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Joel Liu's personal annotations on this page

joel
Joel bookmarked on 2009-11-06 Startup position

  • Google this phrase or buy the book:

    http://www.amazon.com/Differentiate-Die-Survival-Killer-Comp...

    My favorite passage:

    "The best way to really enter minds that hate complexity and confusion is to oversimplify your message. The lesson here is not to try to tell your entire story. Just focus on one powerful differentiating idea and drive it into the mind. That sudden hunch, that creative leap of the mind that "sees" in a flash how to solve a problem in a simple way, is something quite different from general intelligence. If there's any trick to finding that simple set of words, it's one of being ruthless about how you edit the story you want to tell. Anything that others could claim just as well as you can, eliminate. Anything that requires a complex analysis to prove, forget. Anything that doesn't fit with your customers' perceptions, avoid."

    with particular emphasis on:

    Just focus on one powerful differentiating idea and drive it into the mind.

    Why should anyone choose you?

  • Differentiation is good and all, but the #1 thing I've read that helped grow a business is being there for your customers when they need you most. Answer emails ASAP, fix your product ASAP, offer discounts, extended trial time, everything you can to make your customers super-happy.
  • True, there are a lot of competitors. But surely the number of competitors alone doesn't mean the market is saturated? The market isn't saturated until you can choose between 4 or 5 products that are all great, and that all suit your needs well. There may be hundreds of email services, but Gmail put them all to shame. Sometimes taking just a slightly different approach can make all the difference.

This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 06 Nov 2009, by Rick Shide.

  • 06 Nov 09
    joel
    Joel Liu

    Startup position

    • Google this phrase or buy the book:

      http://www.amazon.com/Differentiate-Die-Survival-Killer-Comp...

      My favorite passage:

      "The best way to really enter minds that hate complexity and confusion is to oversimplify your message. The lesson here is not to try to tell your entire story. Just focus on one powerful differentiating idea and drive it into the mind. That sudden hunch, that creative leap of the mind that "sees" in a flash how to solve a problem in a simple way, is something quite different from general intelligence. If there's any trick to finding that simple set of words, it's one of being ruthless about how you edit the story you want to tell. Anything that others could claim just as well as you can, eliminate. Anything that requires a complex analysis to prove, forget. Anything that doesn't fit with your customers' perceptions, avoid."

      with particular emphasis on:

      Just focus on one powerful differentiating idea and drive it into the mind.

      Why should anyone choose you?

    • Differentiation is good and all, but the #1 thing I've read that helped grow a business is being there for your customers when they need you most. Answer emails ASAP, fix your product ASAP, offer discounts, extended trial time, everything you can to make your customers super-happy.
    • 1 more annotations...