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by mettamage 2513 days ago
It's very cool to see this idea. Most notably because I had it myself! I thought about it between 2014 and 2015. For me your post is a case study as to why I didn't go through with it and you did.

What I'm noticing is the following

My issues:

1. Not being able to find a good business model for the markets I identified

2. Not being able to identify all markets

3. Not testing it out or simply starting it

4. Uncertain whether I'd be able to amass a pool

My successes:

1. Identifying the same pain point for researchers

2. The ability to create the web app (not that I did this, but I was confident back then that I could and in retrospect, I think I was right)

It's funny as I'm currently prepping for becoming a strategy consultant (first round at MBB firm, never got a reply by FAANG in Amsterdam) and I'm already much better at the conceptual thinking regarding my issues -- though strategy consultants simply scratch the surface when it comes to identifying markets, so I have a lot to learn there. And since this is just all interview prep, I've got a long way to learn business skills anyway.

An unusual tip if you are 'suffering' the same fate as me. Look on YouTube on how to do new market entry consulting cases and you'll get an idea on how to think about it from a high level.

I still wonder what good resources are to learn marketing though.

1 comments

Thanks for sharing your experience! At Prolific, we found that one good resource for learning about marketing/growth is this book called Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares. It explains 19 different growth channels and instructs you around best practices on how to experiment with them.

On a very basic level, the best way to validate your market & marketing ideas is talking to the right target audience. Often you can do this in your personal circles, but sometimes you need a less biased sample (in which case Prolific might be able to help). Good luck!