1/ met a couple of lovely entrepreneurs yesterday and found out they were stuck in what I’d call “investor whiplash”...
2/ they’ve got a bunch of angel “commitments” that are all subject to them showing some decent numbers on their beta launch in August
3/ we start digging into their product and it’s got such obvious gaping holes i’m horrified. We switch from talking investment to “what questions are you trying to answer with this and what can you do to fix this mess of an MVP”
4/ my instinct is - go back to first principles, get some serious qualificative feedback from your future beta users before you release and don’t go out with a clearly flawed v1
5/ yet here they are with a set of investors at the ready waiting for some numbers so they can feel better throwing some money in. Of course all of this feels wrong and lopsided but ... easy to pontificate when you’re on the other side of the funding fence
6/ in the end - their problem is rooted in (a) setting the wrong expectations with prospective investors or talking to the wrong ones (b) a failure in the design process. Which has me thinking, again, ...
7/ launching a new product = a complex design process. Customer needs, UX, UI, stack, but also brand, funnel, acquisition, monetisation etc. = integrated whole that needs to be brought together into a coherent flow. There are no shortcuts to great design. Further...
8/ you’ve got to always keep building your company in the way you think is right regardless of whether you are funded and regardless of what investors expect from you.
Take advice by all means, but only you as the founder know best. All great founders will tell you this. /eot
Take advice by all means, but only you as the founder know best. All great founders will tell you this. /eot
