What follows is a guest post from Ross at BetaPunch. Their goal is to help find beta testers for your startup. You can use it in addition to KickoffLabs to create the ultimate lead generation machine as you gear up for launch. Everyone needs great beta testers and he explains why here…
Thanks for the inspiration…
New startups are showing up every single day. We should all thank Mark Zuckerberg and “The Social Network” for inspiring thousands of people to take to the Internet and attempt the next big idea. It seems like every idea, even the most far fetched, have been attempted and put out for all to see. Take for example: Facebook for cats (Catbookapp), Pinterest for men (Manterest), Subscription service for razors (DollarShaveClub) – it’s fun to see what sticks and what fades away into the abyss.
Beta testers validate your market…
In today’s startup world, there is a ton of talk about the importance of developing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Before we go “all in” on what we like to think is a great idea we need to test it in its most minimalistic state. But an MVP is no good without anybody to test it. Beta testers are the energy source for your startups. You can test your own app until you are blue in the face but that will not tell you if there is a market for your product or if your startup will succeed.
One of the biggest issues for a new startup is finding users willing to test and offer feedback on a particular product. This begs the question: Are there actually people out there willing to take time out of their day to sit down and review a startup? What’s in it for them? To some, it’s an honor to be one of the first to try something. Can you imagine if you were one of the first 100 users on Facebook? That’s an honor you could write on your tombstone.
Reward great user feedback…
With new startups coming to fruition every day there are more resources for these startups to help make improvements. Feedback is great when it can be given on many different levels, with design and usability being of the utmost importance. BetaPunch.com aims to entice user feedback with a built in reward system. We aim to rank our beta testers against each other to determine the ultimate beta testers, and give them the freedom to up-vote and promote their favorite startups. From this, users decide how our startups get displayed on our discovery page. For startups to become promenant on BetaPunch they must iterate and improve based off the feedback they receive and hopefully get catapulted all the way to the front page by their early adopters.
Find the RIGHT testers…
Finding the right testers for your startup can be a challenge. An android app creator does not necessarily want or need iphone users to beta test their apps, just like a shopping app might not appeal to men between the ages of 18-30. If you have too many of the wrong testers you’ll end up satisfying the wrong people at launch.
About BetaPunch
BetaPunch is eager to build a community of testers with a wide variety of likes and interests. The larger their community, the more likelihood it is to find something that sparks your interest. Join their community and play a part in the next great startup’s success.