by maria | Mar 2, 2016 | Uncategorized
Remember that essay from Y Combinator’s Paul Graham called “Do Things That Don’t Scale”? It is, without a doubt, one of the best essays for early stage startups, where Paul talks about several unscalable things that startups should focus on while trying to grow.
And as it turns out, one of those things is actually customer service, or what he calls ‘Delight’. Paul Graham highlights this ‘Delight’ factor to make your customers feel that “signing up with you was one of the best choices they ever made.”
Truth is, customer service (or lack of it) can make it or break it, for you and your startup. We all know it’s important, but why and how should you do it? How can you make your users happy and not screw up? How can you get the right feedback to improve your product?
Here are some tips on customer service that you can easily use for your early stage startup:
1. Make your early adopters happy
Take your time to listen to your customers and, just like Paul Graham wrote in his essay, make an effort to delight them. Wufoo, for instance, sent a handwritten thank you note to each new user, and Uniplaces, our alumni from Lisbon Challenge, actually picked up students at the airport and gave them a ride to their new home. Think of what you can do to surprise your users and customers and remember that bigger companies can’t really do that because they’re already too big to take this kind of effort.
2. Keep it personal
No matter what you do, keep it personal. At first, avoid those email templates and automatic replies, just talk to your users and try to understand their needs. Reply to every single message you receive and show that you really care. If you’re a founder, don’t just hire someone to do this for you, it’s important for all team members to see what your users are saying, and even more important to have the founders replying to customer support emails, as it generates a much bigger impact. All this will also help you to narrow down your real target user.
3. Validate your assumptions
Get your users to validate your assumptions. It’s good for you to have an ambitious vision towards the future of your company, especially when you talk to investors. However, that vision needs to be realistic and the only way to check if it is tangible or not is by talking to your customers. According to Carlos Espinal from Seedcamp the problem is that “unless your customers validate your assumptions shortly after your successful fundraise, you may find yourself going down the wrong path to keep up an “appearance” rather than re-focusing on what you know to be the real value to your customer.”
4. Make it easy for people to reach out to you
This comes down to the basics. Don’t just create a contact form on your website for your users to fill in. Instead, make it easy for them to provide feedback and reach out by having an email address for customer service really visible on your website. You should also consider having a live chat, so that your users can immediately reach you, in any page of your website. In the past I have used Olark, that is super easy to integrate and to start using.
5. Don’t do everything they tell you
Your users might tell you all kinds of things and not all of it is actionable, at least for the time being. It’s entirely up to you to filter that information. Don’t just build random features because a couple of users told you they want it. See first if all that is aligned with your strategy for the future and decide whether it makes sense or not. And when you reply to those users who so kindly asked you for something but you feel that’s not a priority for your business don’t give them a straight ‘no’ as an answer, give them instead a ‘not yet’.
6. Get this book to help you out
This book is really a must read for all entrepreneurs. It’s called “The Mom Test” by Rob Fitzpatrick and it’s all about “how to talk to your customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you”.
In the end, it all comes down to the commitment you’ve made, as an entrepreneur, with your customers, because they are the ones who truly matter. And always remember that those early adopters are your best advocates if you get this right. So, don’t just acknowledge the importance of customer service, go for it and do it.
The post A Beginners Guide on How to do Customer Service for Early Stage Startups appeared first on Lisbon Challenge.
by maria | Feb 29, 2016 | Uncategorized
For all those in fintech, Money 20/20 probably rings a bell. This is the world’s largest fintech conference, held in Las Vegas, every year. However, for 2016, they’ll organise a second conference in Europe, in Copenhagen, this April.
For this reason, Money 20/20 has been gathering key players in the fintech industry across many different cities in Europe, and this time they’re coming to Lisbon.
This Friday, in our office at Beta-i, we’ll have a meetup, to address the latest trends and challenges in fintech. We’ll talk about how fintech has broken through the public consciousness, how and why it has gained the interest from top VCs, and why being based in NY or London sometimes matters for this business.
To talk about all this we have invited Filipe Neves, from Feedzai, Sebastião Lancastre, CEO of EasyPay, Pedro Fonseca, CEO of Crowdprocess, and Pat Patel, Content Director at Money 20/20.
If you’re building a fintech business in Lisbon, join us on Friday. Just make sure you register here.
The post Money 20/20 is having a fintech meetup in Lisbon appeared first on Lisbon Challenge.
by maria | Feb 18, 2016 | Uncategorized
“Design may have its greatest impact when it’s taken out of the hands of designers and put in the hands of everyone.” Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘design’? We bet it has something to do with aesthetics and fashion trends – making things look pretty, right?
But design is much more than that, and it can be much more than that for you.
Truth is, in times of change we need new ideas, and we can’t have new ideas by taking conventional approaches and old ways of thinking. In other words, we need new ways of tackling problems, and that’s what we can learn from Design Thinking (especially if you’re not a designer).
So, if you want to be a great leader, innovator and problem solver, join us, this March the 18th, for an amazing full-day workshop with Bill Burnett, the Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford, on “Design Thinking and the Art of Innovation”.
Bill Burnett is the Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford. He directs the undergraduate and graduate program in design and teaches at the d.school. He received has worked in start-ups and Fortune 100 companies, including seven years at Apple designing award-winning laptops and a number of years in the toy industry designing Star Wars action figures.
This is a great opportunity for all entrepreneurs out there. Make sure you get your ticket right here as we only have 50 seats available.
The post Design Thinking Workshop in Lisbon with Apple’s Designer (from Stanford University) appeared first on Lisbon Challenge.
by maria | Feb 10, 2016 | Uncategorized
All startups struggle with PR. When you build your own business, you just want to get it out there in the press, but PR is not as simple as it seems.
You usually start with the general press release because, apparently, that’s all it takes. You then, forward it to the hundreds of press contacts you got from a friend of yours, and wait for magic to happen. However, truth is, magic rarely happens when it comes to PR.
To get PR right you should probably forget everything anyone has ever told you about how to do PR for startups (believe me I’ve been there myself) and take a different approach. Good thing we’ve got it covered…
Last week, we were lucky enough to have at our HQ in Lisbon, Robin Wauters, Editor and Founder of Tech.eu, to give a talk about how to get the press to talk about your startup.
Robin gave awesome advice to all the entrepreneurs in the room (totally sold out by the way) so we thought it would be cool to share it with anyone who is interested. Here are Robin’s 6 rules for PR:
Rule #1 – Do or build something mind-blowing
If you build something truly amazing and unique you will definitely draw some attention. Journalists love to talk about things they can understand and relate to, and if the product takes an innovative approach that’s the first step for getting some press coverage.
Rule #2 – Do your homework
You clearly need to know how journalists work. Journalists get all sorts of pitches on Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, they get hundreds of emails every day with press releases from random people they haven’t even met, and all of this keeps them super busy, all the time. So, if you want to get their attention you need to do your homework. Figure out what they write about, who their audience is, go read previous articles and pitch your business individually. Avoid, at all costs, the general press release for the masses.
Rule #3 – Build relationships first
Avoid reaching out only when you have something to share with the world. Invest in building relationships, other than sending sporadic emails or phone calls when you really need them (they might need you too someday, remember that). Go meet journalists at events and meet-ups, get yourself introduced by someone they know well and build a relationship from that moment onward.
Rule #4 – Craft a great story
You might not have a truly unique and amazing product but if you tell the story right, you’ll get some attention. Explain why the journalist you’re reaching out to should care about what you’re doing. Give him or her an angle: if you’re raised funding, specify how much, why, who from, and what for. If you’ve inked a great deal, tell him or her what it means for your business. If you’re releasing a new product, tell him or her how it differs from others. And please, make sure that in the meantime, you avoid common buzzwords such as ‘revolutionary’, ‘award-winning’, ‘ground-breaking’… (well, this list could go on forever).
Rule #5 – Learn how to deliver it
This is just like your pitch. When you get it started it’s pretty simple but as you do it over and over again, you adapt and improve. Do the same with PR. Figure out how you’ll reach out to journalists and then as you move along, test different email subjects, explain things with a different angle, work on the relationship you have with each one of them, etc.
Rule #6 – Do all of the above BEFORE you start pitching to journalists
It’s as simple as that. You shouldn’t do this overnight, PR takes time. But, just before you panic and hire a PR agency to do that for you, remember that no one will know your product like you do, no one will tell the story like you do.
Sincerely, hope this helps if you’re getting your PR strategy started, and if you think we got it all wrong, let us know, we love to talk about the topics we cover.
The post The 6 Rules of PR for Startups appeared first on Lisbon Challenge.
by maria | Feb 10, 2016 | Uncategorized
If you have a startup in tourism you know how meeting the right people and closing significant partnerships is important. You need to be in the right place, at the right time, and that’s just what BTL, the International Tourism Exhibition in Lisbon, will do for you.
All the main players in tourism will be there, from world known hotel chains to famous travel bloggers and music festivals, making BTL the epicentre for tourism related businesses.
However, because Portugal is not only a country of tourism but also entrepreneurship, this year BTL has partnered with Beta-i to have a specific area on Startups & Innovation. Together, we’ll select around 30 startups to showcase at the exhibition and to also pitch their businesses to potential partners.
Apply here until the 18th of February and show your startup to the world.
The post Startups in tourism wanted to showcase at the International Tourism Exhibition appeared first on Lisbon Challenge.
