In a recent Facebook Live conversation, powered by Dell, Furnishr co-founder and CTO, Karen Lau, and Willful co-founder and head of business, Kevin Oulds, shared their individual experiences and approaches in harnessing tech to solve problems in traditional industries.
“It’s hard for founders to hear negative feedback.”
– Kevin Oulds, Willful
The two founders have different backgrounds, which both shaped their entrepreneurial journeys: Lau’s was in tech, while Oulds’ was in electrical construction. Oulds said being a tech founder with no technical background presented a significant challenge for him, and one takeaway from that experience was to talk to strangers.
“It’s hard for founders to hear negative feedback; they have this idea and they think it’s the smartest idea in the world, they think they’re going to be the next Bill Gates,” Oulds said. However, the co-founder noted that conducting market research and customer validation early on would have saved him a lot of headaches as a founder.
For Lau, getting the Furnishr team on board with new technology involves laying out clear customer acquisition goals, establishing what a conversion funnel would look like, and finally, mapping out what features are necessary to help the company meet those goals. Prioritizing those features and shaping priorities through customer feedback, Lau said, is also a crucial undertaking.
“It’s a process of drawing out everything and laying out the features we all want,” she said. “Then you have to look at the cost and look at who you have on the team and what skillsets there are.”
Watch the full conversation below: