How to Scale & Get to an Exit in 36 Months with Mia Saini Duchnowski, founder Oars & Alps
You're viewing an archive of Get Sh!t Done Weekly Email Traction Briefings. Join free to receive your weekly 5-minute growth playbooks & grow alongside thousands of entrepreneurs
"Never outsource your customer service. " - Mia Saini Duchnowski
Hey, It's Alex!
Who knows what your customers want better than your customers?
Listening to your customers requires more than having them fill out forms and questionnaires.
Actively listening& learning is a daily practice involved at every touchpoint.
You can't do that when you're following the "move fast and break s**t" model. Let's retire this played-out mantra consistently resulting in the public implosion of startups.
Learning how to listen will inform what to operationalize so you can grow and scale the impact you envisioned on your terms while adding value to your #1 investor - customers.
What you'll find in this traction briefing:
How to beta test your concept before fully bringing it to market.
How to successfully set up operations, procedures, and processes at the start of your business.
How to communicate with your customers to gain valuable feedback and insights.
The $300 Million Dollar F*ck Up!
Founder: Mia Saini Duchnowski| Company: Oars + Alps| Location: Chicago, IL
Where was she before Oars + Alps?
Mia is a seasoned business broadcast journalist with experience working for some of the biggest media giants including Bloomberg and Forbes TV. Her time spent in the makeup chair as a journalist created a deep interest in skincare. She then turned her passion and collection of experiences into a business.
Problem
There are hella companies that address women's skincare needs but Mia found that when it came to men's skincare, there was a noticeable gap. Oars + Alps was born out of the increase in men interested in taking care of their overall health but a market that wasn't catering to them. Companies like Dollar Shave Clubs were popping up every day but still not addressing the underlying desire men had but weren't talking about openly - skincare linked to overall health.
Here's what you'll learn...
Why Beta Testing Is Key For Your Business
Validate Your Idea:
While you might think your business idea is the next best thing since the iPhone, your target customer might have other ideas. How do you definitively know what they want? Through beta-testing.
Lesson - Beta testing is one of the strongest customer validating methodologies. Mia and her co-founder killed it with beta testing by leveraging their own capital and network to validate the concept. Through this process, they were able to gauge how satisfied their customers were with your product before doing a full product launch. Regardless of whether you're launching a new startup or rolling out a new product or service, beta test every single time . This will allow you to test your assumptions, get valuable feedback on its reliability, functionality, and usability. Learn more.
Learn how to run a successful Beta Program here.
The Importance Of Investing Early In Operations, Procedures, and Processes Early On
It Saves You Time: Creating clear and trackable operations, procedures and processes is often the last thing new founders think about - and for good reason. We're often bogged down with basically everything under the sun that all seems urgent. But here's the thing about mapping operations early - it makes everything else easier. That content that seemingly takes too much time, that dreadful feeling of onboarding new hires because they all seem to "not get it right" and costing you more time and money, etc.
Lesson - This is EXACTLY what Mia and her co-founder did from jump street and didn't wait until they scaled! They started mapping out operations, procedures, and processes from day 1 so they had templates they could pass on to make it easier for expansion. Setting up basic procedures and processes early on will save you time down the road. You do NOT need a fancy agency to start this process. Simply start with Google Docs, Notion, or free tools that allow you to get processes in your head out on paper so you can co-create and collaborate with your team. Mapping operations early and often allows your team to capitalize on momentum even as you grow. Learn more.
How To Maintain Regular Communication With Your Customers
Your Greatest Source Of Insight: Your customer is your greatest asset. Period! How else will you know what's working if you do not have a way to interact with them? Data from external sources is important, but they'll never replace direct feedback from your customer.
Lesson - Don't outsource customer service. Listen in to conversations that you and your team have with customers. Again, this can be a template you copy and paste from tools like Google Docs and Notion so you're not reinventing the wheel. By doing that, you'll find out what customers like, what they don't, and how you can change to improve their overall experience. Learn more.
Here are 16 important points to help you improve your customer service
Here's Your Weekly Tea
The 300 Million Dollar F*ck Up!
Speaking of not listening to your customers - CNNs $300 million streaming service crashed and burned in 3 weeks!! With their ratings progressively declining, CNN+ was their last-ditch effort at generating new interest. Here's how it all went wrong:
Don't Lean On Brand Recognition Alone: CNN's brand just ain't what it used to be. Although they have been a news powerhouse for years, the media industry has changed tremendously in the last 10 years. Competition to capture eyeballs is tougher than it has ever been - especially when it comes to streaming.
Don't Do it Because Everybody Else Is: Many of us are guilty of rolling out something we think consumers want but not what our customers need from us. This is exactly what CNN did. Just because everybody and their mama is getting into the subscription streaming game, doesn't mean that's what the CNN audience needed from them. CNN+'s content simply didn't resonate. It was a mish-mash of news and other B-rated content that if you were to have to pick where to invest your eyeballs that day, it wouldn't even be your 5th choice
Don't Compete with Your Own Team: CNN's parent company was going through a merge with the Discovery company. Both companies had their own streaming companies(HBO Max, and Discovery+). CNN+ should have been merged into their overall streaming strategy but instead was treated like Cinderella but without a happy ending. Lack of communication and internal friction hindered its growth.
Key Takeaway: The streaming industry is complex. People want better content, better experience, and more value. If we have said it once, we have said it 1000 times - know your audience and give them what they want! Don't be a bandwagon bae.
TRACTION TOOLS: How to get it done...
Nail Beta-Testing: Learn how to uncover kinks in your product before releasing the complete product to your market. Here is everything you need to know about running a successful beta test.
How to Build Successful Systems: Get the tools for how to make it happen to onboard new hires here.
Word Of Mouth Is Your Secret Weapon: Engaging with your customers not only gives you valuable feedback, but it creates loyalty. Learn how to turn your customers into a marketing powerhouse here.
Listening to Customers grew her business through 50% organic marketing to 7-figures in 3-years. Make it happen here.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Explore community membership here.