In this episode of The Unconventional Path: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Stories and Ideas, hosts Bela Musits and Mike Wasserman sit down with Laure Mandin, the founder of the product launch agency Graphos. Laure is also the author of the insightful new book, I Need That, which explores the high-stakes world of product marketing and the science behind successful product introductions.

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Launching a new product or service is the lifeblood of any growing company, yet many entrepreneurs underestimate the immense challenges involved. Laure explains that the primary reason most new products fail isn’t that they are "bad" ideas, but rather that they aren’t "great" enough to overcome the status quo. This episode dives deep into the "10X Reality"—the psychological and mathematical threshold that a product must meet to gain true market traction.

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• The Go-To-Market Roadmap: Laure discusses how Graphos helps innovators de-risk their launches by creating a guide book for navigating challenges and maximizing the likelihood of success.

• The Planning Fallacy: Entrepreneurs often fall victim to "unrealistic optimism," overstating potential gains while underestimating the time and budget required to reach the market.+1

• The 10X Rule: While many believe a product only needs to be twice as good as the competition, Laure argues it must be 10 times better to overcome the "pain of change" for consumers.+2

• The Psychology of the Status Quo: Consumers typically overvalue their current solutions by at least three times, while innovators overvalue their new benefits by three times—creating a nine-fold imbalance that only a 10X improvement can break.+2

• Case Studies in Innovation: From the iPhone to Tesla, learn why these products succeeded by blowing the status quo out of the water rather than offering marginal improvements.

Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting to develop your first prototype, Laure’s perspective on product marketing and the introduction of new products will change how you view your go-to-market strategy.

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Laure Mandin is a Canadian innovation expert and the founder of Graphos. Through his agency and his book, I Need That, he provides entrepreneurs with the tactics and roadmaps necessary to bridge the gap between a great idea and a market-leading product.

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Thanks for listening,

Bela and Mike

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