How services can de-risk your startup journey
Most founders who present their idea to DQ pitch us some kind of product, but our 3 most successful portfolio companies all sell services. Here’s what they do, plus the common thread that’s driving their success.
After almost 15 years in venture and startups, I’d say that selling a service is the best possible way to de-risk your startup journey.
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Company #1: WeNetwork Founder: Rob Bryson Founder location: Australia & Singapore Idea presented to DQ: SaaS platform for recruitment via referrals Focus now: Recruitment for org’s growing across APAC (inc Japan)
Company #2: Duellix Founder: Patrick McGonagle & Daniel Meka Founder location: Singapore & Germany Idea presented to DQ: E-commerce optimisation via sentiment analysis Focus now: Outsourced company admin service (Southeast Asia)
Company #3: Blue Mongoose Founder: Toby Scregg Founder location: Portugal Idea presented to DQ: No-code product development Focus now: Tech partner for startups with no in-house tech team
What’s the secret to their success?
These companies have all done these three things:
- Before trying to automate anything, they found a way to solve their customers’ problems by taking on painful, difficult, slow, and/or annoying tasks themselves.
- Only once they’d learned through mundane repetition and iteration did they work out where process, technology and automation could improve efficiency, speed and customer satisfaction; and
- They then worked out how to create a dependable source of inbound sales enquiries, through a combination of:
- Developing a reputation for under-promising and over-delivering;
- Being absolute straight-shooters that people want in their corner;
- Being clear about who their ideal customers were and saying ‘no’ to everyone else;
- Experimenting with channels (esp. partnerships, referrals and content) and leaning into what worked best.
If you’re thinking about launching your own product, perhaps instead of wondering how you’re going to fund its development, think about what kind of service you could provide to customers first, which would give you the access, revenue and expertise to deliver something that’s guaranteed to work.
