The first time my company sold something, it was a joyous occasion.  Yes, the product (Blurity) was ugly, slow, and only barely useful.  Yes, the customer was a personal friend (thanks Jim!), and I have to suspect that his motivation was more from good will than necessity.  Still, it set me on my way, and my excitement was high.

Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, but something needs to start them on their way.

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The first time my company sold something to somebody I did not know, I was so excited I could hardly sit still.

My phone buzzed, indicating a new email.  I pulled it out of my pocket, popped open the email client, and found this message waiting for me:

Hi there,

Somebody made a purchase  

-The Blurity server

Hooray!  I had programmed the application to email me when a purchase was made, so the format of the message was not surprising, but to see those code paths exercised in real life was a thrill.

I quickly checked the purchase data.  Was it somebody I knew?  No! A stranger!

A person found my product and found it useful enough to justify parting with their hard-earned money.  Amazing!  Incredible!

And a bit guilt-inducing, too.

Blurity was a bit less ugly by that point, a bit faster, and a bit higher quality, but it was still pretty awful.  To say I was embarassed by the state of the product would be an understatement.  At the same time, I was having a lot of fun doing the development.  It all seemed wrong in a way, but I reminded myself that the customer made the purchase voluntarily.  Besides, I’d give him a refund if he asked for one.

I honestly expected to get an email from the guy saying that he was expecting something different after the purchase, or that he made a mistake, or that I should feel guilty for getting paid to do something I enjoyed.  But that message never came, and there never was a chargeback.

No product is perfect in its early days.  An engineer has truly made the transition to businessman when he can accept that perfection in early releases is both unnecessary and unrealistic.

Ship or die.  If you have to ask yourself if it’s good enough, it’s good enough.

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The first time that a customer made a “legitimate” purchase, I was elated.  By “legitimate” I mean, the customer was a stranger to me AND the processed image represented a significant improvement over the blurry original.  (I monitor the uploaded photos in order to better understand what types of blur people want to remove.)  Not only was the algorithm capable of making improvements to real-world photos, but others had implicitly agreed.

My analysis of the photos of other potential customers had led me to tweak Blurity to better handle those blurs.  My analysis of their behaviors led to UI changes that simplified interaction and improved conversion rates.

If your expectations and the customers’ actions differ, change things until there is alignment.

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The first time that customers made “legitimate” purchases on consecutive days, I felt like I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  What a thrill!

I think that all entrepreneurs are optimists, but there’s always a bit of self-doubt.  Am I smart enough to do what I’m trying to do?  Will it work even though I’m going against conventional wisdom?  Will the market, the customers, notice and care?  Can I pull it off before my capital runs out?  A pattern of sales serves as terrific validation.

Once is happenstance.  Twice is coincidence.  Three times is a pattern.

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Now, to look forward to the day of profitability…