Be Loved. Be Hated. But Never Be Ignored.
We recently launched Shine on Indiegogo and had some interesting press coverage come out. Some held us as a great solution. Others thought we came out of an episode of HBO’s Sillicon Valley. But anyone who saw our vision for how technology should enrich our bathroom had an opinion.
Too often, entrepreneurs are scared of doing something publicly, saying something, or releasing a product feature that not everyone will like. In fact, knowing that some people will, in fact, hate what we create. Out of this fear they retreat back to creating a mediocre
I have done this before where I’ve held back a product at TrackR called Atlas that did indoor location for items. It was a unique product that solved a common problem of losing items in the home & had no real product substitutes. Instead of releasing the experience that we had that was 90% accurate, our team held back. Engineering kept pushing for more and more accuracy and support wanted a bulletproof product experience. The end result is that nothing was released & we will know what users actually think of the product.
Looking back I should have pushed back and charged forward with releasing the product, getting feedback, and iterating the product off that initial user feedback. My fear of app ratings, poor reviews, and an upset support team held me back & I made the wrong choice.
Because even if people had a negative view of it, at least that was something. Instead, there is no opinion of Atlas. No memory of the product. And no one cares.
If no one cares about your product then you don’t have a business.
