Successful entrepreneurs understand the importance of feedback. Whether positive or negative, feedback gives you valuable information that you can use to make important decisions about your business. It is an effective way to get a sense of what your market and important stakeholders truly feel about your products and services. More importantly, feedback can give you concrete ways on how you can improve your business.
From the eBook “Startup Best Practices from 15 Serial Entrepreneurs”. here are what successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs say about why it is of important to get and listen to feedback:
It’s very important to be open to feedback. Make sure that you don’t overlook or forget important issues by ignoring people who try to help you. Make sure that you don’t overlook or forget important issues people who try to help you. One thing is true about the Valley: people do offer guidance people and support quite freely.
Idarose Sylvester and Jan Grotenbreg, Co-founders of Silicon Valley Link
Whatever idea you have now is not the right idea. All ideas are you chiseled away or refined overtime; not a single company goes to market with the original idea, there’s always some evolution.
Naeem Zafar, Co-founder and CEO of Telesense
To keep as close as you can to the customer even during development. Don’t go off for a year to develop something and then show it to the world. Show your work to the world every week with a set of test customers who think along with you. You will benefit from that knowledge big-time and your customers will see it as a great service.
Jans Aasman, CEO of Franz Inc.
Get people and investors involved who are critical of what you were doing. Honest feedback you seriously priceless (if you can handle it).
Warner Philips, Co-Founder of Tendris.com
We don’t wait for six months to execute on the idea; we move fast get feedback and work on the product. I, like the others have made the mistake of waiting too long on a product, which I now regret. This not only helps to improve your product but also helps figure out or validate your business model. Is your solution good enough so that people are willing to pay for it? And so, how much? For us the validation of the business model is more important than the actual size of the revving use we are generating now. If we can show traction it will be relatively easy to track funding and grow revenue’s much faster.
Eren Bali, Co-founder, CEO at Carbon; Chairman, Co-founder & Former CEO at Udemy
Be open to feedback because it’s important to learn what customers want and don’t want and not to get upset asked with your own ideas. Then adjust your product depending on the insight you gave from this.
Eren Bali, Co-founder, CEO at Carbon; Chairman, Co-founder & Former CEO at Udemy
Always challenge yourself and develop the kind of disposition where you’re open to having your ideas challenged with honest feedback. In fact Silicon Valley is a place I really like, particularly the entrepreneurship and the VC circles due to their brutal and honest feedback. They don’t particularly try to make you happy or anything like that. This is exactly the kind of feedback that benefits you think the long run. You’re not up there to feel good. You’re going out there to give yourself the best chance of building a huge company. So develop the attitude to do this because the number of smart people you meet here in Silicon Valley that give you brutal and honest feedback is unparalleled.
Vijay Krishnan, Founder and CTO, RoverApp.com
…Importance of taking in honest feedback and criticism regarding your company’s approach, your product, and yourself. And then not sticking your head in the sand or becoming frustrated to be surrounded by all these “idiots”, who dare to even speak a bad word about your wonderful, beautiful little baby. No. Take a step back and evaluate that feedback honestly without turning defensive; make up your mind, and adapt accordingly. Speaking for myself, it doesn’t matter how often I have done this, it just remains difficult whenever new criticism arrives and I have to force myself each and every time to really look at it with an open mind.
Cees Quirijns, Founding Partner, Pamanco and Firmtel
Rule for a Successful Startup: Hire the Right People
