We have a startup that has had a successful pre-seed family and friends raise, of about $3M. We have a launched product, some users (~50) and a decent team (about ~6). We are in fintech and would be competing with companies like betterment, wealthsimple, etc. Our burn rate puts us within ~8 months of being broke.
The founders are now no longer interested in being 'a startup' but rather 'being a company', because of some of the implications (e.g. high failure rate) of startups.
The big focus issue is that our company has a really hard time prioritizing, especially when it comes to making choices. Everything is always needed now, and no 'opportunity' is skipped, because 'it's like leaving money on the table'.
I know the feeling, and I know it's hard, but from my perspective, we're diluting our efforts across too many situations, which hurts our effectiveness.
The example issues are:
- That the founders have expanded their market ambition from local large city as target (Toronto), to now Toronto, and BC (4500km/2800miles apart), and both coasts of the United States. Ok, that's nice, but we've had literally 0 of our users come from our marketing like ads, and 100% from referrals. None of those referrals live in those cities - it's all Toronto area so far. We spread our ad budget between all of those areas, and get 0 conversions (at least so far).
- Same with our personas - our personas are basically 'everyone from 25-65, English speaking, retired or just starting their career or mid-career, loosely interested in investment' etc. etc.
- We never do anything small and testable - I've heard "there's nothing to test!" more than once, because the added feature 'is obvious'. Our feature utilization rate is very low, however. The core product is the only reason people come to our product.
I could go on with example issues, but the general perspective I have is that 'if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority', meanwhile for the founders, I think this comes across as 'navel-gazing' or lazy or otherwise holding them back.
What's the best way to manage this? Am I wrong - should we shotgun this and keep shotgunning it, and hope for the best?
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