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  • Profile picture of David

    David posted an update 8 years, 8 months ago

    Hi David,

    I really loved the information you have put together here. It clarified lots of questions about CFO. Appreciate that. I am software engineer who wants to build a platform (website and app) for CFOs to be able to publicize their product and make it easy to buy and sell local homemade food. Given your experience, do you think I will find enough providers for the platform? What challenges do you see in adoption of such a platform by providers and consumers?
    Appreciate your help on this.

    Thanks,
    Manish

    • Profile picture of David Crabill
      David Crabill replied 8 years, 8 months ago

      Manish, over the past few years I have seen at least 30 businesses try to do exactly that, including ourselves. I do think that, once active, such a platform would be useful to the industry. However, there are definitely major barriers to getting there, especially when it comes to early user adoption. Obviously, if I knew all the answers, I’d just go ahead and build it myself, so I’m still not entirely sure why startups have faced such difficulty. But one thing I am sure of is that not one of those 30 startups have seen the success they hoped for. My advice to those who ask is to find users first, and once you have full commitment from many (say, 100), then build your app. Everyone does the opposite and it doesn’t seem to work. If we had sought commitment (not interest) from CFOs before building, we would have prevented ourselves from building something nobody ever used.

      I know that’s not great news, but I don’t like seeing people repeat our mistakes. Hope it helps.

      David