Essay · 15 min read

Excuse Me, Is There a Problem?

Jason Cohen · A Smart Bear (Jason Cohen) Free Intermediate

Cohen bootstrapped two companies past a hundred million in revenue, and he is blunt that a typical launch converts around one percent of traffic, so a burst of attention rarely becomes real customers. He shows why founders hide in features and launches because sales feels hard and out of their control. A sobering counterweight if a launch feels like the easy answer.

  • A typical launch converts roughly one percent of traffic to buyers
  • Founders retreat to features because sales feels hard and uncontrollable
  • Validate a real problem with real people before betting on reach
Open on longform.asmartbear.com ↗

It answers 4 questions

  1. How do I stop myself from adding features nobody asked for just because I enjoy building?
  2. Should I try to close my first 10 customers one by one, or run a small launch to get them all at once?
  3. What are the warning signs a developer is building the wrong thing?
  4. What are the most common mistakes founders make when they try to build on a hot trend?

Read with it

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  6. Long-form, candid interviews with Indian founders and investors on how they actually grew, distributed and built brand, one of... The Neon Show / Neon Fund Podcast · 200+ episodes The Neon Show (100x Entrepreneur Podcast) Siddhartha Ahluwalia
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