He raised $250K, had thousands of users, but failed— because he didn't pivot fast enough. | Darius Vaillancourt, Founder of Howdy

A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

Darius started an EdTech startup to help users of online courses collaborate with each other. It blew up during COVID when everyone felt isolated. It gained thousands of users. They were engaged. They came back to use the platform. And, most importantly, they dramatically improved completion rates for online courses.
Darius thought he had it. But it turned out universities didn't want to pay. What users cared about was not what universities (the buyers) cared about.
His biggest lessons is that he should've pivoted much sooner. Here's why.
Why you should listen:

• Why success and failure are often not that far apart.
• Why engagement and usage don't always lead to revenue.
• How to figure out the KPI that matters for your buyer.
• Why users and buyers are not one and the same.
• Why you need to pivot much sooner than you might think-- or like.

Keywords
startup challenges, entrepreneurship, online learning, EdTech, market dynamics, product development, business strategy, lessons learned, networking, pivoting
Send me a message to let me know what you think!

Chapters

1. He raised $250K, had thousands of users, but failed— because he didn't pivot fast enough. | Darius Vaillancourt, Founder of Howdy (00:00:00)

2. What is Howdy & The Origin (00:01:23)

3. First Steps & The Business Model (00:05:46)

4. Driving important KPIs (00:12:41)

5. Pivoting Before Shutting Down (00:17:08)

6. The Lessons Learned (00:25:03)