After recently closing our seed round, we moved into an office and required some office equipment. Where could we buy a 50 inch TV quickly an easily? Using our own platform of course! So we booted up the app and were delighted to find a decent Samsung 50 inch HD TV going for £200 locally. Naturally, we low balled and sent an offer for £150. After a brief back and forth, we settled on £180.
When dealing drugs, it's advised that you 'stay away from the end user' (Layer Cake, 2004). However, when it comes to a tech startup (or any firm with customers to be fair), it's the opposite ; you want to get as close as possible to your end users. Simply asking them 3 things that they like and dislike about your platform will provide invaluable feedback - actually sitting with them and watching them use whatever you've created, even more so. Sometimes I like to camp outside the houses of our users and watch them with binoculars as they go about their daily lives. Once or twice I've even snuck into their homes and watched users as they sleep. Just kidding, I'm a tech CEO goddamnit, have some respect - I hack their webcams and watch them remotely.
The classic Paperclip trade-cycle from top right > left > bottom right... Make offer > meet in a safe public place > enjoy new item
Anyway, the deal went down at around 7:30pm in an Asda car park on the outskirts of Cardiff. The seller arrived wearing a tuxedo and driving a custom car, an eclectic combination that I've come to expect from esteemed Paperclip users. We cracked some jokes and made the exchange. Easy!
The TV now sits proudly on our office wall - we've recently been donated a PS4 by a friend, and Steve likes to watch Netflix on it during lunch. We'll beam our stats dashboard onto it during the days as of September.