Rahul Vohra, Founder and CEO of Superhuman, previously co-founded Reportive, acquired by LinkedIn. He shares his journey from academia to entrepreneurship, highlighting the challenges faced while building a revolutionary email tool. The conversation dives deep into leveraging AI for productivity, Superhuman's development process, and strategies for achieving product-market fit. Vohra touches on overcoming burnout and the importance of understanding customer needs in the competitive productivity tool market.
Superhuman prioritizes speed as a key value proposition to provide users with a faster and more efficient email experience.
Superhuman follows a deliberate approach to product launches, ensuring they align with growth goals and are not premature or costly distractions.
Superhuman measures its progress toward achieving product-market fit using the 'very disappointed' metric, ensuring they create a product that users truly value.
Deep dives
Superhuman: The Fastest Email Experience
Superhuman is an email client that provides users with the fastest email experience ever made. Users can navigate through their inbox twice as fast compared to other email clients and can respond quickly to important emails. Many users have reported achieving inbox zero for the first time in years. The idea for Superhuman originated from the founder's own frustrations with existing email platforms and the desire to create a better and more efficient email experience. The company focused on speed as a key value proposition and conducted extensive user interviews to validate the demand for a faster email client. Superhuman adopted a pricing strategy of charging a monthly fee for its service, positioning itself as a premium product in a market dominated by free or low-cost options. The company has prioritized deliberate and controlled growth, maintaining strict measures to ensure product-market fit before expanding its user base.
The Need for a Deliberate and Controlled Launch
Superhuman adopted a deliberate approach to its product launch, based on a clear understanding of the conditions that warrant a launch. The company determined that launching should only occur when there is a need for more users or customers to sell to, when there is a need for more capital to spend, or when there is a need for more candidates to hire. By following this framework, Superhuman ensures that launching is not done as a premature or costly distraction, but as a strategic move aligned with its growth goals. The company has embraced a growth mindset, focusing on consistently achieving its weekly user onboarding targets to drive sustained growth and align with its long-term vision.
Measuring Product-Market Fit with the 'Very Disappointed' Metric
Superhuman developed a unique way to measure product-market fit using the 'very disappointed' metric. The company asks users how they would feel if they could no longer use the product, with the options of 'very disappointed,' 'somewhat disappointed,' or 'not disappointed.' If more than 40% of users respond with 'very disappointed,' it indicates that the company has achieved initial product-market fit. Superhuman used this metric to gauge the demand and satisfaction of its early users, ensuring that they are creating a product that users truly value. By continuously tracking and improving this metric, Superhuman is able to measure its progress toward achieving a strong product-market fit.
Pricing Strategy and Positioning
The podcast episode discusses the importance of carefully considering pricing strategy and positioning for a startup. It emphasizes the need to understand the competitive environment and develop a clear positioning that highlights the product's value. The speaker suggests using the Van Westendor Pricing Sensitivity Meter as a method for determining pricing. The episode highlights the significance of considering the target market's perception of price and the importance of pricing in relation to a premium product.
Building Momentum and Iterating Towards Product-Market Fit
The podcast delves into the concept of building momentum as a founder and iterating towards product-market fit. It emphasizes the role of persistence and determination in overcoming challenges and achieving success. The speaker presents a systematic approach called the "SABRE" framework, involving segmenting users, analyzing feedback, building product improvements, and repeating the process. The episode also addresses the potential risks and reasons for startup failure as well as the need for continued momentum and adaptability throughout the startup journey.
We wrap up Season 4 with a very special (and accidental!) episode, a conversation with the CEO of Superhuman, the red hot email productivity app which just announced their $33m Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz. While originally intended as a limited release episode, we felt Superhuman would provide the perfect bookend to our “modern enterprise productivity trilogy” following our Zoom and Slack episodes. We hope you enjoy the conversation with Rahul as much as we did, and we’ll see you later this summer for Season 5!
