How a Startup Succeeds: GotIt!’s Journey
Most success stories don’t start out that way.
Hung, the founder of GotIt! built their first version in a few months. After those few months he found out nobody wanted what they built.
It would take many months more before they understood enough about their users to build something valuable.
6 years later.
GotIt! is an application that solves homework problems within 10 minutes. It is #2 in education in the iOS app store. They have raised over $10 million in funding and have provided over 3 million answers.
The product you see today is the result of hundreds of experiments.
The story of GotIt! demonstrates that a culture of iterative learning is the most reliable path to product success.
This reflects what Caitlin Kalinowski, head of Product at Facebook’s Oculus says is the most important reasons for product success:
“The more iterations, the better the product. The fewer iterations, the worse it’ll be. It’s that simple.”
Once upon a time there was a talented engineer
When Hung started GotIt!, he had already built the first Vietnamese Linux distribution. He had a masters and PHD in computer science from the University of IOWA with a focus on Data Mining and Big Data Analytics.
And, most important — in the Spring of 2011 he had an idea. He observed a very strong, very real pain point.
Insight.
The life of student is defined by how well they do in school. The majority of time is spent in the classroom. Daily homework defines happiness and frustration in their lives.
Often, students get stuck.
They need homework help from people that know more than they do. Not knowing the answer is defeating— searching for a solution that feels like it won’t come.
This pain is the cause of many sleepless nights.
Understanding the problem.
With this insight he set out to build a product that could make a difference in the world.
Students had questions. Other folks, “experts” from different parts of the world had answers.
He looked to the best designed question and answer site.
The first version of his product looked a lot like an early (iOS) version of Quora:
Find an expert. Get notified when the expert answers your question.
This was a good design.
It seemed like like Hung knew how to build the right solution because he had the right insight.
Looking out into the world, it seemed that the answer for his users already existed.
He approached building the earliest version of GotIt! like an optimization problem.
Moving fast, GotIt! built their first prototype in 3 months.
But he missed something…
The first version of GotIt! failed-one of many such failures they would endure.
Nobody wanted to use what they built.
When building a startup it is impossible to know the exact path towards success.
It’s easy to assume that a product that works one place (Quora for adults) will work in another place (homework help for highschool students).
Unfortunately, this is just one possibility.
Assumption is not a substitute for truth.
Hypothesis, confidence cannot replace the observation of actual user behavior.
In order for GotIt! to succeed, they needed to understand their users more.
They needed to spend more time being thoughtful about what is known and what is not.
For GotIt! this meant hanging out a Starbucks with their intended users — United States high school students.
Every day at 3pm Hung and his team sat down at a table in Starbucks and talked to students that had just gotten out of school.
They watched them.
They imagined what their lives were like.
They bought them coffee in exchange for testing their latest prototype.
One day they had an epiphany….
Eventually they learned something valuable and new.
There are three activities that dominate a student’s life: Learn. Eat. Facebook.
These activities were the keys to understanding the type of experience that could engage their users.
Even though Quora, in all respects, was the best designed question and answer interface for adults, it was not best for highschool students that were used to a different pattern of consuming information.
You see…
Startups like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter had trained young people to consume and interact through conversation and pictures.
What you’re looking for isn’t searched. It is pushed towards you after you post an image.
This is radical.
Discovering this possibility would not have been possible without deep user understanding.
You cannot build the best solution by looking at the best solutions out there.
You must discover the best solution that does not yet exist..
And the more contrary what you discover is to conventional thinking, the more valuable your insight.
At HackerFleet, we describe this process of discovery as a journey from the known into the unknown.
GotIt!’s Challenge
“In the beginning, we were too data driven.”- Hung Tran, CTO GotIt!
Hung’s training — part of what makes him such a ridiculously talented entrepreneur — was also his greatest weakness.
His PHD led him to overly focus on data as the solution to product uncertainty.
While being data driven is certainly important. Being too much so results in delaying true insights.
This is why in person user testing is always superior to viewing data on a screen.
Hung and his teams great talent to execute didn’t make a difference until they understood their users better than their users understood themselves.
This vital combination of data and empathy has led to GotIt!’s current method of product iteration.
GotIt!’s Product Development Process is Born
“Everything is 10 steps” — Hung Tran, CTO GotIt!
GotIt! measures time in experiments.
Day in, day out. There is a consistency to their innovation that runs as accurate as a Swiss watch.
Since they first launched a failed product 6 years ago they have run over 140 of these experiments.
Every two weeks.
These 140 experiments represent consistent, thoughtful learning. Knowledge about what works and what doesn’t builds upon itself in order to provide real clarity.
They are what the millions of dollars of investor money buys.
Investor money buys market truth more so than any product iteration.
From Epiphany to Product
Insight → Problem → Solution → Business Model → Scale
Building a successful product is how fast you can take your idea through insight, problem, and product experience.
Most startups never get there.
It took six months of these experiments, or 12 trys, in order for GotIt! to move from their first product to one their users wanted.
Before that they spent 3 months building the first version of their product.
This was only after GotIt! already had a key insight about their target market and the problem they were trying to solve.
Their Story Provides Clues to Your Success
GotIt!’s story is one all successful product companies go through.
Start out with an idea. Realize some core assumptions are wrong.
Try more.
Fail more.
Get closer to truth.
Realize consistently trying is a path that leads to improvement.
This is the process.
It happens slowly. Over many iterations.
Our success depends on not giving up.
Don’t give up.
You will make it.
Thanks for reading!
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About the Author
Marcus Ellison is a serial tech entrepreneur and the CEO of HackerFleet, an innovation studio that partners with entrepreneurs and fortune 500 companies to build disruptive products.
I love meeting new people. Email me: marcus@hackerfleet.com
