Of hundreds of startup pitches I've heard, almost none had unearthed ten people willing to say, "If you build this product, I'll give you $X."
Meditate on this: Hundreds of people ready to quit their day jobs, burn up savings, risk personal reputation, toil 70 hours per week, absorb as much stress as having a baby (believe me, I've done both).... all without identifying even ten people actually willing to pay for what they're peddling. Short-sighted, no? If you can't find ten people who say they'll buy, your company is dead before it starts.
"There are millions of potential customers, so it doesn't matter what only ten of them think. I need to just start; later I can survey and learn something statistically significant."
If there are millions, it's trivial to find ten. If you can't find even ten, then either there's not millions or those millions aren't interested in you. Businesses don't start with millions of customers, they start with one, then ten, then a hundred, and then a thousand. But most don't get past ten. If you haven't gotten ten to at least say they'll buy, where do you get your hubris to proclaim that thousands actually will buy?
5 Lessons from 150 Startup Pitches
Meditate on this: Hundreds of people ready to quit their day jobs, burn up savings, risk personal reputation, toil 70 hours per week, absorb as much stress as having a baby (believe me, I've done both).... all without identifying even ten people actually willing to pay for what they're peddling. Short-sighted, no? If you can't find ten people who say they'll buy, your company is dead before it starts.
"There are millions of potential customers, so it doesn't matter what only ten of them think. I need to just start; later I can survey and learn something statistically significant."
If there are millions, it's trivial to find ten. If you can't find even ten, then either there's not millions or those millions aren't interested in you. Businesses don't start with millions of customers, they start with one, then ten, then a hundred, and then a thousand. But most don't get past ten. If you haven't gotten ten to at least say they'll buy, where do you get your hubris to proclaim that thousands actually will buy?
5 Lessons from 150 Startup Pitches
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