{"id":"6776","date":"2020-12-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/?p=6776"},"modified":"2024-01-24T16:10:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T00:10:12","slug":"pickfu-and-mixergy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/pickfu-and-mixergy\/","title":{"rendered":"PickFu and Mixergy: Get audience feedback first"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>PickFu\u2019s co-founder John Li sat down with Andrew Warner, host of the <a aria-label=\"Mixergy (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/mixergy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"ek-link\">Mixergy<\/a> podcast \u201c<a aria-label=\"Startup Stories (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/recession-proof-startups-mixergy\/id348690336?ign-mpt=uo%3D4&amp;mt=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"ek-link\">Startup Stories<\/a>,\u201d to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, how PickFu started, and what&#8217;s behind its growth. Read on for a recap of their conversation, or listen to the <a aria-label=\"interview (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/mixergy.com\/interviews\/pickfu-with-john-li\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"ek-link\">interview<\/a> below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-mixcloud wp-block-embed-mixcloud wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"#1999 Getting Audience Feedback Before You Build\" width=\"100%\" height=\"120\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mixcloud.com\/widget\/iframe\/?feed=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mixcloud.com%2Fmixergy-startupstorieswith1000%2F1999-getting-audience-feedback-before-you-build%2F&amp;hide_cover=1\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"interview-highlights\">Interview<strong> highlights<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<p><strong>2:38<\/strong> John introduced the concept of PickFu, a DIY consumer research platform, and discussed the results of a PickFu poll asking panelists to vote on actual Mixergy podcast cover art designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>6:54<\/strong> John and PickFu\u2019s co-founder, Justin Chen, met as classmates at UC Berkeley. They shared a &#8220;general irreverence and lack of caring about school,&#8221; joked John.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>10:31<\/strong> John talked about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.menuism.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Menuism (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"ek-link\">Menuism<\/a>, the crowdsourced restaurant menu listing website he and Justin started that led to PickFu. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>14:32<\/strong> As coders, not designers, the two struggled with and often disagreed on design elements of the Menuism site. They asked friends and family for input, but what they really needed was qualitative, unbiased feedback. So, they built a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/prototype-testing\/\" class=\"ek-link\">quick prototype of PickFu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>22:55<\/strong> Early on, John and Justin treated PickFu as an internal tool for Menuism. They shared the PickFu prototype on Hacker News. As people discovered it \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/duckduckgo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"DuckDuckGo (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"ek-link\">DuckDuckGo<\/a> CEO and founder Gabriel Weinberg was an early adopter \u2014 word began to spread. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>25:45<\/strong> PickFu gained traction in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/books\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"self-publishing industry (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"ek-link\">self-publishing industry<\/a> for authors to test book covers and titles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>27:23<\/strong> John and Justin adjusted PickFu based on user feedback. They added <a aria-label=\"audience targeting (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/audiences\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"ek-link\">audience targeting<\/a> and features such as polling more than two things at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>32:27<\/strong> PickFu expanded beyond the self-publishing and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/mobile-apps\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"mobile app (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"ek-link\">mobile app<\/a> markets into the e-commerce and Amazon seller space by working with influencers and affiliates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>43:45<\/strong> Determining PickFu&#8217;s pricing model has been a challenge. John said the company&#8217;s focus is on educating customers in various verticals on the value PickFu can bring to their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>50:44<\/strong> People have used PickFu to choose everything from photos for their online dating profiles to baby names. Popular business uses for PickFu include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/test-logo\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"testing logos (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"ek-link\">testing logos<\/a>, domain names, landing page copy, and email templates.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>56:52<\/strong> John on PickFu&#8217;s organic growth: &#8220;It&#8217;s a lot more meaningful when your customer is already coming to you and then you turn around and try to understand why they&#8217;re coming to us, and what pain points our general purpose tool is actually solving for you.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PickFu\u2019s co-founder John Li sat down with Andrew Warner, host of the Mixergy podcast \u201cStartup Stories,\u201d to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, how PickFu started, and what&#8217;s behind its growth. Read &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":""},"author":"23","featured_media":"6779","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":"","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":"","_editorskit_reading_time":"0","_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":"","_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":["8","31"],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>PickFu and Mixergy: Get audience feedback first - The PickFu blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"PickFu&#039;s John Li sat down with Andrew Warner of Mixergy&#039;s Startup Stories podcast to talk about how PickFu has evolved from its early days.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/pickfu-and-mixergy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PickFu and Mixergy: Get audience feedback first - 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