Creating a Product and Learning from Mistakes: Entryless Style

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In less than a year Entryless has found itself making headway in the automated accounting market. Th

is is mainly due to CEO and Founder Mike Galarza’s humble and relentless attitude to approaching a tech startup. He is happy to help other startup founders with his advice and advocates developing products for specific markets and fixing mistakes when they occur.

Initially Mike and his team were targeting small businesses and entrepreneurs. They were counting on this market to be an easier sell. Unfortunately this strategy did not recognize that a smaller venture does have less need for automated accounting than a larger one. Mike has changed his target market and sales process to reflect the real value proposition of his product, but he doesn’t think this is the best route for other startup founders. His advice is to instead focus on product development for a specific target market, it guarantees demand when the product is ready to launch.

Call to Action:

  • Create the product for your customer. “Envision the person you have a passion to serve and create your product around them.”
  • Find out what your target market needs. “Ask questions and do research on this market segment.”
  • Don’t include everything. “Make a list around 8 points of focus and develop your product with these features in mind.”
 
When Mike realized that they were going the wrong direction he was able to correct the mistake and find Entryless a path for higher growth. He believes you should recognize mistakes and correct them so you can improve personally and as a company. He says, “Accepting that your initial idea isn’t always the best solution is hard, but necessary for growth. Learning that you can have those types of mistakes and noticing them is crucial.”

Call to Action:

  • Notice mistakes. “Keep you eyes open to opportunities and possible failures so that you can quickly change course and take actions for your company.”
  • Admit when you are wrong. “Be humble enough to recognize that you have made a bad decision and fix it.”
  • Learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others. “Apply what you learn from your failures.”

Mike and his team were lucky. They had the opportunity to correct their mistake. The lesson learned here is don’t force yourself to pivot after all the leg work has already been done. Always always always plan ahead, and if that plan doesn’t work out, quickly fix it. Mike says, “You have to have a relentless attitude and keep moving forward no matter what news you receive. Keep fighting and hustling through the deep waters.”

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