Without a doubt, the thing that has helped me grow every startup successfully I’ve been at in the early years (Spirit Airlines, THQ, Evernote, and my current company ROCeteer) is to be extremely diligent with engaging your customer and client base.
You have to care – really, truly care – about them and their needs.
Empathy is the most important skill you can utilize at this phase, because if you create things without regard to how the customer will feel, well – honestly, pretty soon you will find you have no customers.
While it may seem like there is no time for support and service at the early phase, that is exactly the time it is most important to dedicate a resource on your team whose entire job is to reach out and build that community of raving fans from day one.
I talk about how we did this at Evernote in my book – it certainly wasn’t easy, but you can see the result!
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-things-you-have-done-witnessed-that-drastically-impacted-your-startups-success
Originally Posted On: 2015-03-12