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I feel this story demonstrates one of the "emotional vulnerabilities" of Lean Startup/MVP movement. You're going to crank a product out and then you expose it

by nhashem 14y ago

I feel this story demonstrates one of the "emotional vulnerabilities" of Lean Startup/MVP movement. You're going to crank a product out and then you expose it -- whether it's deliberately marketing it, pitching it to investors, showing it to friends, etc. You expect to hear something back like, "great concept, bad implementation," and so you just gradually improve the implementation until people stop thinking it's bad. But sometimes you'll hear, "terrible concept, so I don't even care about the implementation," and that can be very demoralizing. Really, it should be taken as, "your implementation is so bad that I don't get the concept," which requires the same iterations of "improve the implementation." But it's too easy to basically just hear, "you guys don't know what the hell you're talking about so why don't you stop wasting everyone's time, including your own." As we so often quote to ourselves: "your startup idea idea is worthless by itself." But that's not entirely true. Startup ideas indeed have no value to anyone by themselves. But they must have worth to the startup founder, because without that burning desire to solve that particular problem, how can a startup founder have the mental fortitude to persevere when their first iterations get very negative feedback?

wpietri 14y ago
This guy was not doing the Lean Startup thing, not in my view. The only person who's opinion counts is the customer. And the only signal that really matters is whether they give you money. And then keep giving you money. Showing things to "experts" and then quitting because people rain on your parade has been going on since the beginning of time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_v_ubcYsTI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_v_ubcYsTI Having been a judge at some of the Lean Startup Machine events, I think it's very important for participants to learn take criticism somewhat lightly. One should never disregard the observations or concerns that people raise, but one shouldn't believe them outright either. Being an entrepreneur means seeing an opportunity nobody else has noticed, so naturally 90% of the people you talk to will think your idea is dumb or uninteresting. You just have to learn to sift out the valuable bits and come to your own conclusions.
- choxi 14y ago
  that's a really good point -- I was thinking myself how you'd consolidate this with being lean and I think you articulated the difference very well
stephengillie 14y ago
For me at least, the "fail early, fail often" philosophy builds up the emotional scars to get over being emotionally vulnerable. Secondly: so what if that guy doesn't like the bunch of words I typed into an IDE. If he's not going to help me make software he likes, he's wasting my time.

by nhashem 14y ago

wpietri 14y ago

This guy was not doing the Lean Startup thing, not in my view. The only person who's opinion counts is the customer. And the only signal that really matters is whether they give you money. And then keep giving you money. Showing things to "experts" and then quitting because people rain on your parade has been going on since the beginning of time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_v_ubcYsTI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_v_ubcYsTI Having been a judge at some of the Lean Startup Machine events, I think it's very important for participants to learn take criticism somewhat lightly. One should never disregard the observations or concerns that people raise, but one shouldn't believe them outright either. Being an entrepreneur means seeing an opportunity nobody else has noticed, so naturally 90% of the people you talk to will think your idea is dumb or uninteresting. You just have to learn to sift out the valuable bits and come to your own conclusions.

choxi 14y ago
that's a really good point -- I was thinking myself how you'd consolidate this with being lean and I think you articulated the difference very well

stephengillie 14y ago

For me at least, the "fail early, fail often" philosophy builds up the emotional scars to get over being emotionally vulnerable. Secondly: so what if that guy doesn't like the bunch of words I typed into an IDE. If he's not going to help me make software he likes, he's wasting my time.