Yes, but who said they buy it?

Continuation of the translation of the series of articles "5 lessons watching startups",
The last article These unfair competitive advantages

On hundreds of start-up pitches at Capital Factory, there were not a dozen people who would be ready to say "if you create this product, I will give you X dollars".


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Think about it : hundreds of people are ready to quit their permanent job, spend their savings, risk their personal reputation, work 70 hours a week, survive the same stress as the birth of a child (believe me, I experienced the birth of a child and startups) ... and All this despite the fact that there are not a few dozen people who are really ready to pay for what startupers offer.

Short sighted, isn't it?

If you can't find ten people who say they buy it, your company is crap.

Didn't every startup blogger on earth talk about this? Steve Blank (Steve Blank) says: "Exit the building." Eric Rice - “look for validated learning ” . Sean Elli says, “look for a niche for a product.” Drew Houston - “The only way to learn for free is to talk to people.”

I say: "Find ten people who say they will buy it." I say: "tear off your ass from the chair and accept the hard but obvious truth - customers are your way out into the hyperspace of future success."

But you still can not hear. You repeat these mantras from a start-up rallies, but do not perform them.

You, of course, are afraid to make a mistake , especially now that you have worked in this new business idea, and even more so after you have already told your friends and family what you are doing, and they expect you to successfully complete this quest.

But for God's sake, you are not even trying! And what's worse, you invent ridiculous excuses, why don't you try.

Transfer all the energy to the main power screens, I'm coming!

“I ate the dog in this matter. I myself am a target client, and I already know what to do. ”

Oh! I somehow didn’t understand how it could be that your target client is observant enough to determine the monetized problem areas, creative enough to create products, able to convince others to work for free with you and invest their money and time, and I am passionate about to the extent to quit their jobs and chase unverified ideas.

Uh, no! By definition, if you are the founder of a startup, you are definitely not a target client.

I ate a dog in all three areas in which I launched my companies, but this is only about launching . This is just a spark of inspiration, not a strategy. These are only grains of sand that you wash, but not golden sand.

Look, smart people say the same thing.

Use your product. Do it better according to your desires. But do not fool yourself that you are your user.
Evan Williams, founder of Blogger and Twitter

If the vice president of engineering thinks that the target user is him, you are doomed. If the vice president of engineering thinks that the target client is him, you are doomed.
Cranky product manager

Our clients have done a lot of things that I would never do. We think differently. We solve problems in different ways. We have different desires and needs. Repeat after me: you are not your client.
Eric Rice, Lean Startup leader, from a conversation with one startup founder

In fact, try to find me at least one real businessman who believes that the phrase “I myself am my client” is a necessary and sufficient condition for checking the market.

“There are millions of potential customers, so it’s not important what a dozen of them think there are. I just need to start, later I can look around and find out something statistically significant. ”

If there are indeed millions, it is very easy to find ten. If you cannot find even ten, then either these millions are not, or they are not interested in you.

Businesses do not start with millions of customers, they start with one, then ten, then a hundred, and then a thousand. But most do not overcome the mark of ten customers.

If you do not have a dozen of those who at least talk about a possible purchase, why do you arrogantly declare that thousands will actually buy?

“My clients will not understand prototypes. First I need to create a real product. ”

You don't need screenshots or presentations to convince someone in your target niche that you are doing something worthwhile. If your idea is so exotic that you cannot describe it in 30 seconds at a get-together in the evening, it is either too complex or you don’t understand it yourself.

Take me and the WP Engine. I found thirty people who told me that they would pay $ 50 a month for this service even before I had a company name, website, product, and co-founder, or even employees. And do not say that it is easy for me, because I have done it before - the whole truth is that I had other ideas that turned out to be bullshit.

Even if I admit that sometimes you need a prototype, and that some guys do not like prototypes, remember that your first clients, by definition, will be experimenters who are used to alpha versions. If you can not find a few of these and interest in their product, maybe your product is simply not interesting?

“I don’t rush into sales / marketing, so I have to build a product so cool that it sells itself”

The world is full of good products that do not make money. And you know it!

Oh, clearly, you want obvious evidence? Here is a list of Top100 Twitter clients, and another one .
So:
- How many of them, do you think, just work? (my guess: 80%)
- How many of them bring at least some revenue? (my guess: 5%)
- How many of them, do you think, bring enough profit, so that after hosting and marketing costs there is money left for a profitable company, where the founder would not need fulltime work? (my guess: <1%).
Conclusion: if your goal is a business (and not a hobby), then creating a charming, innovative software is not enough .

You and I know that we are capable of making a cool and new product. We agree that it will be cool and great. But so business is not created.

Writing code is what you like, so you decided short-sightedly that you would do it. But what you should do is the opposite: focus on the part of the business that you are least sure of, that you least understand.

If I still haven't convinced you, then think of it as risk management . In a large project, will you pay special attention to potential vulnerabilities, or will you ignore them to the end? Obviously, you will turn to such places first of all - most of the risks are connected with uncertainties, so the sooner you deal with them, the more time there will be to eliminate the consequences.

Here I urge to act the same way, the message is this: take care of everything except the code. Your code will be good enough, but there are a bunch of other things that may have sunk your ship - the inability to find customers, or the inability to convince the target audience to unzip their wallets and move money from there to you.

It makes no sense to postpone.

“My friend / brother / colleague / dentist thinks this is a great idea.”

Your mom thinks you're smart and beautiful, but that doesn't mean that I think so.

Do not care what non-entrepreneurs think, because they did not make a product for the market, squeezing juices from tiny budgets, and did not use Facebook for advertising, instead of like the next video, Farting Goat.

However, in fact, it matters little what real entrepreneurs think, because they are not experts in your subject area, they may have outdated advice, they can be opposed to certain ideas and technologies, and they judge from the position of their good and bad experience (depending on time and luck, like nothing else).

The only thing that makes sense is people who are ready to give you money. Business experts and coaches may find it all day that it makes no sense to sell shoes over the Internet, but as long as people pay Zappos $ 1 billion a year, absolutely don't give a shit what the experts say.

When ten people are really ready to give you money, if you make this thing, then it is worth the candle.