Q: Why do you want to bring companies on Silicon Valley, as unlike a decade ago, there are opportunities elsewhere?
A: Statistics show that up to 90% of the product developed in-house, for internal or external customers, fail. The same we can say of many startup companies that operate in Europe only or even US East Coast. Facebook is an example on why they moved to Palo Alto or Boston
Q: How Ahrono Associates can improve the success rate?
A: The product must be usable, valuable and feasible. The product must be “wanted” The product discovery process is must pass companies hurdles and inertia. We facilitate the collaboration between the product manager, interaction designer and the software architect. We make sure to collect the goals and wishes of all parties involved. We smooth conflicts, create bridges and find the shortest way without eliminating esentials.
Q: What you specifically do?
A: People think a consulting company on Silicon Valley which does not do coding, must do marketing or sales or both. We do that too, but we have a holistic mission. We pay attention to the product portfolio and and to the people who make them. . The product ideas must be tested, but the company has an intuitive designer, we may skip pilots as an exception. We are on the look for intuitive entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs. There are many, if you read his biography, but none have usually power of decision making. Their influence is key to make a success. We recommend the minimal set of features that meet the goals within the budge and advocate against product cannibalization at higher levels.
Q: How do you charge for your services?
A: We charge consulting fees and / or a contingency fee on results which can be in the form of equity. One question I ask my customers often, is how much they think their company is worth. They usually under value themselves by a factor of five to ten . So if the customer says" I believe my company will be $10M in three years", we may look a bit closely and decide they can have can have a $100M valuation. All action items from now on are filtered. Does action item B lead to a 100M valuation in three years? Yes, we do it. If not, we don't.
Q: What do think is most important to select ideal customers?
A: Empathy: In simple words we sense in-sync whether we both are happy or unhappy. The type of work we do leads to extraordinary results, these will not happen unless there is a chemistry among ourselves. Great customers breed good consultants.Great customers think differently, out the box and have very significant ideas.
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