Focus On Key Areas

Jojo Hedaya shares his experience about prioritizing limited resources in a startup, emphasizing the importance of focusing on core objectives rather than trying to address all feedback simultaneously. This approach led to their eventual success and acquisition.

Key Points:

• Startup Resource Management:

  • Every team has limited resources, regardless of size (2, 50, or 200 people)
  • Can't execute everything at once - must focus and prioritize well
  • Choose 1-2 key areas instead of trying to do everything

• Strategic Focus Areas They Chose:

  • Making the best product possible
  • Growing super fast
  • Theory: Great product + Fast growth = Ability to raise VC funding

• Product Development Strategy:

  • Used data to understand user behavior
  • Found users only unsubscribed from 30% of subscriptions
  • Created "roll up" feature combining emails into daily digest
  • Transformed from tool into product

• Growth Strategy:

  • Developed "sharewall" instead of paywall
  • 90% of users shared when hitting sharewall
  • Optimized sharing platform (Facebook vs Twitter)
  • Focused on immediate user gratification

• Results of Focused Strategy:

  • VCs who initially rejected them came back
  • Company became valuable acquisition target
  • Successfully acquired by Rakuten Slice
  • Maintained team culture and values through acquisition

The key lesson: When resources are limited, focusing deeply on fewer priorities yields better results than spreading efforts thin across many initiatives.