Volley founder doing things that don’t scale 😱

TL;DR

The founder and CEO of Volley is talking to hundreds of users a week and learning quickly. It’s a great example of Paul Graham’s famous advice to startups: “Do things that don’t scale”.

Here’s how Volley’s founder had a 1:1 conversation with me:

1. I started using Volley for the first time.
2. I got a message from Josh Little. He introduced himself casually as a cofounder and CEO of Volley and told me to let him know if I ever needed anything or had any questions.
3. I thought “psh, he’s probably just saying that. There’s no way this guy responds to every 1:1 message sent to him”.

4. I decided to message him back just for fun. I replied with “Hi Josh, do you really respond to every message you receive?”
5. The next day to my surprise, I received a response back from Josh. He told me he does indeed respond to each one, but sometimes it takes a day or so if he’s busy.
6. He then asked me a follow-up question: “how do you use Volley?”
7. I told him all about the group I belonged to on Volley, how I got invited, what my primary goal is using the platform, etc.
   Then I asked him “how many volleys do you respond to each day?”
8. He told me he talks to hundreds of users each week… 😮

Conclusion

“I really don’t know how you can build products users will love without a deep understanding of those users, and you won’t get that without lots of direct communication, including face-to-face interactions.”

Marty Cagan

This dude is essentially conducting hundreds of user interviews each week in order to truly understand what it takes to get to product-market fit –what a genius! I wish more product leaders took the time to “do things that don’t scale” in order to achieve validated learning and build great products people love to use.