英里，一百次拒绝，以及我们的第一位用户
1 分•作者: taorealities•大约 2 个月前
一切都始于一个故事。故事改变生活。故事改变世界。
我们都有故事和世界可以分享，但我们大多数人都难以用文字表达我们的想法。在 Creader.io，我们的使命是更好地促进表达，而不是在人工智能时代取而代之。
作为我们创意故事创作应用程序的用户和市场调研的一部分，我来到了东南亚，这里是 Wattpad（一个流行的同人小说和文学平台）的最大市场所在地。
所以，我在这里，骑着摩托车穿梭于东南亚的首都城市，往返于泰国、印度尼西亚、新加坡和越南之间。我们的目标？国际学校。
我们选择学校并非盲目，这是我们在一个手工艺品市场进行了几个月的市场调研的结果，在那里，近 40% 的高度活跃的访客（包括家长、老师和学生）都表示 Creader 应该出现在创意写作、英语和文学课堂上。
而东南亚是理想之地。
“你来对地方了，东南亚绝对是理想之地，”曼谷一所 STEM 学校的教育主管说道，他来自意大利。“这里对每个人都有巨大的潜力。我们急需人才。”
“这很好。干得好，伙计们。你们要坚持下去。继续努力。你们能行。绝对应该去学校。国际学校是你们正确的市场。首先专注于教育，这是一个好的开始。”
最后，他们并没有成为我们的第一批用户，因为他们希望看到在课堂上经过实战检验的产品，而不仅仅是一个未经测试的原型，但他们表示有兴趣保持联系，以便日后合作。
现实很快就显现出来。我在雅加达，在 4000 万人口的城市里，汗流浃背，忍受着炎热、潮湿和废气。每天从早上 8 点到下午 4 点，我都在学校之间奔波，在热带的炎热中，骑在嘈杂的摩托车上。当我回到酒店时，我已经浑身湿透，躺在床上，疲惫不堪，动弹不得。
雅加达的安保非常严格，在大多数学校，我都被拦在门卫室外，无法进入接待处。整个星期，我都没有见到任何老师，也没有收到任何我留下的信件或电子邮件的回复。我空手离开了雅加达。从零到一总是最难的。
下一站——新加坡，一个将自己定位为亚洲人工智能中心的城市。这听起来很有希望，直到一位校长向我们指出，“这很好，但你知道有多少初创公司来这里试图向我们推销学生的软件吗？我们一直收到这类东西！” 争夺关注的竞争将会非常激烈，而打入这个城市并不容易。
我只剩下一个机会。胡志明市。
在最后一天，我站在一栋欧式风格的古老建筑外。我向接待处介绍了我们正在开发的产品。她表示怀疑，但还是给校长打了电话。“请坐，他刚从午餐回来。”
几分钟后，我被带进了一间办公室。“我喜欢伦敦，”坐在我对面的、性格开朗的美国校长说道，当我告诉他我们的初创公司位于伦敦时。我注意到他的桌子上散落着书，堆积如山的书。在接下来的一个小时里，我们大部分时间都在聊越南、历史、文学以及我们生活中那些带我们来到亚洲的冒险经历。直到最后，我才提到了 Creader，并做了一个简短的演示。“我会在伦敦见到你的朋友，”这是他告别时说的话。
于是，我飞回了家。
一周后，在一次简短的介绍电话后，我们达成了一笔交易。他将在暑期学校期间，在一小部分学生中使用 Creader，他将亲自指导这些学生。如果效果好，那么在九月，就有可能在整个学校推广到常规学年。更重要的是，今年夏天试用它，让我们可以在九月回到之前那些只是希望获得更多验证的感兴趣的学校。
现在，我们为即将到来的夏天做准备。
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Everything begins with a story. Stories change lives. Stories change the world.<p>And we all have stories and worlds to share, yet most of us struggle to express our thoughts on paper. At Creader.io, our mission is to better enable expression, not replace in the age of AI.<p>As part of user and market research for our creative storytelling app, I find myself in Southeast Asia, home to the largest market for Wattpad, the popular fanfiction and literature platform.<p>So here I am, on the back of motorcycles roaring through the capital cities of Southeast Asia, flying between Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam. Our target? International schools.<p>We didn’t choose schools blindly, it was the result of market research for a couple months at an arts and craft market where close to 40% of highly engaged visitors including parents, teachers, students all said Creader belonged in a classroom for creative writing, English and literature.<p>And Southeast Asia is the place to be.<p>“You’ve come to the right place, Southeast Asia is absolutely the right place to be” declares the director of education of a Bangkok STEM school who hails from Italy. “There is so much potential here for everyone. We’re in need of talent.”<p>“This is good. Great job guys. You got to keep it up. Keep going. You got this. Absolutely you should be going to schools. International schools are your right market. Focus on education first, good place to start.”<p>In the end, they did not become our first user as they wanted something battle tested in a classroom beyond an untested prototype, but expressed interest in staying in touch for later.<p>Reality quickly sets in. I'm in Jakarta, sweating in the heat, humidity and fumes of a city of 40 million people. It was long days running from school to school, 8 am to 4 pm days on end on the back of loud noisy motorbikes in the tropical heat. By the time I’m back in the hotel, I’m drenched in sweat lying in bed, too exhausted to move.<p>Security is tight within Jakarta and at most schools I’m stopped outside at the guardhouse, unable to visit reception. For the whole week, I go without meeting any teachers or hear back from any of the letters nor emails I had left behind. I leave Jakarta empty-handed. Zero to one is always the hardest.<p>Next stop - Singapore, a state city positioning itself as the AI hub of Asia. It sounds very promising, until one school principal points out to us, “this is great, but do you know how many startups stop by trying to pitch us software for students? We get this kind of stuff ALL the time!” Competition for attention is going to be intense and this is not going to be an easy city to break into.<p>I have one shot remaining. Ho Chi Minh.<p>On the last day, I find myself standing outside an European styled heritage building. I inform reception of what we’re building. She is skeptical but makes the call to the principal. “Please take a seat, he is on his way back from lunch.”<p>Minutes later, I’m ushered into an office. “I love London” booms the jovial American principal seated across me when I inform him our startup is London based. I noticed scattered across his desk were books, piles and piles of books. For most of the next hour, we chat about Vietnam, history, literature and the adventures in our lives that led us to Asia. I don’t mention Creader until the end when I give a short demo. “I’ll meet your friend in London” were his parting words.<p>So I fly home.<p>A week later after one short intro call, we have a deal. He will use Creader during summer school among a small class of students that he will personally instruct. If it delivers, then come September there is the potential of school wide deployment for the regular school year. More importantly, trying it this summer allows us to go back in September to all the interested schools from earlier that just wanted slightly more validation.<p>Now we prepare for the summer ahead.