The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten podcast.

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about the importance of choosing the right market for your product.

When developing a SaaS product, choosing the right target market is the most critical step in planning a successful launch of your product. And making this choice comes down to understanding two things - tailwind and trend.

In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten if the CRM market is still a good market to get into, why you shouldn’t worry so much about the right market and focus more on executing properly, the two T’s to determine a good market and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About today’s topic.

01:44 Why this topic was chosen.

02:12 Steli’s response to the question of if the CRM Is a good market.

02:47 Why you shouldn’t worry about the right market.

04:00 The two T’s to determine a good market.

04:43 How to know a good market from a bad one.

05:55 The importance of thinking through if a product has tailwind and if it’s a trend.

07:38 How there’s a growing trend for business to move to SAAS.

09:33 Why the market you’re in is an important thing to consider today.

10:11 How Evernote hit on a tailwind.

3 Key Points:

The less great you are in your execution, the more the market and timing matters. I think that for us, I don’t care how competitive our market is.The truth is, I don’t rely on the market to make things happen.

[0:00:00]

Steli Efti: Let's go. Hey, everybody. This is Steli Efti.

[0:00:03]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah.

[0:00:04]

Steli Efti: And today on the Startup Chat, we're going to talk about the importance of choosing the right market or a "good" market. So recently, we had a chance to catch up in person. I was in San Francisco. We grabbed some coffee. There were many hugs involved for those that are interested.

[0:00:19]

Hiten Shah: Three. Two or three. Yeah, yeah.

[0:00:22]

Steli Efti: Three for sure. Big bromance. We do not just pretend to like each other.

[0:00:28]

Hiten Shah: Not pretend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not pretend.

[0:00:31]

Steli Efti: Actually, I'm wondering honestly, Hiten, if there is another podcast duo like us that likes each other after four years as much as we do. And I'm going to make a claim that I don't know, but I doubt it. In the startup space, I definitely doubt it.

[0:00:48]

Hiten Shah: I like it. I like that.

[0:00:51]

Steli Efti: One of the things I'm very proud about when it comes to this podcast is that it has increased our love and our respect for each other rather than decrease it like it does for many other people.

[0:01:00]

Hiten Shah: That's a very good point.

[0:01:02]

Steli Efti: So anyways. Enough of us. But one thing that we briefly chatted about for just a minute, I think. But back in my head ... And I thought, "We should share this with people." The importance of being in a good market or bad market or in a competitive market. Is this market still a good market to be in? Is this market too-

[0:01:24]

Hiten Shah: Can I share how that came up?

[0:01:25]

Steli Efti: Yeah.

[0:01:27]

Hiten Shah: I asked Steli what he thinks about what he's doing in the CRM market, and that's what led to the, I think, one-minute discussion. It was a quick one because he said something great. But literally, it was just a question for you. Because it popped in mind. I'm like, "Wait. I should ask Steli this. This is really interesting, and I want to know what his answer is." And I'm glad that we're sharing it.

[0:01:46]

Steli Efti: Beautiful. Yeah. So you asked, "Do you think the CRM space is still a good ... Do you think your market is still a good market to be in?" My response was, "I don't think it matters that much." I think it's a huge space. Yes.