Most of us in business understand the importance of customer research -- the importance of getting out of the building and talking to people who will be engaged users, paying customers --and if we do a good job with the product-- the best advocates. We decided to augment our customer development efforts with an unconventional experiment.

We spent a couple of days out on the streets of San Francisco-- at local coffee shops, at bus stops, and at the Caltrain station. We would walk up to someone, ask if they have a couple of minutes to chat so that we can tell them about our startup, test a 15-second pitch, and ask if they would sign up.

Takeaways: 1) Spending a few days on the streets, especially if you are building a consumer product, is a great way to get some instant feedback on your messaging from a diverse demographic. 2) Asking someone to do us a favor was the best way to initiate conversation with your average passerby. The benefit of being a startup is that you are always the David to a Goliath and so people will inherently support you and even consider being solicited to as doing you a “favor”. As active participants in helping us build a better company, their voice was not only being heard but also instrumental in determining the future of our product. 3) If you can’t convey what you do and why it is interesting in 20 seconds, converting your audience to sign up gets exponentially harder by the second -- very important for messaging and copywriting. 4) Finally, if you have a chance encounter with a celebrity, especially one who invests in startups and bears a striking resemblance to Steve Jobs, don’t hesitate to walk up and introduce your startup.

I am the co-founder of Bright Funds (www.brightfunds.org). We have rethought the charitable giving experience and created a service that helps people connect to the causes that matter to them. If you have a moment, please check out brightfunds.org