The next „Facebook“ will be from Munich!

As a German founder you are in a dilemma. Of course you start your business to disrupt a market or at least to slightly change the world. Otherwise you shouldn’t build a company in the first place. If you create a new social network, you are going to aim for more than just 20,000 users one day. If you create an online shop, you will want to sell more than just books for the next 10 years. You are going for millions of users. You want to change the way people do online shopping.

For a founder it is absolutely essential to have concrete visions and to communicate them. But compared to the US, in Germany it is hard to do so.

Although there is a German saying „Bescheidenheit ist eine Zier, doch weiter kommt man ohne ihr“ (meaning modesty is good, but you will be more successful without it), being moderate is really well respected. Of course, at the first glance nothing is bad about it and to be honest, I do really prefer moderate people in my private surrounding.

But as a startup the story is different. A typical startup has too little money, too little manpower, and too few users using a product which is not yet ready. So as a founder, what can you do to change that?

Should you tell potential investors that most likely you are going to fail like most startups? Should you tell potential staff that they could earn more money in an established business? Or should you tell the few users you have that you will probably never reach the critical mass needed for your buggy product?
No, no, and no!

You have to tell investors that you will succeed in any case, with or without them. You have to convince employees that it is the chance of their lifetime to become part of something huge. And of course you have to congratulate your early adopters on being first using the next big thing. 
You are the founder. If you do not believe in your baby, who else should? Besides the problem that many people in Germany will call you babbler, freak, or something like that (I don't care), the biggest challenge is to make your new users believe that they are on the next big thing. And they have to believe it! Otherwise, why should they tell their friends about it?

Convincing new users of a product’s potential seems to be a bit easier in the US. Americans love to try out new things and they love to be the first ones using a new service. 
Unfortunately the situation in Germany is quite a bit different. People here start using apps like MoID when they are perfect and when at least 5 friends told them to use them. 
However, there are also positive examples: Two startups that overcame this dilemma are XING and ResearchGate.


So we are totally positive that MoID can perform like this! 
Deal with it, Germany, MoID will be the next Facebook.

Phillip Bellé CEO of MoID

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Help us spreading the word!

Download the MoID app right here.

Social Media Campaign: Berlin, Munich, or San Francisco? Promote your City!

MoID is growing rapidly in 2014, but we still need to get more traction. Our early adopters can’t always use the full potential of MoID yet, because there are too few people in their surrounding who use the app. That's why we have now decided to put all our social marketing efforts on one single city at first. We hope that this is going to help us to turn around network effects to our favor and to the favor of all our users. And that is why we need your help!

Most of our current users are from Berlin, Munich, and San Francisco, which makes these cities the best candidates.
We see the traction we gained in these cities as a big plus, and this is why we have decided to pick one of them to kick off our campaign.

Berlin is the the tech capital of Germany. The most influential German tech blogs like Gründerszene and deutsche startups are located here, and people are really open minded. In addition, it is a beautiful city where our team would love to spend some more time to boost our social media campaign.

Munich has one big advantage: we are based in Munich and a large part of our network is based here. Munich is smaller than Berlin and San Francisco (Bay Area), but we have about the same number of users here, so Munich has some advantages in terms of market share.

San Francisco. What should I say about San Francisco? Of course we would love to accompany our campaign right in the heart of Silicon Valley! We have as many users in San Francisco as in Munich and Berlin. People there are really open minded and love to try out new apps and technologies, but unfortunately our network is smaller over there.

     

MoID in Berlin

MoID in Munich

MoID in San Francisco

So we really need your feedback, guys! Let us know which city you would choose, why, and of course if you could help us out with intros to local blogs, radio / tv stations, celebrities, or anything else that could help us spread the word.


Thanks a lot!

Phillip Bellé CEO of MoID

Follow me on Twitter

Help us spreading the word!

Download the MoID app right here.

Additional features cost growth. We tried it! ;-)

As a startup nowadays you need to have a vision. Something you can answer if people ask where you want to be in ten years. And it’s not just that answer - for a startup it's a perfect way to keep focused in the face of all these brilliant ideas of yourself, your team, customers, and friends you're getting everyday. „Wouldn’t it be cool if we….“ or „couldn’t you integrate…“ or „why don’t you just…“. Don’t get me wrong, we love to get feedback and we are taking everything into account, but we can’t integrate too much at the beginning. 

At least feedback means that people understand what we are doing, and that is what we really care for. The more features you integrate in a novel, early stage product, the more confusing it is for your early adopters. However, it is essential that these early adopters understand what you are doing and, in addition, that they can repeat and reformulate it. The number of features needs to grow with the user base and not the other way around. Believe me, we tried it! ;-) Too many features, actually, cost growth.

New features need to be implemented hand in hand with a growing number of users. That way, existing users learn step by step and can become advocates who do not simply recommend the product, but can also show others how to use it.

So, in case you do not have as many users as Facebook yet, keep it as simple as possible.

Phillip Bellé - CEO of MoID
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