Mahesh Murthy on Marketing your startup

I saw this video on blip.tv (proto.in's official channel)
http://blip.tv/file/1995301

These were the main points in his talk that i could gather
1) If you don't have a product that is insanely great, don't bother. Only if your product is great, the first customer will recommend you to 5 others. The most successful companies are those that can run for 3-4 years without advertising. If you need to advertise, you need to die. Advertising comes into play much later. Get customers to viral you. Spend as little time as possible on advertising and as much as possible on the product.

2) Charge, Charge early, and Charge a lot. When you don't have advertising, the only thing that builds your brand is your pricing. Have super premium products and super premium pricing. You can win against the market leader by outcharging them. Price is a very powerful positioning weapon. It should appeal to the customer and make your competitor nervous. Price is not a function of cost plus some profit margin. No company has won by being cheaper. First badge on quality is the cost.

3) The UI has to be much better and classier than the competition.

4) A great place to get customers is at conferences. Find out where your buyers are and meet them at conferences. The best way to attend conferences without paying is to become a speaker. Carve a niche for yourself as an expert. Go to places where your customers have stalls, and sell to them. Be where your customers are and where your audience is

5) Use funds to build a great product and not for marketing. Your competence as a marketer is inversely proportional to your marketing budget. The more the budget, the smaller your marketing brains and the crappier the product. Build a great product and people will line up to buy it.

6) Be seen in your field as a thought leader. Present credible information to journalists. Do research, industry studies and data and present it to the audience. Position yourself as a thought leader. Carve a niche for yourself.

7) Don't be a trend follower. Be a trend setter. If you are not the 1st, 2nd or 3rd company in the field, get out of there. A really bad idea is to start a company is based on what you read in the press. If someone has written about a trend and showed you the top 3 trend setting companies, it is already too late. Do not expect to be covered for the 1st 2 or 3 years of your life.

8) Don't do the .....of India. The ..... of India is ..... There is almost no merit in copy paste. Where there is a need to be local and there are barriers for foreign companies, you can enter.