Smash Notes

Back to Startup advice from Justin Kan, Stephanie Hulburt, and Naval, with Justin Kan & Stephanie Hulburt.

What Does Justin Jackson Ask When Someone Pitches Him?

Justin Jackson says that when someone pitches him, especially a product he already has a version of, he asks what makes it better. A new Slack competitor gets that question. He uses the same test on Transistor.fm. One difference he wants on the homepage is unlimited shows for one monthly fee. A well-known person, forwarded to him because of a big audience, asked what made Transistor better than Libsyn. After about five rounds of answers, Jackson decided the sale was not worth the time and walked away. If you are hard-selling every lead, he says, that is a bad sign, often desperation. The useful skill is knowing when to stop and find someone else.

Transcript

Startup advice from Justin Kan, Stephanie Hulburt, and Naval ·

Build Your SaaS – bootstrapping in 2019

More from this episode

  1. How Does Justin Jackson Say You Get a Bigger Audience for a Podcast?On Build Your SaaS, Justin Jackson tells Jon Buda that a bigger audience usually means tapping people who already have a bigger audience than you do.
  2. What Are B2C SuccessesFacebook, Twitter, YouTube are all B2C. Possibly, you don’t hear much about B2B success because they are purchased behind the scenes.
  3. What Do You Have to Do to Have a Successful B2C and B2BTo reach success with a B2C you have to ride a massive way. This means that it requires more than building a company, but you also have to be lucky.
  4. Which Is Better, B2B or B2CA B2B sets a more attainable rate of success because the problems are known and are easily controlled.
  5. Why Would Someone Be a Paid Subscriber to NetflixFor one host, he remembers Netflix having a lack of quality shows to choose from. Also, there was a lack of quality in Netflix’s streaming at the time.
  6. Who Is Stephanie Hurlburt, Founder of Binomial?On Build Your SaaS, Justin Jackson reads a Twitter thread from Stephanie Hurlburt, @sehurlburt, and tells Jon Buda why he follows her.
  7. What Should You Do If Someone Tries to Challenge YouJust move on. This also applies in sales whenever someone is not convinced by what you have to offer. You shouldn't hang on and try to convince one person.
  8. Who Is NavalHe is the founder of AngelList.
  9. When Giving Two Equally Difficult Path, Which Should You TakeYou should choose the path that is more painful in the short-term. Pain avoidance creates an illusion of quality.
  10. What Does Justin Jackson Say Leaders Get Paid to Do?On Build Your SaaS, Justin Jackson tells Jon Buda that leading a company comes down to two jobs: thinking, and making decisions.
  11. What Are Our Options When It Comes to Having a ConversationEither hard conversations equal an easy life. Easy conversations equal a hard life.

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