Why we stopped focusing on 66% of our customers | Hacker News Reader

Why we stopped focusing on 66% of our customers

7shifts.com

Side-thought: different tiered subscriptions. Restaurants as the base, best-value option with tiny businesses (dog walkers, etc.) and agency (design, architecture, etc. firms) as the higher tier.

You can adjust features, pricing, and marketing accordingly while not violating each other subset.

It'd take a lot of convincing for me to turn a generalized app into something more specialized.

For this scheduling app, wouldn't it be possible to modularize features such that a "general purpose" platform might exist, with a "plugin" system, or maybe just child projects which inherit from the parent, to satisfy the needs of specific industries?

I guess initially one would focus on the restaurant app, but abandoning the larger market would just rub me the wrong way.

It would be possible to do that, yes. But we didn't want it to turn into a set of options/plugins for varying industries. It's also an issue of resources. We're a 3 person team and we need to focus our efforts accordingly. Deciding to do just restaurants has made it easier to prioritize and delegate tasks.

I understand it could rub you the wrong way to abandon other industries. Trust me, all of us shared the same feelings.

In short, the approach we decided on was to first dominate one industry, the restaurant industry. If we become successful at one, maybe then there is a possibility to look at others. But focusing on several industries will always leave us being the 3rd or 4th best at scheduling for that industry. It's hard and nearly impossible (given our size) to be the best for every industry, and we want to be the best.

I'd just be afraid of limiting growth. Maybe just keep that thought in the back of your mind as you dive into your niche?

I dunno, you've probably got way more specific knowledge that informed your decision, I don't mean to sound obstinate.

That is however this intuition can causes you get stretched thin. Obviously, you shouldn't focus on a niche that is too small. There is a balance to strike.

In the past, however I think a lot of people ( including myself ) were trying to play too save. Placing a focused bet would have helped me a couple of times in the past.

We understood we might be limiting ourselves in other industries, but it was also a contributing factor that restaurants make up a larger market.

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