Francis Adanza: “A key piece of advice from Sean Murphy was to focus on a specific vertical. Our initial customer base was all over the place, from Ranch 99 Markets to Netsuite. We needed to focus to be able to scale.”
SKMurphy Advice: Focus on a Specific Vertical to Get Started
“A key piece of advice from Sean Murphy was to focus on a specific vertical. Our initial customer base was all over the place, from Ranch 99 Markets to Netsuite. We needed to focus to be able to scale. Sean suggested that we focus on construction companies because every employee spent a high fraction of their time in the field, making the cellphone a critical lifeline.
The vast majority of construction employees had a company-issued device not a “bring your own device to work” model. This meant that someone had to manage all the cell phones on top of their many other responsibilities. In addition, most construction employees did not have a desktop setup, so the cell phone expense was a higher fraction of the IT budget than in firms with primarily office workers.
Sean observed that these firms were in relatively more pain for cellular expense management and they had a simpler set of needs: it made business sense to start with them.
There was also a mindset factor: the construction companies were more comfortable outsourcing tasks outside of their core competencies than tech companies, for example, who tend to be more do-it-yourself when it comes to IT.”
Francis Adanza, VP Marketing at eMOBUS
SKMurphy Take:
When finding their niche, startups start to build a scalable repeatable sales process. They have a core set of customers who find a common set of benefits in the product and reference each other’s buy decisions. These product benefits can be separated from the founders and creating new customers is no longer based on the credibility of founders but third-party references. Product features are not driven by key customers but by the common needs of the market niche. Ultimately clarity of purpose leads to economy of effort.
Related Blog Posts
- Few Against Many Requires Focus and Perseverance
- Startup Stages: Survive, Explore, Focus, Refine, Grow
- Focus On a Niche Increases Your Chances For Success
- Entrepreneurial Focus: Right Layer, Right Problem, Right Time
- Corinne Roosevelt Robinson: Focus for Effect But Look Beyond Your Own Special Interests
- Jim Manzi: Focus on Delivering Value to Customers at a Foreseeable Profit
- Startups Should Focus on Impact and Innovation Before Growth
eMOBUS Related
- Case Study: eMOBUS experience with SKMurphy
- Sean Murphy joins eMOBUS Advisory Board
- eMOBUS Acquisition: How Bootstrappers Close Deals