We launched our jam startup yesterday, with much fanfare and sound on social media. I shared it on my wall too. And I have an interesting insight. I met 3 kinds of people online in the past 24 hours:
1. Those that love food, especially jams, saw our post, liked it, went online, and bought our jams. They loved them, reviewed them, posted and boasted about them.
2. Those that commented on the post with a few questions, got them answered, liked the post, went online, and bought our jams. They put up serious but (without exception) positive posts about them.
Some of the above two types requested dealerships in various places, recommended us to their friends, some even offered funding (and one offered to take us international). Many gave constructive criticism about what we could do differently the next time. Note that literally every advice or observation was AFTER they bought jam from us.
And then, there was the last category:
3. Those that heard or read we were launching jams, called me or went on the post, congratulated me on a great marketing tactic, discussed what I am doing wrong, about their varied and wide experiences in the field, and patted my back patronisingly about “entrepreneurship” (I have been in business for 27 years, with an equal number of startups behind me), said they were proud of me (except a few things I am doing wrong and how I should go about my business), counselled me on the length of the post, on the lack of photographs, the responsiveness of the website, wisdom of choosing this spice and not that, questions about my sources of fruit, offers of finding cheaper vendors, reasons why this will fail, and general gyaan about my business. These people didn’t buy a Single. Jar. Of. Jam. And every time I said something like, “Do visit our webstore and try our jams”, they went on speaking/typing as if they didn’t hear/see what I said.
The last of the lot used to irritate me when I was younger. Now, they merely amuse me.
