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I really like this post. The one thing I feel it's missing is the major step of vetting an idea. Is it WORTH doing? I literally get cold emails every day fro

I really like this post. The one thing I feel it's missing is the major step of vetting an idea. Is it WORTH doing? I literally get cold emails every day from entrepreneurs who say, "I've spent a big chunk of my life building this thing and none of the ways I've found to acquire customers is working in a scalable way" (they generally don't word it that way, but you get the gist). It's gut-wrenching. Maybe that's a different post, but if you're building a startup for growth, you could be running that company for years (remember, avg. time to liquidity for a venture-backed startup is 8.7 years!). You should be careful to chase ideas that aren't merely viable but GREAT market opportunities (or at least products/markets that you LOVE). It's easier to swim downstream.

jasonlbaptiste 16y ago
I'm working on the vetting an idea post for OnStartups. It's a huge topic and a very important one. A lot of entrepreneurs seem to vet their idea like VCs. The criteria is somewhat similar, but it's not the best way to go about it. We're talking vetting an idea internally before even going after simple MVP/customer validation, correct?
- webwright 16y ago
  Yep-- vetting the idea/market. (verbal) Customer validation can be a part of that, I imagine. I think you're right-- it's a big topic and people have radically different frameworks ranging from "I just want some side income" to "I eventually want my own island". The biggest thing that seems to trip people up is figuring out (before they build it!) if there's a way to scalably acquire customers. Unless people have a well-understood distribution channel they can tap and an ARPU obviously high enough to buy customers through it, entrepreneurs generally have to hustle (sell 1 customer at a time, beg for coverage, write targeted linkbait, etc). And hustling doesn't scale. Hell, with some products/markets, it doesn't work at all.

jasonlbaptiste 16y ago

I'm working on the vetting an idea post for OnStartups. It's a huge topic and a very important one. A lot of entrepreneurs seem to vet their idea like VCs. The criteria is somewhat similar, but it's not the best way to go about it. We're talking vetting an idea internally before even going after simple MVP/customer validation, correct?

webwright 16y ago
Yep-- vetting the idea/market. (verbal) Customer validation can be a part of that, I imagine. I think you're right-- it's a big topic and people have radically different frameworks ranging from "I just want some side income" to "I eventually want my own island". The biggest thing that seems to trip people up is figuring out (before they build it!) if there's a way to scalably acquire customers. Unless people have a well-understood distribution channel they can tap and an ARPU obviously high enough to buy customers through it, entrepreneurs generally have to hustle (sell 1 customer at a time, beg for coverage, write targeted linkbait, etc). And hustling doesn't scale. Hell, with some products/markets, it doesn't work at all.