Why Wesabe Lost to Mint - Marc Hedlund's blog

Why Wesabe Lost to Mint - Marc Hedlund's blog:

'via Blog this'

Interesting article on how one startup company (Wesabe) lost to a later entrant in the same market (Mint.com).

There are so many good memes on this post - I want to grab it all, and highlight the stuff I like.

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There's a lot to be said for not rushing to market, and learning from the mistakes the first entrants make. ...
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...Mint focused on making the user do almost no work at all, by automatically editing and categorizing their data...

...I was focused on trying to make the usability of editing data as easy and functional as it could be; Mint was focused on making it so you never had to do that at all. Their approach completely kicked our approach's ass. (To be defensive for just a moment, their data accuracy -- how well they automatically edited -- was really low, and anyone who looked deeply into their data at Mint, especially in the beginning, was shocked at how inaccurate it was. The point, though, is hardly anyone seems to have looked.)...

...it was far easier to have a good experience on Mint, and that good experience came far more quickly. ...

... most people simply won't care enough or get enough benefit from long-term features if a shorter-term alternative is available. ...


...  Focus on what really matters: making users happy with your product as quickly as you can, and helping them as much as you can after that.  If you do those better than anyone else out there you'll win.     I think in this case, Mint totally won at the first (making users happy quickly), and we both totally failed at the second (actually helping people). ...