They do contradict one another. In one Paul lays out a process, actually the process (which gels with my experience) which involves a lot of pain and flat to down time, followed, in the very long run, by the eventual ramp and growth phase.
Now he suggests you need to have 5% growth per week or your startup is doing it wrong.
I think that the first view is that of a founder, whereas the second view is that of a VC.
So important. Spend 2 or 3 days a week focused on this.
It's easy to court some Lean methodology, find something you're pretty sure people want, and then go into 'build' mode. Don't ever go into 'build' mode.
Customers come from marketing activities. No one clamors to be at Walmart to buy the new and improved mousetrap. Some of these take calendar time.
I think it is very very important to not ignore traction boosting activities early on. It is very important to build a brand, get users engaged, and have people ready to try out your product when it launches. I think one thing that the article doesn't mention though is that if you are doing this before you are delivering value to customers with your product, you need to make sure your messaging is not just trumpeting your horn. The communication/engagement strategies should be building real value for your potential customers. People just tend to pay more attention to people who are constantly providing them things of value. Lots of people forget or don't realize that the value you provide doesn't only come from your product.
For those that have been down the startup road before - should this focus also be reflected in the same proportions in your budget? Ex. Should 50%+ of a startup's budget be spent on user acquisition/trying new things to gain users + increase conversion rates?
"What this means is that you should be investing just as heavily in growth-related activities as in product-related ones. We’re suggesting about half your time should be spent on traction, and half on product."
