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My startup validation process

neilcocker.com

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Re: My startup validation process

#41

Post by caseysoftware »

rexreed wrote: post #34

The reason why most startups don't start this way is because many successful founders have an intuitive understanding for what the problem is and what the right solution should look like. And the reason why they are successful is because they are right. The reason why unsuccessful startups fail is many, but for many they don't have product-market fit. The reason they don't have product-market fit is because they star…

> The reason why most startups don't start this way is because many successful founders have an intuitive understanding for what the problem is and what the right solution should look like. And the reason why they are successful is because they are right.

And the reason why the fail is because they're often wrong.

It's exceptionally rare that v1 is right and targeted at the right markets and positioned right and priced right. If $hours of talking with potential customers saves weeks or even months of wasted time, money, and effort, the ROI is easy.

Re: My startup validation process

#42

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

rexreed wrote: post #34

The reason why most startups don't start this way is because many successful founders have an intuitive understanding for what the problem is and what the right solution should look like. And the reason why they are successful is because they are right. The reason why unsuccessful startups fail is many, but for many they don't have product-market fit. The reason they don't have product-market fit is because they star…

>The reason they don't have product-market fit is because they start with a solution and look for a problem.

I agree. Understanding the importance of solving the right problem i.e. the problem with enough need gap that people are willing to pay for getting it solved and of course the problem which we want ourselves to be solved played a huge role in me building successful products later on.

So, I'm building needgap[1] a problem validation platform where problems are the first class citizens. Posts are created by the consumers(incl. entrepreneurs) who have a problem, want to find a solution for their problem, check if others share the same problem, however small the problem might be[3]. Builders can post their products in the comments if it solves that particular problem or else discuss with others to create a product to solve that problem(There are couple of products built/being built for problems from needgap).

I'm not saying I've solved the issue of validating problems, far from it. I think I now have a direction towards understanding the 'language, grammar of problems and startup ideas' which might one day result in making validation easier.

[1]https://needgap.com

Re: My startup validation process

#43

Post by richard_g »

Simple idea that can't be repeated enough times: you don't convince customers to want your product. You show them how it solves a problem that they care about.

The simplest form of validation is to sell something to a few people. If you can do that you have some proof of a problem to be solved, and you usually get questions along the way that can help you develop the idea further.

Re: My startup validation process

#44

Post by rexreed »

twox2 wrote: post #38
NeilRamp wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we might have a slightly different understanding of validation. For me, really understanding the problem, and how your product solves that, is validation. You say nail and hammer, and I say key and lock... ;-)

I think validation is more about whether or not someone will pay for your solution than if it actually solves the problem or not. Sounds like the same thing, but it's not really.

That's correct. You might have invented the "better mousetrap" but no one might want it. Product, yes, market no. You don't validate the solution, you validate the market. The market fit is the solution fit with the market, not that you have a solution that the market doesn't want.

Re: My startup validation process

#45

Post by hbcondo714 »

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #42
rexreed wrote: post #34

The reason why most startups don't start this way is because many successful founders have an intuitive understanding for what the problem is and what the right solution should look like. And the reason why they are successful is because they are right. The reason why unsuccessful startups fail is many, but for many they don't have product-market fit. The reason they don't have product-market fit is because they star…

>The reason they don't have product-market fit is because they start with a solution and look for a problem. I agree. Understanding the importance of solving the right problem i.e. the problem with enough need gap that people are willing to pay for getting it solved and of course the problem which we want ourselves to be solved played a huge role in me building successful products later on. So, I'm building needgap[1…

Looks nice, kinda like HN.

Re: My startup validation process

#46

Post by randomsearch »

NeilRamp wrote: post #25
randomsearch wrote: post #20

Probably drop the surveys and replace them with a sign up page. Surveys are low quality. Individual conversations will tell you more, and a sign up page requires action / intent (you can raise the bar as high as you like to increase confidence).

Yes, surveys are low quality. But personally I find that if they're well designed then you'll get more data out of them than you would a sign-up page. And there are always plenty of people out there who are happy to do an anonymous survey, but not give you their email address. Sometimes that's the best data. You would miss that with asign-up page.

If they don't want to give you an email address, they don't care about your product. That's great feedback that the hypothesis is wrong.

Re: My startup validation process

#47

Post by baxtr »

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #42
rexreed wrote: post #34

The reason why most startups don't start this way is because many successful founders have an intuitive understanding for what the problem is and what the right solution should look like. And the reason why they are successful is because they are right. The reason why unsuccessful startups fail is many, but for many they don't have product-market fit. The reason they don't have product-market fit is because they star…

>The reason they don't have product-market fit is because they start with a solution and look for a problem. I agree. Understanding the importance of solving the right problem i.e. the problem with enough need gap that people are willing to pay for getting it solved and of course the problem which we want ourselves to be solved played a huge role in me building successful products later on. So, I'm building needgap[1…

I really like the site. At the same time I think you could optimize comment display. I don’t understand who is replying to whom. How are Threads sorted? Super confusing. Just copy HN, done. And: I don’t get how the front page items are sorted. By activity?!

Re: My startup validation process

#48

Post by baxtr »

rexreed wrote: post #34

The reason why most startups don't start this way is because many successful founders have an intuitive understanding for what the problem is and what the right solution should look like. And the reason why they are successful is because they are right. The reason why unsuccessful startups fail is many, but for many they don't have product-market fit. The reason they don't have product-market fit is because they star…

Agreed. And then again: which problem did the iPhone solve exactly?

Re: My startup validation process

#49

Post by cloogshicer »

pabe wrote: post #6

It's a good start! You might want to take a look into the books "Business Model Generation" and "Running Lean" (and follow-ups for both). The first one comes out of science and is the state of the art tool to reason about your business. The second roughly follows a similar approach but tries to be even more practical. Both companies also provide digital tools and I'm thinking about building one, too. Hey, we can take…

I read Business Model Generation and found it super hand-wavy and not very helpful/actionable at all. YMMV but I really disliked it.

Re: My startup validation process

#50

Post by tchock23 »

this2shallPass wrote: post #31
tchock23 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll summarize the book in one sentence so you don’t have to read it: ‘When talking to customers, ask about their current behaviors rather than hypotheticals (e.g., ‘would you buy this’).’ I have 20 years of experience in conducting customer discovery interviews professionally, so I found the information in the book to be incredibly simplistic and sometimes misleading or incorrect. I get frustrated every time I see i…

What information in The Mom Test would you say is misleading or incorrect?

As one, he says surveys are 100% useless, which is not entirely correct (there is a time/place for them).

Second, he says customer interviews must be face to face to be valuable. That is patently false, and even dangerous. In a face to face setting many people feel social pressure to conform and there is a strong interviewer bias. A mix of in-person and online methods is essential to get an unbiased read.

I’m on vacation right now, otherwise I’d spend the timing outlining my many criticisms of the book...

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