Reflections on startup life: Week 47

Another week and another major new client. Here’s hoping I can say the same again next week too!

After a slow burn, we’ve hit a few runs with clients recently which is very re-assuring. So much so we have some “key” clients we’ll start advertising on our home page now.

Last week I said one goal with Distlr was to “Review Distlr with the people who used it (Survey most likely)”. Those rash few words lead to a lot of angst. I sent multiple messages to registered users from the Distlr account which ended up in Twitter suspending it for spam, this put Distlr on hold until it was finally resolved later in the week.

We spent a bit of time on the Distlr pitch, testing it with a few advisors and rounding it out — it’s getting there and most importantly we know exactly which gaps we need to close. I think the only way to get better at pitching is to keep pitching, and coming into this the third time around we are progressing it so much faster and more smoothly too.

On the Tribalytic front, there was a new release over the weekend which adds export capability and an API into the tool, which will help people to help themselves a lot better. What’s worthy of note about this is that it represents the first time we’ve actually split a feature set by account — this is only available for the team account or higher. There are lots of reasons why, but ultimately it’s part of the ongoing recognition and learning about where the value is and where the users are taking us.

Daylight savings and the three hour time difference is a shame — it is that little bit harder for Alex and I to work together. I’m considering looking at something different this week — perhaps not starting quite as early as I typically do and instead do some exercise in the morning when it’s nice and cool.

There’s so much to do which is really exciting, loving the challenges and what’s laid out in front of us.

Highlights

• New release of Tribalytic
• New client signed
• Distlr pitch completed

Lessons Learned

• Don’t survey people from your Twitter account.

Goal this week — Engineering

• Streaming and multi-channel support for Distlr — allow people to register their own channels.

Goal this week — Customers

• Build a sales focussed Distlr deck (we only have an investment focussed one)
• Set up meetings around Distlr and test the idea with Brands and Broadcasters (interested — let me know tim.bull@binaryplex.com)
• Keep working the pipeline and trying to acquire customers for Tribalytic.