'Who Cares' About Your Start Up?
Why defining your target is key to your success
“Who is this for?” is one of the first questions I ask to any start-ups I meet. I’m often surprised how often that question is met with, “Ummm...well.” Sometimes the answer might be, “Everyone,” which is just as vague of an answer.
Why is this the case?
Why is it sometimes so hard to define your target? For a technological innovation, it depends on where the inspiration came from: a marketplace need or a personal inspiration. More often than not it is just because the tech could (or might) be able to do something for someone.
Target Need
Companies with very defined use cases usually understand who their target is. The founder or co-founders noticed that something is missing in a specific marketplace. This could be based on personal experience as an executive in their field or from market research. For instance, some emerging tech companies are created for training and/or for assistance in the operating room. Here, the target market is easily defined: whoever is going to be using the device is very clear (e.g., innovative doctors, nurses) and who is going to pay for the device is also pretty clear (e.g., likely hospital administrators and/or CTOs at teaching hospitals). This isn’t always the case however
Personal Inspiration
When the inspiration for an innovation comes from personal experience or from a specific technical capability, companies have more difficulty defining their target/s. This is when a CEO starts making a lot of statements about their specs or, when more mature, they rely very heavily on very specific use cases. If you take away all of the tech-speak, you realize that the company is still in search of a product/market fit. They are a company in search of a buyer’s need.
Defining Your Target
Figuring out your target doesn’t have to be a complicated exercise. You just have to answer the question, “Who would be interested enough in your technology or service to pay money for it?” Basically, where is your company creating the most value? Now value could be defined as saving time, improving experience, or something else entirely.
Essential to Success
Knowing your target is necessary to focus the direction of your business. Imagine if I asked you to create an app. I said, “Be as innovative as you can.” I’m sure that you would come up with something absolutely amazing and mind-blowing. But if you don’t know who it would be for, besides you, me, and your friends and family, you might as well be that proverbial tree (app) in a forest (very large app store). You created something ground-breaking, which is a great and meaningful exercise, and, by chance, it might lead to downloads, but if your reason for being a company is to grow quickly and to make a huge profit, it’s time that you ask yourself the really tough question about what you are selling: “Who cares?”