Julien is the co-founder and CEO of Station, a company headquartered halfway between Paris and Lisbon. Station is a browser add-on that proactively manages a team’s shared information and assets across all of their SaaS services. Julien had experience on both sides of the fence before starting Station, and the initial design differed greatly from what it is today. The most important details are that Station was created as an alternative to conventional browsers and was successful in gaining over 40,000 users. However, it struggled to find Product-Market Fit, leading to a lack of retention.
A centralized team search engine called Station was built with the help of Julien. It is a browser add-on that arranges the shared vital resources of a team. They stopped working on a browser and are currently in beta with more than 3,000 users, more than 100 teams testing the product, and more than 50,000 users seeking access.
What are you currently working on and who are you?
I’m Julien, the co-founder and CEO of Station, a company headquartered halfway between Paris and Lisbon. A centralized search for teams is being built.
It is a browser add-on that proactively manages a team’s shared information and assets across all of their SaaS services. We make it incredibly simple to find information and monitor the progress of your team.
What is your background, and how did you come up with this idea?
I had experience on both sides of the fence before starting Station. I started an e-commerce site in Thailand with my co-founder, who I eventually married—it was my biggest departure to date! and I had a job with a venture capital company that made investments in developing markets. In the end, I discovered that starting a business was more thrilling.
Station’s initial design differed greatly from what it is today. Three years ago, my co-founders and I set out to develop a business browser. It was created as an alternative to conventional browsers like Google Chrome and was intended to be used with SaaS services. In less than two years, we moved from having 100 beta testers to having over 40,000 users, were selected “Product of the Year” by Product Hunt, went through YCombinator, and received $3.25 million from Accel in the US. Even while it may have seemed easy sailing at first (creating a browser is challenging! ), we struggled to discover Product-Market Fit with that version of the product (i.e., retention wasn’t excellent). We began to question our plan and the thing we were creating as a result.
We looked at countless user interviews, more than 2.5 years’ worth of product data, and every failed feature we had ever created. According to our analysis, the corporation had just two realistic choices:
B2C approach: against our expectations, a sizable portion of Station’s users did not use it to find work. The Pareto principle was put into practice as follows: A relatively small number of chat programs, such as Slack, WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, etc., accounted for more than 70% of usage. These applications for jobs are unusual. For the vast majority of users, we had essentially produced a “chat aggregator” even though we had thought we had designed a browser for business. If an opportunity presented itself, seize it by researching and developing the best conversation aggregator.
B2B approach: we looked at the broken functionality we supplied. It’s enticing to just toss them aside and go on to the next one. However, failing features may teach you a lot. One such feature was referred to as “Workspaces”; it was comparable to your Google Drive folders but had connections that were shared across your programs rather than files. Think of it as an organizational collaborative bookmark manager. People liked it (much like they like bookmarks in a browser), but teams never took to it. Why? Because nobody wants to execute this duty, even if everyone in an organization wants information and knowledge that is well-organized. We asked ourselves, “What if it could be done automatically?” That would truly be extraordinary.
The B2C approach could have been the simplest because it needed less changes to the current product version, but the foundation it was built on faced several technical difficulties.
We found the B2B method to be more engaging. We have always wanted to create a solution that benefits whole teams and boosts productivity across the board for both people and large enterprises. Additionally, it seemed like this was a real issue that could be fixed by using the knowledge gained from earlier efforts. The question “Why doesn’t it exist already?” is one you are likely acquainted with. For us, that marked the end.
In addition to “Product-Market Fit,” another crucial idea is “Founder-Market Fit,” which refers to how much you think you are the right person to find a solution to this issue.
How did you turn a concept into a finished product?
We relied on three core principles:
In less than a month, we shipped the initial product version.
Learn quickly from your users: We’ve established an online community where we regularly communicate with our users.
We created it as a browser extension since that is how customers now use computers.
Our team assembled in Sevilla, Spain for a retreat in the beginning of 2020 (precisely before the arrival of Covid), where we carefully worked to send a first MVP. The fresh voyage has started!
By the summer, we had over 10,000 customers on the waiting list in addition to 100 beta participants. We first put access restrictions on the product to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. There is a limit to how many times one can iterate initially. It is crucial to start with a small number of users.
To prioritize our short- and medium-term goals, we’ve implemented surveys that are distributed to consumers at critical moments in their lifecycles. We qualify the product preferences of our personas using the Superhuman HXC approach, and we employ Profitwell’s technique for monetization insights and feedback gathering in the case of attrition.
By the middle of September, we had chosen to announce the start of our private beta because we felt ready. We had a hard time keeping up because we had so many answers! Although some people weren’t happy, the great majority accepted our decision.
Team features are what we are presently working on. Even though we are currently in restricted beta and only focusing on a few teams, we follow the same guiding principles.
What marketing techniques did you use to grow your company?
We chose a “land-and-expand” marketing strategy since we are a product-driven company, where we first gain one user before expanding to the rest of a team.
When using a bottom-up growth strategy, you must first advertise the benefits and value of each product separately. Our marketing efforts are currently primarily focused on promoting this distinct value offer. These leads are obtained through B2C channels including social media, blog articles, and app directories.
With our prior startup, two channels—ProductHunt (a forum for early adopters) and unpaid, impromptu product reviews—performed really well.
As of yet, we have not made any advertising-related purchases. Beyond the aforementioned B2C channels, word-of-mouth referrals are how we predominantly grow.
What are you doing right now? What are your long-term goals?
With more than 3,000 users, more than 100 teams testing the software, and more than 50,000 users seeking access, we are presently in beta.
The product is now still available for free and is mostly used by individuals. We will implement the team features over the following six months, and we’ll start making money soon after that. We want to welcome our first 100 teams this year. The most exciting feature we are working on right now is an engine that will automatically arrange the data and knowledge of team members. To make finding and searching for information exceedingly quick, we are essentially creating an automatic graph of all the key shared resources inside a team. Although we must work within the limitations of the browser and knowledge may take many various forms in a firm (such as a note, a task, a spreadsheet, a presentation, etc.), it feels like we are building something that is extremely powerful.
What have you learned most importantly while starting Station?
The first lesson is to recognize the difference between tenacity and madness.
The Andreessen Horowitz quote that follows perfectly captures this
Entrepreneurial judgment is the capacity to recognize when further work would be a waste of time and drastic change would be necessary, as opposed to when perseverance and repetition would finally prove a point.
Frequently consider which of the two groups you fit into. The mantra “never give up” that you constantly hear from “self-help” teachers is incredibly damaging. On occasion, it’s great to just let go and choose another route. The importance of our pivot lay in that. Additionally, it is particularly challenging since the “sunk cost fallacy” is deeply ingrained in our brains.
Second lesson: Be a realistic optimist.
This relates to the first lesson and offers a more intimate viewpoint. One statement made by a US Navy officer who endured eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam has stuck with me:
“Never confuse the discipline to face the harshest realities of your current situation, whatever they may be, with the faith that you will ultimately prevail — which you cannot afford to lose.”
It only suggests that one is a “optimistic realist.” This, in my opinion, is the only way to grow a business while also keeping your sanity. An optimist who cannot accept reality will miss Lesson 1. Any pragmatic who lacks hope will give up when things get tough. Even though it’s simpler said than done, you should aim for a good balance between the two.
What were the toughest obstacles you overcame? What were your biggest mistakes?
One of our biggest challenges in the beginning was technological. Using a technological framework (Electron) that was excellent for creating an MVP but challenging to grow and iterate on, we built Station. One of Paul Graham’s list of 18 deadly mistakes that kill companies is picking the wrong platform. The lesson was hard-won, as we discovered. It’s crucial to take the time to pick the right platform since it’s hard to judge a platform’s quality without knowing what you want to accomplish with it (and when you start a business, everything is out in the open). A three-story home wouldn’t ever be built on flimsy timber underpinnings. The same applies here.
Additionally, there are benefits and drawbacks to creating an extension rather than a browser. An extension has the advantage of being quicker and easier for users to sign up for, which makes it easier to, for example, win over a team. It does not need a substantial change in user behavior, like when a new browser is adopted. However, and here’s the catch, it’s also quite easy to overlook the fact that an extension even exists. As an example, there are two ways to utilize Station in the browser: open a new tab or press CMD+E (on a Mac). We were initially apprehensive to open the new tab since we thought it may interfere with the user’s work. Currently, the new tab is where 75% of Station’s action takes place. We wouldn’t have as much activity as we do now without it. It’s ridiculous. You must develop your product with this harsh truth in mind since with an extension, the repercussions for grabbing a user’s attention are worse. It might be challenging to strike a balance between alerting the user to the presence of your product and without interfering with their workflow.
During our turnaround last year, we made a critical misstep in marketing and communication. We were quite worried that we would lose all of our active users, because that is what is likely to happen when you pivot. In an effort to persuade them that we were doing this for them and that the new product would enhance their workflow, we explained our decision to pivot. As a result, there was a significant response from consumers who felt unheard (they wanted a discussion aggregator, not to go back to the browser!). After that episode, we changed the way we communicated with customers and ceased hammering home the point that this was the greatest option for them. If you create something that is significantly different from what you were doing previously, it’s likely that some individuals will be unhappy. That’s OK, but don’t fool yourself.
What equipment and sources would you recommend?
Our most recent picks for tools are:
Both on the product side and the development side, we structure our cycles in a linear fashion. It is well-designed and really speedy.
Gather re-creates the “serendipity” you miss when you travel far from the business. You may completely customize your workspace (we have a rooftop, after all!) and have quick meetings in private rooms all day long.
If you love Superhuman, Vimcal offers a comparable calendar experience (fast + keypad shortcut).
I would advise everyone to read How Superhuman Built an Engine to Determine Product/Market Fit if they are interested in working approaches. It is brimming with wise remarks and helpful guidance.
For further information:
Visit Station to see what we’ve created.
You can also check my Linkedin
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