The terms alpha and beta to describe a startup’s launch product are simply wrong. Last week, I wrote about so many startups failing to launch and many of the sites are in “beta” mode. Alpha, beta, bronze, silver, gold, it’s all stinkin’ thinkin’. Startups must be focused on the customer and providing value to them. Orient your release names towards customer acquisition and let your early adopters tell you when you can start charging.
Why? If you’re not focused on getting paid, how and why are you in business? Secondly, if you change to this kind of naming convention, your potential paying customers have the notion that others have adopted it. It’s true, early adopters have, they just haven’t paid for it or have paid a lower fee.
Consider the following names for your release stages:
Demo – Enough to truly demonstrate your value propositions. This should be completely out in the open if you’re confident that no one can imitate you easily. If they can, I would suggest that you don’t have enough to get to market in a big way.
First Adopter(s) – Just enough code beyond your demo for your first adopters to grasp your value proposition and consider paying for the product (unless you’re freemium of course.) The great part is that you can add more features until your early adopters say “Yep, we love it and you can start charging for this. In fact, we’ll start paying for this!” (Next question of course, how much would they pay?)
Paying Customer – You’ve validated your principle value proposition and customers are willing to pay. There might be other more suitable names but your customers get this one. Potential paying customer: “When did you release this product?” You: “We had early adopters in March.”
Once you have paying customers, lean and agile notions start to shine. No more traditional phase names as you’re continually putting customer-driven features in front of them.
