Where once the price of entry into Fintech was sky high due to difficulty in obtaining data, needing to build out intense PCI compliance, or having to hire in big talent with a ton of experience in FinTech, now startups can take advantage of API’s offered by a number of innovative FinTech companies to launch their amazing ideas in mere weeks as opposed to months or years.
Prove it!
After talking with a few real people in coffee shops and around town I ripped out a website over a weekend showing off the product that I planned on building and asking people to sign up for early access once the product was complete. The idea was to gauge the level of interest by routing some traffic to my website and seeing how many people signed up. I made the call to action as direct as I could and published the website late on a Saturday night.
On career development
Most us would struggle when asked “What are your strengths? What are you really good at?” Many of us haven’t been in enough situations to even know what we’re good at. In college I realized that I loved statistics during my senior year after 2 years of working on my statistics major. Finding what you're good at takes trying a lot of things.
Networking: Humanizing vs. Being Human
I like small groups and feel most comfortable when talking to my wife. Honestly, I’d rather talk to her than anyone else. Large social situations are intimidating to me and I sometimes have a hard time getting involved in a conversation when I’m around people that seem to know everything. I grab lunch with someone new every week.
Growth Hacking vs. Product-Market Fit
I’ve always liked both the term ‘growth hacking’ and the concept behind it. I find the creative process behind growth hacking to be very fulfilling — as long as I’m successful! I read at least an article a week, sometimes one per day, on growth hacking techniques. I rarely come across articles that talk about when it makes sense to growth hack and when it doesn’t. Some people seem to say “if you aren’t growth hacking you’re way behind!” I disagree.