Many founders talked about the importance of teams, fun at work or the secret ingredients to success. Therefore, we want to spare you with repetitive information and insights. Since we started Mozubi in January this year, we came along various ups and downs where we had to adapt or even completely change our product, business model or anything else related to our initial idea. We came up with three learnings which we probably all got taught during our studies and prove to be important in reality:
1. Listen, Iterate, Listen, Iterate, Listen!
You might have an idea or already set up a small business which you think is great and the whole world needs it. Stop! The idea might sound great to you and your family and friends, but it might not actually solve the problem of your customers. Talk to your potential customer, ask questions, learn to understand their pains and problems and then develop the product. Do not try to push a product into the market, even if you get a couple of customers who are willing to buy, you will not set-up a sustainable business solving an actual problem or need. First of all, try to understand your customers' pains and based on your knowledge, propose a solution. Repeat this until you have the “perfect” problem to solve and the solution to it.
2. WTF - Win Through Feedback
Another aspect evolving from the first point is your interaction with feedback. Before COVID-19 we focused on the apprentice sector and planned on growing fast within the German apprentice system. However, due to the pandemic we had to rethink a lot of things as customers jumped off and the topic of apprentices became secondary. Therefore, we started asking market participants for their feedback on our product and quickly got a response that we might be better off at the moment in the sector of further education. Evaluating our process, we can certainly say that receiving feedback on your product is essential for your further development.
3. Get your business structured
While developing your business idea and model, always keep in mind that at some point in time you might want to expand, grow and scale your business. Thus, while setting everything up, prepare your structures to be scalable. We lost valuable two months of operations due to a blurry start with no clear structures which we had to fix afterwards. You will save yourself a lot of time if you structure your business, branding, sales approach, marketing and everything else scalable from the beginning