Can You Avoid the One Mistake Every Entrepreneur Makes?
When most entrepreneurs launch new businesses, they start by planning their products. They begin this way because they’re used to seeing slick new apps and cool new services launched by other companies and believe the product is the most important part of a business. But your product isn’t as important as you think it is.
It’s an understandable mistake. As entrepreneurs, when we have a great experience with a new product we can’t help but think, “What can I create that people are going to love as much as I love this?” That thought makes us want to build something. We may not know what to build, but we’re certain we need to be building.
You have to learn to shove that thought aside. Lock it away in the deepest recesses of your brain and ignore it. Disregard everything you’ve read about lean startups, and forget every time you’ve heard someone tell you startups “move fast and break things.” That stuff isn’t inherently wrong (or right), but it definitely isn’t the first step toward building a successful startup.
Instead, the first thing you have to do when launching a startup is identify a valuable market opportunity.
What is a market opportunity?
The simplest way to imagine a market opportunity is through the following equation:
