1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,030 - You've got your idea, you're starting 2 00:00:04,030 --> 00:00:07,030 to build that first product, 3 00:00:07,030 --> 00:00:10,080 and as you're starting to build the first product, 4 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:11,080 it's very early. 5 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:14,030 It kind of doesn't work very well, 6 00:00:14,030 --> 00:00:16,020 you've got some ideas about it, 7 00:00:16,020 --> 00:00:19,020 it's really a proof of concept or a prototype, 8 00:00:19,020 --> 00:00:21,060 not a complete product. 9 00:00:21,060 --> 00:00:24,040 The neat thing about a proof of concept 10 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,000 is that that proof of concept is something 11 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,060 you can show people and take a lot of risk with. 12 00:00:30,060 --> 00:00:33,030 If you show people that early version, 13 00:00:33,030 --> 00:00:35,080 you can get their feedback on that early version 14 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:38,090 well before it turns into something more significant. 15 00:00:38,090 --> 00:00:40,060 One of the challenges I think for a lot 16 00:00:40,060 --> 00:00:42,000 of startups is that they try to come 17 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:44,040 out with a complete product before 18 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:45,090 anybody really sees it. 19 00:00:45,090 --> 00:00:47,020 And there's some large companies 20 00:00:47,020 --> 00:00:50,090 that have created this as their business process. 21 00:00:50,090 --> 00:00:53,030 Apple is a great example of it. 22 00:00:53,030 --> 00:00:55,030 Apple has this huge launch event 23 00:00:55,030 --> 00:00:57,010 and it's very exciting, and everybody 24 00:00:57,010 --> 00:00:59,010 has all this drama around it, and nobody 25 00:00:59,010 --> 00:01:00,060 really knows what they're going to come out with. 26 00:01:00,060 --> 00:01:02,060 It's kind of the opposite of what you should 27 00:01:02,060 --> 00:01:05,040 be doing at the very beginning of your business. 28 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:06,080 What you want to do is you want to get 29 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:10,000 that proof of concept, that sort of crumby, 30 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,060 not quite ready for primetime thing 31 00:01:12,060 --> 00:01:15,020 that demonstrates what you're product's going to be. 32 00:01:15,020 --> 00:01:18,010 And you want to get it into customers' hands. 33 00:01:18,010 --> 00:01:19,090 Maybe before you get it into customers' hands, 34 00:01:19,090 --> 00:01:21,060 you want to give it to your friends. 35 00:01:21,060 --> 00:01:22,070 And you want to give it to friends who 36 00:01:22,070 --> 00:01:23,070 are going to actually tell you 37 00:01:23,070 --> 00:01:26,010 what's good about it and what sucks about it. 38 00:01:26,010 --> 00:01:27,020 What you don't want is you don't want 39 00:01:27,020 --> 00:01:29,030 to give it to friends who are just going to say, 40 00:01:29,030 --> 00:01:31,040 oh this is so wonderful. 41 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:33,030 My mother will never say that something 42 00:01:33,030 --> 00:01:34,080 I'm working on is bad. 43 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:37,050 And so she's not actually that helpful for me. 44 00:01:37,050 --> 00:01:39,000 But I look for my cynical friends, 45 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:40,060 the ones who are going to pick it apart 46 00:01:40,060 --> 00:01:42,000 and really give me lots of feedback 47 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:43,050 so that I can actually make that proof 48 00:01:43,050 --> 00:01:44,080 of concept as I'm going towards 49 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:47,070 a product better and better and better. 50 00:01:47,070 --> 00:01:50,060 In addition, when you get it out into people's hands, 51 00:01:50,060 --> 00:01:53,090 you often hear the phrase alpha or beta 52 00:01:53,090 --> 00:01:55,090 used with software, and it's true 53 00:01:55,090 --> 00:01:56,090 for any kind of product. 54 00:01:56,090 --> 00:01:59,020 You want to get people that early usable 55 00:01:59,020 --> 00:02:02,030 version, or the alpha. 56 00:02:02,030 --> 00:02:04,010 You want to get out that beta, 57 00:02:04,010 --> 00:02:05,080 which is it's starting to turn into something 58 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,020 that is really getting towards the final product 59 00:02:08,020 --> 00:02:10,050 but still has lots of problems with it. 60 00:02:10,050 --> 00:02:13,070 You want what Eric Ries calls an MVP 61 00:02:13,070 --> 00:02:15,080 or a minimal viable product. 62 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:18,050 It's a product, but it's just got enough 63 00:02:18,050 --> 00:02:21,050 to barely be over the line of being a product. 64 00:02:21,050 --> 00:02:25,010 So that transition from this proof of concept notion 65 00:02:25,010 --> 00:02:27,070 to a minimum viable product as your first product 66 00:02:27,070 --> 00:02:30,000 is really important, because what you don't want 67 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,030 to do is you don't want to hold that product quiet 68 00:02:32,030 --> 00:02:34,030 until you launch it. 69 00:02:34,030 --> 00:02:35,070 If the first time people are seeing 70 00:02:35,070 --> 00:02:37,020 the product is when you launch it, 71 00:02:37,020 --> 00:02:40,000 you've probably launched the wrong thing.