What did four months spent with Jason Calacanis teach me?
So what did Launch teach me? Well if you look at the picture above, there is no way I could have been that confident or comfortable on stage in front of thousands, 5 months ago. Launch is a great pitching school, it teaches you how to own the central message of your business and convey it succinctly and how to predict and answer the questions you will undoubtedly get. Beyond that working with the other founders teaches you that everyone faces the same problems and that you are not alone, the osmosis effect is huge and the support network is crucial. The tide is rolling out on businesses receiving huge angel funding for an idea written on a napkin, you have to work your ass off for each $ today.
The key driver for any start up is growth metrics and revenue, if you are pre revenue like Clect then you have to have a tunnel visioned focus on growth metrics — DAU, MAU and engagement. Building a community is hard, keeping them engaged and loyal is harder. You have to understand what aspect of your platform is engaging the user then double down, DO NOT build new features anticpating this will be the panacea — you have to listen to your users.
Incubators are great to get velocity and contacts around not only the money you need now but the money you will need next. To have been in a room pitching to Roelof at Sequoia was a special moment, even more special when he thought Clect worthy of taking to his partners!
Jason is a master at cutting away the product flab and getting you to focus on what matters, and he will be endlessly supportive of you and your product.
So my advice, if you have a good product, some early feedback, a great team then something like Launch will help you.
