As I continue working to bootstrap my startup, Jitify, one of the most challenging parts has been dealing with setbacks. Sending a survey to 500 people and getting just 15 responses, for example. Talking to five different prospective cofounders and having them all opt out for various sensible reasons. Reaching out to ten experienced entrepreneurs for advice and getting a meeting with just one of them.
One of my key learnings from this process has been that my perception of success and failure is biased by my background. In many engineering and scientific contexts, a test that produces the desired result just 10% of the time is a failure. In product development situations, a project that hits its scheduled milestone dates just 10% of the time is probably in trouble. In many marketing contexts, however, a 10% conversion rate is a triumph, and a 1% conversion rate is a sign that it’s worthwhile to keep trying (with different messaging for the next test, of course).
As I proceed with some of the harder aspects of building a startup – finding a cofounder, finding investors, finding customers – I’m finding it essential to keep in mind that these people-centric activities are marketing efforts, not project milestones or science experiments, and they need to be measured and managed as such.
