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I think you make excellent points. But "PG as the test of their company's viability" is because PG is a gatekeeper. "but rather, how much a poorly crafted val

by larrys 14y ago

I think you make excellent points. But "PG as the test of their company's viability" is because PG is a gatekeeper. "but rather, how much a poorly crafted value proposition or explanation of your product can instantly and quickly turn off your customers." People have to be able to understand what you are saying. You can't confuse them or give them big words or concepts. Ironically PG isn't really a good filter for this because he is so high level. If you are selling to a pizza shop owner most likely they didn't go to Harvard and their brain isn't wired the way PG's is. OTOH a concept that the pizza owner understands can be understood by PG as well. One of the things I always suggest (for researching business ideas) is to run stuff by "normals". Whether it be people at the train platform, Starbucks, or Walmart to use as additional intel and data points.

rexreed 14y ago
It ALWAYS makes sense to run your idea by the people who are living with the problem or feeling the pain firsthand. As smart, talented, experienced, and helpful as PG is, for many (tho not all) of the problems that entrepeneurs claim to solve, he doesn't live that pain or understand it. While PG may be able to understand at a conceptual level the pain points of a pizza shop owner, he probably hasn't felt the pain to know what pizza shop owners really struggle with. What is truly necessary versus a "nice to have". Isn't the whole concept of the Lean Startup and the Customer Development methodology to test your idea with "normals" and not proxies, no matter how influential or gatekeeper they might be? If YCombinator and PG didn't exist, how would you do it? Let's order some pizza!
- forensic 14y ago
  To some extent, the startup scene is about high valuations, making the investor the customer. The filters that gatekeepers and valuators use are very hackable. Is it easier to hack a gatekeeper's filter, or to make an awesome product? I suppose it depends on your skill-set. One can reasonably estimate that some double digit percentage of funded startups are where they are because they were designed to appeal to investors and receive high valuations.

by larrys 14y ago

rexreed 14y ago

It ALWAYS makes sense to run your idea by the people who are living with the problem or feeling the pain firsthand. As smart, talented, experienced, and helpful as PG is, for many (tho not all) of the problems that entrepeneurs claim to solve, he doesn't live that pain or understand it. While PG may be able to understand at a conceptual level the pain points of a pizza shop owner, he probably hasn't felt the pain to know what pizza shop owners really struggle with. What is truly necessary versus a "nice to have". Isn't the whole concept of the Lean Startup and the Customer Development methodology to test your idea with "normals" and not proxies, no matter how influential or gatekeeper they might be? If YCombinator and PG didn't exist, how would you do it? Let's order some pizza!

forensic 14y ago
To some extent, the startup scene is about high valuations, making the investor the customer. The filters that gatekeepers and valuators use are very hackable. Is it easier to hack a gatekeeper's filter, or to make an awesome product? I suppose it depends on your skill-set. One can reasonably estimate that some double digit percentage of funded startups are where they are because they were designed to appeal to investors and receive high valuations.