I was on the phone yesterday with the CEO of one of our portfolio companies, and we were talking about goals for the next few months and in particular, what the company needed to get a Series A done.
Her answer was quite simply “make the product delightful.” She continued: “I want to iterate to continue to make the product faster, better, and easier to use. I want to get the user to the “a ha” moment even faster.”
And with that I knew that she got it. The company paid user base is already growing rapidly but rather than focus on a couple of features that can boost MRR in the near term, she would rather focus on the longer term.
This reminds me of a quote from Yossi Vardi, founding investor in ICQ (creators of IM and sold to AOL).
“Revenues kill the dream.”
It may sound counter-intuitive but what Yossi is really saying is don’t sacrifice long term opportunity for short term revenue…
