Why we start again from scratch our app after 10 months of existence
“An entrepreneur is someone who will jump off a cliff and assemble an airplane on the way down.”
― Reid Hoffman
Feedback on my experience as a 12 months entrepreneur for my WYKER mobile application (French — so, sorry for my english mistakes 🙃).
Because we are never told enough about the things that will follow, I want to tell you our story since 12 months.
💡👽 When you start and think that you will change the world in 3 months.
I jumped off the cliff 12 months ago with an idea, concept, vision and approach that I was convinced. So much convinced that I quit my job for this project to be fully available for.
After 2 months of development, we were ready and have launched this app on French stores (AppStore, Google Play). 8 months after, on U.S stores during the SxSW festival.
The first user community of WYKER is now satisfied with the proposed service, but simply satisfied. And satisfaction is not enough to create the global craze. Satisfying is important, but satisfying and surprising is much more!
I always felt that we were missing something to be really different and create this surprise, this “Wow!” effect which is essential to creating traction and retention on an application. And also, keep this effect.
I came back from Austin (SxSW) a month ago with this strengthened conviction.
⛔️ Error 1: the obsession
🔎 🔎 So I searched, searched, searched, tried to understand, analyzed, scrutinized, I thought I was putting the finger on what we were missing, but it was not that yet.
And then I was confronted with other opinions, experts, who literally shook the project in every way. 😶
Episode painful but oh so beneficial!
I rested, continued searching, searching, searching, trying to understand what we lacked to be able to trigger this vital and vital traction for WYKER’s survival.
⛔️ Error 2: Trying to find what you are not looking for
The problem is that to want to seek too much, one no longer knows what one seeks. To remain bounded on a goal, one forgets all that there is around whereas what is around is what makes this objective!
So, here lessons I learned:
⏸ Lesson 1: pause
So I decided to take a break on WYKER. To no longer think about finding the trigger of the traction but to refocus on what was wrong with the app and what we offer, what our competitors offer, and what we do not offer, what our competitor does not offer and what the community expects!
In fact, I stopped thinking about this obsessive traction goal to put the user back to heart.
🆘 Lesson 2: soliciting the community
A few days after this change of thinking, to see things, I put online a questionnaire with 3 very simple and very open questions. They hid an expectation of answer on a subject on which I thought I had put my finger. 300 people responded to this questionnaire, giving me the answers confirming what I thought I had put my finger on. Bingo!
🏋🏻 Results
🚧 Since 3 weeks, with my associates, we are recreating ALL about WYKER. Not our promise, not our target sector, but our vision, our approach, our identity, our functional core.
SINCE 3 weeks, we are preparing a complete reset.
We are leaving on a new basis that will radically change what WYKER is today. We roll the cards out for this summer that will surprise. Which will surprise by its vision, approach, simplicity, meaning and evidence of its heart functionality around our promise.
➡️ Bilan
The last four months have been extremely rich. I learned a lot of things to greatly improve my entrepreneurial quality, the leadership of WYKER, our vision.
Meetings, exchanges, listening, Austin (the power of American inspiration and dynamism is not just a utopia 😊)
I am convinced that the change and the new start that WYKER is taking is the consequence of these wonderful meetings that have been going on for 4 months in particular.
🚩This new start for WYKER has already begun with our acceleration by WeRaiseStartUp (Paris) since a few days and our fundraising launch which is not going to stop at the French border because our international development must quickly lead us to open an office in the US to accelerate to the country of Sam’s uncle and especially where more than 60% of the live music market happens, where the 3 majors are 😎.
“Rendez-vous” this summer for the launch of this new version in the United States and France! And I can tell you that it will seem so obvious to you that you will no longer be able to do without it.
Today, I finally have the total conviction that we hold what I dream of improving for years for any fan of live music and I can’t wait to release this new version of WYKER!
📡 Note: our pitch deck, executive summary and business plan are available to investors, VC, business angels 🇺🇸🇫🇷. Ask for the program! 🎵
