My Startup Journey, Pt.2: Idea Validation
If you haven’t read it already, you can find part one of this blog here.
Immediately I went home to jot down what I thought an idea like this would look like. After getting into my apartment, I ran to the only whiteboard I had and began making crude mockups. Would it be a feed? How would people actually interact with the deals? Would the deals be display only? I gave myself a few minutes and came up with a first pass at a mockup:
Is this something you’d use? Me either. But it was important to get a general idea down, and was enough to start my thought process of how I could improve the concept. At least now I had a visual to help me explain my idea to people who might not understand right away. And so, I set out asking friends and family about it.
Some good, some bad, and some ugly
Who was the first person I asked for the idea? That would be the only person who was present at the time of the idea. My fiance, Devon. My enthusiasm was beyond palpable:
“It could be anything! Anything! Not just restaurants! We could do local deals for large companies, small companies, different industries, you name it! Ohhh, and imagine how simple it would be to decide where you wanted to go….it would be great!”
I hijacked the conversation. I didn’t stop talking for about 15 minutes. Thankfully instead of being bored and annoyed, she was enthusiastic and supportive. And genuinely thought it was a good idea. And trust me, she lets me know if she thinks it won’t pan out. Lovingly so, of course.
The next set of people were family members and friends. All of which said they would use the app if it existed. So naturally I felt confident. I viewed this as a step in the right direction.
Next people I brought it to were my developer friends. I met up with a couple of them and told my idea enthusiastically, anticipating they would all be on board for building the app and would be interested in starting right away. After giving my entire idea to them up to that point, all the anticipation culminated into a single moment offering a single statement:
“I dunno, seems like too much work.”
Hmm. This was a letdown. The friends I anticipated would be most interested in the idea were actually…indifferent. They thought the idea was decent, but the work involved was too much. I figured if I didn’t capture their interest well then, maybe, it wasn’t the best thing to pursue. This raised some serious issues for me up to this point, and I decided that maybe it would be best if I were to cool down on the idea and maybe just put it to rest. But there was a voice inside my head that kept telling me I shouldn’t let this slip away. At this point, I was conflicted.
A few days later, my friend contacted me. He knew I had been trying to get an app built months prior to this idea, and asked me how that was going. I told him I’d tabled that idea and had been enthusiastic about another idea I’d had. I continued, telling him that my newest idea would likely not happen either because though it seemed promising, nobody was enthusiastic in helping me make it happen. I told him my idea as well. This conversation changed everything for me.
“Oh that sounds a lot like Hooked! Yeah, it’s an app that was released here at the University of Michigan last semester, I think. People really love it.”
And with merely a couple sentences, my friend killed my dreams. Or so I thought. After telling him that, he quickly continued:
“Your idea is not quite what they have, and actually I think your idea is a bit better! If anything, you should see this as validation for your concept. If something similar is doing well and you see where they’re lacking, then you have a real ability to capitalize on that.”
And then my rollercoaster ride of stay or go was over. My friend had convinced me that something was there. That this idea was in fact an idea that could succeed. And as a user, my friend could tell me what ideas I had would compete with an existing app in the exact same space.
I’d made up my mind. I was going to build this. And I was going to make it great.
Interested in knowing more? Be sure to stay up-to-date with @kevinstachura and my startup company, @rapidlyapp, on Twitter.
