Selling incomplete software reveals actual customer demand and prioritizes product roadmaps
Steli Efti · EP 463: Close.io More Than $200k MRR, 500 Customers, $400 ARPU with CEO Steli Efti Who Wont Sell for $40M · Oct 30, 2016 · at 14:03
Steli Efti, CEO of Close.io, explains how launching an early version of Close.io without reporting features validated core customer demand and guided feature development despite initial churn.
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“What we did is we said we have one very unique, strong thing that the product does. If people really care, they'll buy even if it's really insufficient in many other areas. Like we sold sales software that didn't have any reporting in it. And people still bought, but then they canceled, right? They were buying, they loved it, they hired more and more people, and eventually they were like, well, reporting is important and you don't have that, so we need to leave you. That is not a great place to be, but it's a good place to be as a business because we knew people wanted to buy the product so strongly even if it was not sufficient, so they bought it immediately, but we also knew what we needed to fix to keep customers to stick around much longer.”
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