![]() They were going to fight for the market they’d created. They responded quickly, letting the world know that they weren’t going anywhere. So it came as a surprise when, at WWDC 2019, Apple launched Sidecar, a competitor to Astropad, offered to iPad users for free.Īfter the announcement, the Astropad team was devastated but determined. They felt that their market was too niche for Apple to be interested. Apple had courted them and made them feel important through multiple on-site meetings and offers of support, even featuring them in the App Store. But they’d made a strategic mistake.ĭespite knowing it was possible, the AstroPad team had ignored the platform threat from Apple itself. Everything was looking up for the Astropad team. They followed the success of AstroPad Studio with a successful hardware product, Luna Display.įrom two co-founders, to a team of four at the initial launch, Astropad grew to 20 employees and millions of dollars in annual recurring revenue. CEO Matt Ronge told us in the webinar that this journey took an entire year, starting with a deep analysis of their market and audience and ending with AstroPad Studio, a new product tier. Their initial launch found market fit and garnered critical acclaim in the niche market of creative pros.Īfter their successful launch, Astropad pivoted from a one time purchase model to a recurring revenue model. Use that to maintain a market advantage.Īstropad launched as a bootstrapped startup with an application that allowed creatives to transform their iPad into a professional drawing tablet. The fact that you’re small allows you to focus on niche features to please your market. Finding product market fit means loyal customers that will be happy to stick with you for additional services and features. You can compete with big companies, even the biggest in the world.Otherwise you risk an expensive upset, whether your platform is Apple OS, Amazon Web Services, or even Shopify or Woocommerce. Even though it can be expensive, once you have product market fit, you should go multiplatform as early as possible. Platform Risk is a real threat! Matt Ronge recommends surveying the market for what consumers are willing to pay and then build Beta and Alpha test groups. ![]() ![]() Real pivots take six months to a year, not one or two months. If you are about to execute a pivot, make sure you do your research, talk to your customers, and plan plenty of time and cash flow to execute successfully. A big thank you to Lighter Capital and co-host Zach Hoene (VP of Strategic Partnerships) for making this webinar series possible. In this webinar, Dustin Bruzenak, Modern Logic CEO, had the opportunity to interview Matt Ronge (CEO and Cofounder of Astropad) on his startup journey.
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