Do you know what a great early-stage customer looks like?
Customer-side Visionaries like Dara Howley of the RAF Museum (speaking In this episode with Ashley Staines about her selection of Volunteero) might not be common, but they are evenly distributed across society.
If you're doing and saying the right things in any market, you will get opportunities to execute your Vision by serving them.
Visionary customers are special people who care more about their cause than internal politics, and are accordingly willing to take calculated risks on new vendors in service of a greater good.
In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Dara explains the key criteria for winning her backing:
VISION: In Dara case with Volunteero, she was looking for a Volunteer Management software provider totally committed to superior design and usability on the front end, and comprehensive reporting on the back end
FOCUS: Genuine obsession about improving the volunteer experience (vs generic HR platforms who can 'play at' volunteer management)
SERVICE/PROCESS: Volunteero have a Proven Process for listening to client feedback and continuously releasing new features.
Thanks to Dara and Ash for letting us observe 'the why and the what' underpinning their innovation partnership.
If you have (or know of) a similar founder-customer relationship or story, we'd love to hear from you!
Interested listeners can reach Rob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) at Rob@mission-group.co.uk (or to book some free time with, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard).
First-time Founders on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7hcdluu5ywrZ6qFhhI8EVH?si=840a4f564e6d4ea4
First-time Founders on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SfnHZhV747su-Wnd-9Z0Q
First-time Founders on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-time-founders/id1697488388
