A great startup product needs more than just software, says :Different co-founder Mina Radhakrishnan

When you’re building a tech startup, creating a great product is the most important thing, until it isn’t, according to Mina Radhakrishnan, co-founder of rental property management startup :Different.

Speaking at the Above All Human conference in Melbourne on Wednesday, Radhakrishnan revealed :Different will be launching in Melbourne “very soon”, marking the startup’s first expansion out of Sydney.

An early employee at Uber, joining as head of product when the car-sharing giant had around 20 employees, Radhakrishnan founded :Different with her husband and co-founder Ruwin Perera in late 2016, raising $1.3 million in seed funding about a year later.

When you’re trying to build a great product, “the hard thing is making it feel like no effort went into it at all”, Radhakrishnan told conference attendees yesterday.

She compared the customer experience of using a traditional taxi service to using Uber, describing the difference as “night and day”.

It’s not just about the product you’re producing, “it’s about the experience”, she said. “There are no books, no how-to guides, no silver bullets, no frameworks.” Read more

Stephanie Palmer-Derrien - SmartCompany - 30 August 2018