Test your idea not the application; the first thing to do before you build your startup.
It’s the era of startups, and everybody seems to be solving a problem for user these days. 70–80 % of startups fail, this is not a fresh news. But the startups never fail on the first day or may be the first month.
You might be having your friends support today, and you feel it to be really cool to have an empire of yourself, you are planning to rule the world and you have a great idea that will definitely make you rich.
In several conversations with startup people, whenever I ask for their value proposition, their one liners sound impressive (yes, they literally research a lot to make that one liner sound impressive) but as the conversation progresses their inclination divides to several areas and seem like a mix of several ideas and probably they don’t realize it.
Such startups never have a successful graph with time. (Sorry for breaking your heart!)
10 bad news for startup people and you should grab a notebook to make a few notes
- Untested ideas will fail your tested product too
If you are making a building and haven’t the first brick correctly it will fall definitely. A product is made successful with a successful idea not the other way around. Spend more time researching about your idea and keep surveying people, if they found it clicking or not.
- Started execution without MVP? “Hitting arrow in the dark”
MVP is very important if you want to estimate “when you will get users?” MVP (minimum viable product) tells about the features that make your product ready to be used by the users and seem to be solving their problems which is acting as business behind the whole application. MVP helps you decide a decent amount of features that can all together make your first release. So if you are not clear about your idea, you will not be able to make a MVP either. And in the end you will not be able to estimate when you will be going live in the market.
- No core product team? No product success
You are spending time build a team even before having a stable idea or plan. And they are not the people who are aligned to your idea but here for the money. Now you end up spending time in training them so that they think just like you. No, that is never going to happen. When you finally realized you have wasted your time, you start to outsource your work, that’s another mistake. If God is with you might find someone who is working as an outsourced but is able to think and work like you. (Rare chances!)
- “Everybody in our team is contributing to the product”, overwhelming unity will doom your product
It feels good to hear but not right in the practical world. Everybody in the team must contribute and think about the product but should stay in the verticals they work. They must contribute or even do their best for the role they are playing in the team. And if you are looking for a team to help you improve your idea and add more value to it then trust me it was not having value at all. Team must help you implement it and better than before but not change the idea itself.
- Started pitching to investors too early is the reason behind your idea rejection.
Getting really excited like “I have the power!!!” but wait, where is the competitor analysis, pitch deck, market research, business plan, ROI plan and blah blah. Pitching to investors without end to end research makes them frustrated and they will definitely go to Linkedin to write mess about you without telling about you.
- Trying to build a team and expecting them to work for free
You will never get anything for free today, then why think of someone else to give in their effort for free. I feel really depressed when some CEOs try to manipulate people and show them dreams of having name, money and luxuries “someday when the startup gets successful”. That day never comes. If you are a true entrepreneur, you will think of building a team not a bunch of people who are just working for you. If you are able to find people who can build a product around your idea, you must respect their effort. If you are not in a stage of paying a team, don’t have a team at all. Switch back to the above point, that’s what you need.
- Oh is their a domain or industry relation?
People don’t know in which domain or industry their product will fall which is really stupid. If you know your idea well, it’s complete ! You can tell the domain too. And if you know the domain, you will know where you will find your users and where you have to promote.
- “No we are the only ones who are building a product on this idea”
Really sorry for breaking your heart, but trust me you must realize about the truth. I will really recommend startup people to stay updated with Product Hunt to have an early analysis of their idea.
- Right now we are struggling we will achieve next year or may be next to next year
We all have heard about, it is now or never. Plan for today and once you succeed with it then you can plan for tomorrow. And your idea analysis is what plays an important role here.
- Good UI/UX is not the only factor you need to sail your ship.
UI/UX pleases the eyes and your brain too, but what if the flow is missing or may be the features are not able to make a place in the user’s routine how you will generate revenue. Infact your first attempt of investing so much on UI/UX will also go in vain.
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Got some thoughts over the topic? Feel free to comment.
