In my last startup, after a marketing campaign, we were speculating about how many users we would acquire. Our guess waned between 2,000 and 4,000 users.
Do you know how many we actually got? One. Yes — one, not 1,000.
And this was not a random marketing campaign — it was as targeted as it could have been.
In those days, before the proliferation of online learning apps, we had created an outstanding online practice test for IITJEE Advanced. It was free. And we distributed pamphlets at IITJEE Mains exam centers to precisely the people who needed that test.
And we thought they would lap it up. Yeah, right!
Over the years, if there is one lesson I have learned in the startup world is that you have no idea what the customer will do. The only way to know is to test it.
After launching HabitStrong, I have still made mistakes but one thing we have scrupulously avoided is assuming things. Every program or product we build — we test it out as early as we can.
And if something doesn’t work, accept it with humility, and try another hypothesis.
The failure of an idea is not your personal failure — you just disproved a hypothesis.
The only real failure is arrogance — when we assume that we know things that can’t be known.
– Rajan