Customers wanted link control, not just shorter URLs
Frenzo started as a link management service similar to Bitly, focused on shortening long web addresses. Conversations with possible customers showed that almost nobody cared much about link length. Their real questions were whether a link could be turned off after a , limited to the first 500 , protected with a password, used with their own domain, and tracked to show where clicks came from.
That changed the product direction from a simple into a tool for controlling and measuring links. The main lesson is that a founder’s first guess about what customers want can be very different from what customers would actually pay for.
Key points
- Frenzo began as a Bitly-style link management service.
- Potential customers cared little about making links shorter.
- They wanted controls such as stopping links, visitor limits, password protection, and s.
- Click source was also an important need.
- Customer conversations changed the product from a into a link control tool.