Learning from Failure – Marketing Drives Growth

A lot of entrepreneurs tend to get so focused on the product that they forget to focus on putting it in front of the target audience. No matter how great your product, it means nothing unless customers get to know about it. Right from the very beginning, an entrepreneur must plan who the product is good for and how the business can reach the target audience in the most effective way at the minimum cost. Not planning for marketing can prove disastrous for a business.

Kinly was a startup which was trying to be a ‘Facebook for your family’. Given the dislike of a lot of users for Facebook, the product got a good initial review from its earl users around and got selected into an incubator as well. The mistake made by the startup was that because of this irrational optimism, the founders decided not to take on any investment, which they required to market the product. The product eventually died a slow death.

Advice – No matter how good a product, it cannot succeed if not visible to customers. Scaling beyond a certain level requires investment in marketing.