Watching Dave McClure‘s presentation today, I started to think about how a lot of the lean startup and customer development folks talk about creating the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Release Early / Release Often, Product / Market Fit, Pivoting, etc., etc., but there’s very little talk about choosing your market or your product strategically. (At least not that I’ve noticed, feel free to correct me.) I’d like to read that blog post.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – Spend less on creating your product, therefore you are risking less time and money on a bad product.
Release Early / Release Often – Learn in small increments, therefore you are risking less time and money on a bad product.
Product / Market Fit – Either change your product to fit the market or choose a different market for your product before you start spending money on marketing, therefore you are risking less time and money on a bad product.
Pivoting – If you have a bad product, change it to something else.
Our mission is to provide real-world entrepreneurial experience that empowers youth from under-resourced communities to excel in education, lead in their communities, and succeed professionally.
If you count Mom and Pop shops, the average entrepreneurial venture requires about $25k in startup cash. Talking to Web 2.0 guys, it seems like everyone is out to raise a couple million to put their plans into action and pay their salaries during early stage growth. I was particularly struck by this article and Nivi’s responses which state you should raise “As much as possible“. I’ve also been advised more than once that I should look to add people to our advisory board who can introduce us to sources of possible funding (in other words: VCs and Angels). For better or worse, we’re bootstrapping for now.
A couple of things have led us to this decision and an understanding of when we’re going to have to change our minds.
If you have a cup of coffee every day, you’re not actually more awake and aware than if you didn’t have any caffeine at all.