Most Founders Get Customer Feedback Completely Wrong
Welcome to the Dave vs. Startups.
Every founder should learn to KNOW when to STOP taking feature requests.
Eventually, you have to cut off your MVP process or you end up pissing customers off.
There's a fine line between responsive and rudderless.
I learned it the hard way.
But the real turning point was when I realized:
Customer service doesn’t have to be a cost center… it can (and should) be a revenue opportunity.
Most founders see customer support as a burden, as something that they have to do, but find literally no joy in doing it.
We looked at it differently.
When a customer called with a problem, we'd go above and beyond to solve it.
That exceptional service regularly led to sales conversations.
They'd say: "Thanks for solving this. What else do you offer, by the way?"
This became a superpower against bigger competitors.
Because big companies can't do customer service as well as small ones, they have too many customers.
I could spend more time on each customer, make them really happy, and earn their trust.
My hiring secret:
For customer service, I always hired people from hospitality, former waiters and restaurant managers.
They could handle tough situations AND prioritize who needed help most urgently.
But individual effort doesn't scale.
So we built a system:
We hired a breakfast restaurant manager and said:
"Look at how I handle this stuff now, then build a system so we can scale it."
You need processes, not just good intentions.
We created what we called the "App Blueprint", a spreadsheet that:
Listed all available features
Showed what the app would look like based on choices
Guided the customer through decisions
This simple tool saved me 75+ emails per customer.
The framework for turning feedback into growth:
Listen closely to early customers
Know when to stop taking every feature request
Hire people who can handle tough situations
Build systems that scale your best practices
This is what built me a multi-million dollar company.
Forget self-driving mode... Tesla owners need an anti-torch mode.
Some Tesla owners are slapping stickers on their cars just to avoid getting torched.
What would you do if you were running Tesla?
P.S. We're trying a new format with the pod. Let us know what you think!
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