The Single Most Important Startup Lesson: How to Perform Inception on Your Customers

In a startup, just like with inception, you must begin with the most basic value your business creates

I used to be a movie buff, but as a young dad, movies are a luxury I can no longer afford. Luckily my friend, Fayadh, recently got me to re-watch Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”. In the movie, an inception is the act of planting an idea into someone’s mind such that they believe it is their own. Starting a business is very much like inception, often times you must convince the customer that they chose to purchase your goods because they realized it’s good for them.

In a startup, just like with inception, you must start with the most basic value your business creates

But convincing people that what you are selling is great is a challenge. Lucky, Tom Hardy, offers the secret to planting an idea into someone’s mind (see video above): “You need the simplest…