After getting torn apart over his startup idea JellyBeans, the creator rethinks market size and user acquisition. He contrasts San Francisco's casual networking culture, where he met an Apple product manager at a bar, with Malaysia's more formal business world. Next: building UI/UX mockups and asking viewers for feedback.
Chapters
So yesterday I had two really people that gave me like really harsh criticism, and I took it, and I, you could say I took it pretty personally because I was trying to defend the idea. But like, right, like as the days, as today go by, day 7, I realized that it's better It's better for me to get this kind of people to get through my skull. When you're too passionate about your idea, you tend to lose sight of what is really important. Like, you lose sight of, are you actually serving a market need? Are you actually fixing a problem? And then if once you're actually trying to fix a problem, is the problem big? The problem small? Is the market big or the market small? And then you move on to user acquisition. How are you gonna— which target market are you gonna address? And how are you— what's your strategy, strategy for acquiring users? And all that kind of, all that stuff. And I'm trying, I'm learning all this stuff by like actually putting myself in those kind of situations and Based on those people, like, you know, you get some people that you pitch to them about your idea and they say, oh, your idea is really good and stuff like that. And honestly, it's like, yeah, it feels good because you feel like someone actually believes in your idea. But, and then when you move on to someone and that person is like, so what is your strategy on this, this, this? Like, why do you think your idea is good? Or blah, blah, blah. And if that person is being really aggressive, like, I realize that it's for the better good because you can't always have those people that's telling you like, oh, your idea is really good and all, and all this stuff. It means that they are not really being honest with you. They are just— we— it's hard for— we just want to be nice. People just want to be nice. And sometimes we, um, the best people are the one who are straightforward with you. They will tell you, they are not going to be judgmental, they're just going to tell you the honest fact. And it's up to you to take it to heart whether are you gonna pivot or you're just gonna change. And that's what, that's what it happened to me. So I rethought everything. I had to jot down every single thing. Why, why, why, why? Everything is why, why, why? Why do this? And, and yeah, upon realizing that like right now it's so much easier to actually talk to like investors and like users, answering their questions and pitching them about JellyBeans, so much clearer. Yes, it's so much clearer now. So Besides that, um, there's something that I really wanted to point out. Like, I met this, um, lady on Weave, and she's the product manager of Apple International at Cupertino, the Apple HQ. And I've always thought that Apple employees are really formal and strict and disciplined on all that stuff. It's just how Apple presents itself, I would say. But when I actually got to the bar and have a beer with her. Holy shit, she's like the most— like, she's literally the most chill, fun, energetic person that I've ever met in my life. And she's, she's so nice to the point that she actually bought me— she actually bought me a beer. I was like, wow, like, I wanted to buy for my own beer, but like, you know, someone's actually buying a beer for me, so And then, and I, and I, and I took like a 50-minute walk from the bar all the way back home. And I was actually thinking like, the whole value of people in San Francisco, like just simply meeting strangers, it's so valuable. It's so valuable that the core value is almost— it's intangible. Like, it's insane how people here would actually just meet up with random strangers and just listen to their pitch, listen to their story and their idea. And like, it's crazy that you can't find anywhere else. If I go back to Malaysia and, hey, I want to meet up with someone, uh, if I want to meet up with a corporate executive or someone, like, what the hell would he want? Why would he want to meet me. It's just not in that right culture, and I feel that that culture is so important to actually nurture it. Nurture that, you know, you, you need this kind of people that are willing to go out to meet other people, to listen to their story, to listen to stuff they're trying to solve, like, um, projects they are working on. And yeah, it's something that I feel that Malaysia should actually need this, something like this. Someone, like, someone should actually just get out and try to promote this openness in terms of transfer of information. So that is my rant today, and it's actually now it's already day 7. I can't believe I've been here for like a week already. And yeah, everything has been a blessing. It's been a really good experience. And right now, I, uh, I— the only thing that I'm focused on is working on Jelly Bean, getting it, um, getting it up and running for you guys. And I'll be, I'll be hammering out different mockups and redesigns of the UI/UX, and you guys can actually comment on the design and just let me know like the feedback and all that kind of stuff, and that would really, really help me a lot. So thanks, guys. Look at that bubble butt.
