Alisha Overton shares the kind of lessons that are often learned only after spending significant time and money building a product.
Her experience developing the AO Planner offers practical insights into several challenges nearly every founder faces:
- “If you build it, they will come” is a myth. A good product is not enough. Founders need to talk with customers, identify the right audience, and learn how to reach them effectively.
- Niche down before trying to scale. Alisha moved from targeting entrepreneurs, to administrative professionals generally, to focusing specifically on C-suite executive assistants. That sharper focus helped clarify the product, messaging, and market.
- Test before perfecting. She used her network to find early beta users and improve the planner based on their feedback rather than trying to perfect everything before launch.
- Know when to pivot. Founders naturally become attached to their original ideas. Alisha explains why evidence from customers should matter more than attachment to the original plan.
- Solve a problem you understand deeply. Her ideal customer ultimately became someone much like herself, a C-suite executive assistant dealing with complex schedules, meetings, projects, notes, and information.
- Stability can matter more than premature scaling. Alisha is candid about still learning sales and marketing and emphasizes building a stable business before focusing heavily on scale.
Perhaps the most valuable reason to watch is Alisha’s perspective on failure. She encourages founders to “do it scared,” learn quickly, change direction when necessary, and use failure as fuel rather than a reason to stop.
It’s a useful conversation for founders who are moving from an idea they believe in to a product customers will actually buy.
About Alish Overton
Alisha Overton is the Founder and CEO of The AO Planner Company and a veteran administrative professional with more than two decades of experience supporting executives. She created the AO Planner to give executive assistants and administrative professionals a streamlined system for managing schedules, meetings, priorities, notes, and ideas.