Lecture 4 - Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing (Adora Cheung)

Lecture Transcript: tech.genius.com/Adora-cheung-l...
So you have an idea. How do you go from zero users to many users?Adora Cheung, Founder of Homejoy, covers Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing, in Lecture 4 of How to Start a Startup.
See the slides and readings at startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec04/
Discuss this lecture: startupclass.co/courses/how-t...
This video is under Creative Commons license: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@Alexxxandra05]

watching this lecture with increased speed really helps to focus on the important parts and notice less of the ' you know's '

[@paulalbertlanglois]

true

[@AlexandriaRohn]

00:05 Talk topic: Going from zero users to many users. You've got an idea and now you're thinking about the next step. 1:20 Prerequisites for starting a startup. 3:30 Describe the problem your idea is solving. Verify others have it. 5:22 Q: Now, where do you start? What is your solution? 8:40 A1: Become an expert in your space. 9:54 A2: Identify your customer segment and focus on them. 10:31 A3: Before you even create the product you should storyboard the solution out. 11:46 You've done these. What next? Start building your product. Your MVP. 14:00 How do you get your first few users to start trying it? 17:34 You've got some users. Now what? Customer feedback. 28:00 You have a product ready to ship. Now what? Just launch already. 29:45 How to handle getting lots of users. Learn & iterate on channels. 33:00 The 3 types of growth: sticky=existing users, viral=talked about, paid 50:05 Q&A: "How do you get your users to switch from another product?"

[@andrewvu712]

Thanks

[@andrewvu712]

I mean a lot

[@markaaronbarrett]

Andrew = good samaritan. Thank you.

[@Buderus69]

Verynice job... You know?

[@nikoltes263]

thanks man

[@michaell4235]

Good material. Be sure to read about how Homejoy failed about 9 months after this was recorded.

[@randyjhones976]

Lol

[@ArielCamino]

www.wired.com/2015/10/why-homejoy-failed/

[@gl683]

one of the best ways to learn is reading about other failures lol

[@adamlee9347]

lol that was direct

[@jakobvaldma7475]

thanks! that seems to be the problem in the siliconvalley startup world - growthgrowthgrowth - with any means necessary just to get the higher valuation for the next round. Basic profitability gets overlooked. I'd rather grow slowly but self-sustainingly

[@johnnysun6495]

Great talk from a company that shut down one year later

[@tassv5909]

great talk and helpful. Just cos Homejoy failed does not mean you cannot learn from Ms. Cheung here.

[@lp4969]

@Crebs Park definitely not koreanese hahahah

[@nuwandakoh]

it is korean not koreanese

[@Nesamag]

The degrees of honesty graph is probably one of the biggest "golden nuggets" from this lecture!👌

[@hoodasaurabh]

This is really important lesson from this class: *Users give different feedback depending upon whether the product/service is paid or free.* see @21:10.

[@Nesamag]

My thoughts exactly!

[@ooker777]

this video is delivered for free. Is there a possibility that you would leave a different feedback if it's behind a paid wall?

[@TheForthemankind]

Brilliant

[@wiseheroes9003]

At 28:00 min. mark - I like Adora's take on competition. As an old boss I had used to say "Paranoia is merely a heightened sense of reality."

[@simtu251]

Okay, stealing your quote.

[@terencestrong]

Very good lecture! You are an amazing entrepreneur and an inspiration to all. It's rare to see someone willing to sell to strangers, clean houses and learn to code all an effort to ensure their own success.

[@MrRsheeler]

Some of the best, most useable points in this video. Awesome stuff.

[@paulholsters7932]

So amazing these lectures. All these insights for free. It's insane.

[@JostenDooley]

So glad I signed up for this class

[@crumbledcookie3624]

This is such a great series. This is my fave so far! Nice job Adora!

[@sahhill1910]

+Heather Burns You favorite lecture is the one that's most boring? Interesting. Did you even watch Paul Graham knock it out of the park?

[@kalilinux8682]

"Homejoy shut down in 2015 due to poor customer retention rates, high customer acquisition costs" Irony 😂

[@sahilramteke2132]

they prefer growth over revenue.. that's why! Nothing like irony... they are best people to learn from!

[@HungrysitesRu]

@@sahilramteke2132 she failed. End of story. She cannot teach us how to do business.

[@gazathugrashad59]

she did a great job!!!!!...i loved this

[@josephc.3747]

Informative and practical advice. Delivery was dry but the content was very engaging.

[@lunaticz0r]

I am doing a 10 week course within my study about lean startups. I am going to try and make a summary for this video to increase my understanding, thanks for making these videos!

[@rutvikpaikine8222]

do you still have the summary

[@user-gn7oi6kn6k]

This is the lean startup framework. It's incredible

[@erikdsi7807]

so objective, practical and clear

[@bmejia220]

Good lecture, worth listening back multiple times. also worth adding that this is eight years old not all the information is still relevant

[@simtu251]

Which part do you think is not relevant anymore?

[@vojtechbasta9280]

44:10 "some one in national tennessee is going to be much larger than [...] lifetime value of someone in Czechoslovakia "... yeah since there is no Czechoslovakia since 1993 :D

[@JCGlancy]

I was laughing at this thinking the same thing

[@IvanTurkovic]

That is really bad since I doubt she ever learned about it in school so it is weird how come it can be in her mind.

[@stefanvrskovy]

At that point I closed the video. I don't know if it because of the school system in US. But when you don't know about something than DON'T TALK ABOUT IT. that easy

[@VitSouralMusic]

I just wanted to post the same comment now... :D Díky Vojto! :D

[@ahorizontallychallengedora5262]

Was going to make that comment and earn likes of it ):

[@leepayne.official]

What I would ask her today is, what would you have done differently to keep your startup from running out of money and shutting doors for good? And then go on to ask her what the aftermath was like dealing with all the implications that came with all the stake holders

[@Fedoranimus]

Private Assisted Suicide - a possible successful business with "really bad" retention curve.

[@NaimZard]

Good points + nice presentation

[@Hardcoretraderr]

Great stuff I'm learning a lot

[@pret83]

So far the best speak.

[@vseprozvire2]

The section with LTV and CAC is so valuable

[@blacksuccess81]

This was very useful. Thank you.

[@hillstudios1]

It is a wonderful session

[@StanGanweizhong]

Mistakes are fundamental and it is the heart and core of startups.

[@DaRealMidnight]

if you like this video I can really recommend reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.

[@vithalgoel3937]

read the book in may. Absolute gold. Its shocking how so many startups fail just because they dont validate their theories and products.

[@sheikhmuhammedtadeeb5677]

Just awesome

[@rammilanyadav5409]

EN Lecture 4 - Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing: Mistakes, Immersion, MVPs, User Feedback, and Sustainable Growth Strategies (Adora Cheung) 📝 The speaker discusses the mistakes made in starting a startup and emphasizes the importance of validating the problem and being passionate about it before building a product. 00:23 The speaker shares their experience of going through YC and making mistakes in previous startups. 00:23 The novice approach of not seeking feedback and launching without user validation leads to failure. 02:27 The importance of understanding the problem the idea is solving and verifying if others have the same problem. 03:32 The mistake of building a product for a problem the founders were not passionate about. 04:06 The speaker advises to think about the problem and validate it before investing time in building a product. 05:14 🔑 To start solving a problem in an industry, immerse yourself in that industry, learn the details, and exploit inefficiencies. 05:40 Immerse yourself in the industry to understand the little bits and pieces and identify inefficiencies. 05:40 Become a cog in the industry to gain insights and exploit inefficiencies. 05:55 Learn from professionals and get hands-on experience in the industry. 06:21 Be obsessively knowledgeable about the industry and its competitors. 08:55 Establish yourself as an expert in the industry to gain trust. 09:48 Identify and focus on specific customer segments to optimize for their needs. 10:00 Storyboard the ideal user experience before creating the product. 10:27 💡 The process of building a minimum viable product (MVP) and acquiring initial users 12:01 Building an MVP involves identifying the smallest feature set to solve the problem at hand and talking to potential users for feedback 12:01 Having a clear and concise product positioning is important to attract users 12:47 Initial users can be friends, family, and local communities, as well as online platforms like Hacker News 14:26 Homejoy used street fairs to approach potential users and convince them to book a cleaning service 15:40 💡 The founder discusses the early stages of Homejoy, including how they attracted users and gathered feedback. 16:11 They guilt-tripped people into booking cleanings by handing out free bottles of cold water. 16:11 They found that most people who booked cleanings did not cancel afterwards. 16:35 To gather feedback, they provided a way for users to contact them and went out to meet users in person. 17:46 They emphasized the importance of making users feel comfortable and having a conversation rather than interrogating them. 19:16 Tracking customer retention and collecting reviews and ratings were key metrics they used to assess their progress. 20:03 They cautioned about the honesty curve and the need to account for people who may lie in feedback. 21:23 📝 The importance of user feedback and optimizing for growth stages. 21:37 User feedback is valuable, with honest feedback coming from friends and paying users. 21:37 Paid users provide the best feedback as they have invested money in the product. 22:30 Optimize features for the current stage of growth, not future stages. 24:07 Manual processes and data collection are important before automating. 24:59 Temporary brokenness is better than permanent paralysis, focus on the core user. 26:30 Avoid the Frankenstein approach and build for future edge cases. 27:01 🚀 When building a product, it is important to listen to user feedback, but also understand the underlying problem they are trying to solve before implementing features. Launching a product early is crucial to gather user feedback and iterate on growth strategies. 27:09 Understand the reason behind user feature requests before building them. 27:09 Launching a product early allows for gathering user feedback and iterating on growth strategies. 28:40 Focus on one growth channel at a time and iterate on it. 30:02 Continuously optimize and iterate on successful growth channels. 30:52 Revisit failed channels in the future as circumstances may change. 31:24 Creativity is key in finding unique and effective growth strategies. 32:28 📈 There are three types of growth: sticky, viral, and paid. Sticky growth focuses on getting existing users to use the product more, viral growth relies on users spreading the word about the product, and paid growth involves using money to buy growth. 33:05 Sticky growth aims to increase usage and revenue from existing users by delivering a good and addictive user experience. 33:05 Viral growth depends on users sharing and recommending the product to others, so delivering a remarkable experience is crucial. 33:22 Paid growth involves using financial resources to acquire new users and drive growth. 33:35 Sustainable growth means ensuring that the money and time invested in the product yield a good return on investment. 33:41 Cohort analysis and customer lifetime value (CLV) are used to measure sticky growth and retention over time. 34:21 To achieve viral growth, a good experience must be combined with a well-designed referral program. 38:46 💰 The importance of customer touch points, program mechanics, and paid growth in referral programs. Understanding CLV and CAC for sustainable growth. 39:36 Customer touch points include after sign up and after product usage. 39:36 Different program mechanics can be tested, such as $10 for $10 or 25 for 25. 40:44 Optimizing the conversion flow when friends click on referral links. 41:47 Paid growth involves spending money to acquire users, with the goal of CLV exceeding CAC. 41:54 Consider CLV and CAC for different customer segments to determine ad effectiveness. 44:01 Sustainability is important to avoid spending beyond means and potential unsustainable growth. 44:32 📊 Pivoting is important when growth is stagnant or the business economics don't make sense. 45:38 Payback time is important, with 3 months being safe and beyond 12 months being unsafe. 45:38 The art of pivoting involves looking at criteria such as growth, user retention, and business economics. 46:35 To pivot, have a growth plan and consider a pivot if there is no growth for three consecutive weeks. 47:31 To get users to switch to a new product, find moments where your product is better or differentiated from existing solutions. 50:08 📝 It is difficult to convince users to switch to a new product with many benefits, so it is better to have one or two clear differentiating features. 51:32 Many people find it hard to switch to a new product with multiple benefits. 51:32 Even if the benefits outweigh the switch-over costs, it is still difficult to convince users. 51:49 Aggregating all the benefits over many little things is challenging. 51:58 It is better to have one or two clear differentiating features

[@mossaic]

great talk.

[@denisblack9897]

this one is really useful, not blablabla startup blablabla growth

[@spencerdepas4235]

Great. Thank you.

[@wenhuali8178]

learned a lot.

[@withsoleil]

Tooo uch information in one lecture. So many questions and so many points,terms that i couldn't understand.

[@Broduct111]

Great lecture, wish she used less "you know"

[@JuanDavidPastasRivera]

yep, too much... but great advice anyway

[@elkyelkyelky]

Finished, thanks

[@CuriousIndic]

nice insights

[@withassuan]

nearly falling asleep. emotionless speach. however good material.

[@DLSMauu]

same, way too thirsty for money with almost 0 passion stereotype

[@WallaceBMcClure]

Yeah. She talks like an engineer and someone that is highly technical. Same problem I have.

[@KE010101]

Good points at 45:30, 49:47, & 52:00

[@odiseezall]

44:10 - Czechoslovakia is not a country anymore.

[@jayschmitt3627]

Which is why a customer there has a low CLV

[@rpodcoworkingspace]

Great :) Thnx!

[@aemericenglish2417]

noob approach 1. build product in secret 2. exclusive press launch 3. wait for users 4. buy users 5. give up

[@telecomania1903]

too many "you know.." :(

[@Potenti4lz]

Pretty simple stuff, but well presented.

[@ooker777]

There are many positive feedback here. One of the lesson from it is: **Users give different feedback depending upon whether the product/service is paid or free** (@21:10). Note that this video is delivered for free. Is there a possibility that they leave those positive feedback because it's free?

[@brentskipper22]

This is great. I'm surprised at the thumbs up ratio.

[@zubairmushtaq1634]

very helpfull

[@p0werl0ve]

at 1:13 it already looks intriguing :) THANK YOU!

[@dannymanny8907]

Takeaways... Anything is possible

[@charlessmyth]

Czech Republic. Slovakia is now independent.

[@redfill68]

Abiut which Project/Startup is she speaking around 04:00 ??

[@soutolopes]

Great lecture! Well done!

[@alanreggae]

Nice

[@Husain_bohra]

I was doubtful regarding her principles from the start of the lecture, I was wondering how she created such a successful start-up. Then I looked about it on Wikipedia and was ooh.

[@omkarrao8661]

GOLD

[@bhavinchauhan796]

Kunal Shah

[@pauloesmarques]

Lean Startup + Customer Development + Woman without big vision

[@Darkkkkkkkk]

The amount of money PPl return back to u is that more than your cac ? (Customer acquisition cost ) CLV - CAC = 0 then it's okay / if more than 0 ur gaining profit

[@luftschloessl]

Her hair is so shiny!

[@TheSkyaakash]

Content was good.. Very poor delivery.. Other lectures so far have had way more inspiring speakers!

[@jwmphotog]

I felt like I was left Fielder, center Fielder, right Fielder and short stop trying to catch her fragmentation. Wow. That is not easy for my ADD.

[@vadimschashecnikovs3082]

The HomeJoy were shut down

[@emmanuelpaleyan3405]

4th Video of the Day.

[@emmanuelpaleyan3405]

and It is informative, but hard to understand.

[@macbroadcast]

21:17 #honestycurve

[@dianalastovska8386]

Why their company failed then?

[@cxn-ts6zt]

nice content but i found that there is a lot of abbreviation needs to be explained, Thanks!

[@SketchupGuru]

Damn! Homejoy shutdown

[@Viriyascybin]

> So a lot of it comes from failure Yeah

[@kristopherryanwatson]

1 year later, and they're out of business. probably should not take too much away from this webinar. they grew too fast.

[@gueneykerim]

Didn't Homejoy die recently?

[@cc758b]

+gueneykerim The lecture is from 2014. They were cool then :)

[@HanisaMohamed]

They died due to poor customer acquisition

[@ashutoshshahi9321]

35:44 good ol' 2014, she would get cancelled for saying that today!

[@livehero2185]

btw it's the Czech Republic and Slovakia since 1993..

[@bresalbert]

44:20 -Czechoslovakia doesn't a exist since like 25 years!

[@Buderus69]

...you know...

[@harshbhudolia3554]

what is clv(ijk)

[@rampanda8276]

Eyebrows have left the chat

[@FFWDEntertainment]

so unclear....WHAT DID U DO AT THE FAIR? did u pitch them at the fair? did u put a label on the bottle , did u force them to sign up before u gave them the water?

[@lvpdesign]

I would assume schedule a cleaning and get a free frozen water.

[@hemantagarwal2272]

Ppt text font and size manipulation is not good Sam's ppt were more eye catching

[@Steve48989]

Andddd her company failed

[@miazeff]

“You should, you should. You know, you know “ is half of what she’s saying.. very hard to listen and follow.

[@calin6327]

there is no more Czechoslovakia... Its Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. 44:00 You Big Bang Theory Watching Americans oh my xd

[@gubby740]

You know

[@stefanserban6696]

Yeah, and her business failed in 2015, after 1 year from the speech

[@elkyelkyelky]

51:00

[@drunkrussian4734]

Who the heck doesn't know how to clean??

[@TheForthemankind]

21:10

[@BrodieTheAthlete]

30

[@WilliamBrownGuitar]

essentially incoherent

[@Comedy_Clips927]

then why homejoy is failed at 2022

[@FarhanAbroad]

Covid I guess?

[@tyrisnolam]

Way too many "youknows" but quite helpful lecture.

[@sdtyhjklmnbgfdsfghj]

Good content but so painful to listen to

[@AkashkumarBammrotwar]

There is lots of break in your talk with distract me from concentrating from what do you want to convey. I have learn a lots of thing from this video but still this can be make more valuable if you say smoothly all what you want to convey. Thank You hoping to get more values in future.

[@irlalanbarrett3239]

Here is free cancer water. 😂

[@Viriyascybin]

> lecture: Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing > forbes: What Really Killed Homejoy? It Couldn't Hold On To Its Customers hmm

[@mebharambe]

the only boring lecture of this series till now.

[@ruzinsaleem7258]

homejoy went bust

[@SwaggahDontStop]

Ruzin Saleem Yea. Still good points in the video though. She'll probably try the startup game again.

[@todzaikaguvichabudapasi260]

Ruzin Saleem doesn't take away the insights

[@Urrzah]

Such a disappointing lecture. Low information/word ratio. Considering how much emphasis YC puts on building product and talking to users, you'd think they would have let a better entrepreneur and speaker give this lecture. And maybe do more than just 1/20 lectures on the things you should be doing most of the time.

[@FFWDEntertainment]

not that great