The traditional way of starting a business is to:
- Come up with an idea
- Register the domain name
- Go to LegalZoom and register the company
- Stealthily and covertly build a product
- Launch the product to fanfare and advertising
- Wonder why nobody is beating your door down
- Do some market surveys to find out why you are not selling
- Take that feedback and pivot the product and company
- If you have any cash left over, get traction and grow
The Lean Startup Movement works in somewhat reverse order:
- Do some market surveys to find out what people need and want
- Get some commitments from people before you build anything
- Build an MVP (or even better, a paper prototype)
- Test your concept with those early adopters
- Take that feedback and iterate the product
- Once money comes in, go to LegalZoom and register the company
- Register the domain name based on how the brand has evolved
How do you do market survey?
- Get a list of names, preferably from warm introductions
- Create an event – happy hour plus instructional “how to” content
- See how many people RSVP to the event
- See how many people actually show up to the event
- During the event, poll people on their problems and needs
- Based on the raise of hands, suggest some solutions
- Solicit solutions from the audience
- See how many people are willing to commit to be testers or first customers
- See how many people are willing to pre-pay to get first in line
Ideally, you will get enough people to show a serious sign of commitment and perhaps even put their money where their mouth is so you don’t have to have to get investors or invest a ton of your own money into the product.
That, in a nutshell, is Lean Startup.
