The problem you solve is too small of a nice to have. We are, for better or worse, in a market of weirdness where we’re dancing with, against, and between tech giants. Finding a problem that’s scaled enough for your appetite may be a bigger task than initially expected. Don’t give up, do dream big, and focus on solving well for one “beachhead” niche first.

• If you feel like your product is great and people should just “get it” right away, it’s time to recalibrate… businesses are scrambling for people’s attention dramatically more than ever, so getting people to give you a chance is something you gotta work for. How? It starts with understanding your buyers and users intimate motivations, building trust against those motivations in a visible way — that takes persistence first, creativity, and some time (undeniably).

Not all of what you’ve made and tried is the issue, rest assured. By reconsidering some parts of the “whole” should get you on your way out of the pain you’re going through.

Yours faithfully,

Sam from The AI Product Report

Want to talk about this longer? Need more customized help on the matter? Email me [email protected] don’t be shy, let’s talk.

I know there are a LOT of other AI-Product topics to cover like feedback loops and ethics, so let me know if that’s something you want to see discussed!

Here’s an anonymous channel for you to send me your thoughts if the comments section isn’t for you! 😉