So you have a business
idea? DON’T just do it!
Text: Matic Jesenovec
LC Ljubljana
Photographs: Web
20 years ago rockstars ruled the
world and if you were in a band you
were the coolest kid in the block. Today it seems that entrepreneurs are
the new rockstars and instead of a
band you have a startup.
However, the word startup often
seems to be misunderstood. It’s not
just about having a business or being
your own boss. It’s really about having an idea. An idea that no one else
had before.
By the de?nition of Steve Blank, the
father of the lean startup methodology, a startup is a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, pro?table business model. Does
that make sense? Every app is not
quite yet a startup. A hairdressing salon is also usually not a startup. Startup means you’re starting something
new, something no one has tried before. And you have to make a business out of it.
Are we a bit more clear about what a
startup is now? And you still want to
do it? Great, then stay with me and
we’ll go through the ?rst steps you
should make.
What happens very often to us, engineers, is that we become extremely
excited about our techy idea. We plan
to ?nish it in a month, actually ?nish it in
5 months, we show it to a friend who
thinks it’s amazing but it lacks a few
features, we close ourself in the room
53
for another 3 months, implement all
the features and, bam, we’re done
before you could say… oh, wait, no,
we just spent almost a year to build
something no one wants to use. Yes,
it’s a very common problem - the idea
seems brilliant to you, but in this admiration you might be - forever alone.
Now let’s look at the right way to build
a product. Before you do ANY coding,
go stand in front of a whiteboard for a
while and think it through, draw some
mockups, sketch some diagrams,
think who your potential customers
are, etc. As your idea is getting more
clear, open Google and search the
web. Find if there’s anything similar
on the market, ?nd out why your idea
is better.
Next comes the scariest part, but
since we’re EESTECers, this shouldn’t
be a problem - by now you should
have a general idea about who your
ideal customers would be, now get
out of your dark room and talk to
them! But be careful, give them as little info about your idea as possible.
People are nice, therefore they will lie
to you because they won’t tell you in
your face that your idea sucks. Ask
them questions that, when answered,
could kill or completely change your
idea. Never seek for approval and ignore compliments. Don’t talk about
opinions and ideas, talk about their
life as it is, try to ?gure out how they’re
currently solving the problem that
your product will solve. I strongly suggest you to read The mom test by
Rob Fitzpatrick. It’s a short book and
it explains in details how not to screw
up your customer interviews.
Now you understand your customers
and their problems, so it’s ?nally time
to start building, right? Yep! But not
the product yet. What you should do
now is to put up a landing page and