WEBVTT - Your Minimum Viable Product 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.759 What's up everybody? Will Lucas here a black tech, Green money. 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:04.840 So good to be with you guys as we kick 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.959 off this holiday season. And let's start this off a 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.160 little bit of afrotech news. A lot going on in 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:13.640 the world today. You can always get news like this 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.440 on afrotech dot com. But in case you haven't logged 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:18.680 on to the end at this morning or this today, 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:20.880 this avenue, whatever, I don't know when you're listening, whenever 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:22.960 you've listened, if you have not been over yet, I'm 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:24.959 going to just give you a little bit of snapshots 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:27.319 of what you can get on afrotech dot com. So 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.360 first up, early stage investor in Wall Street VET Stephanie 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.480 Thomas is now going to be the managing director over 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:38.840 at Zeo Capital Partners. She was previously a founding member 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:43.479 and investor at Impact American Fund IAF and helped that 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.120 company scale from seven million dollars to one hundred and 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:52.839 ten million in assets under management. At Zeocapital Partner, she 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.320 will lead US investment plans, which include a fifty million 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:01.360 dollar commitment to inclusive investing through its newly establish Barclays 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:09.040 Black Formation Investments Initiative BBFI, established just in October like 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.000 a little bit ago. The fund was designed to invest 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.840 in black led companies that are working to address wealth 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:21.200 and skills gaps through their services and technologies. So if 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.360 you're building in that category and that vertical, you need 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.720 to high at a big shout out to you, Stephanie. 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:31.560 Much success in other news of black women doing amazing things. 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.520 According to shot Black, Maria Tower is behind one of 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.280 the largest women's health funds. According to shot Black, so 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:44.199 Steel Sky Adventures. They portfolio companies include like Midi Health 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:49.480 which does menopausal care, Origin which is pelvic floor physical therapy, 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:54.440 twenty eight Health which is telemedicine for reproductive healthcare, in 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:59.160 May which is a marketplace for improving black maternal health today. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:04.360 To date, Steel Sky Ventures manages about seventy three million 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:09.080 dollars in total assets, that's per shot Black. Place in 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.920 the firm is one of the largest women's health focused 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:17.800 venture capital firms, Toller told shot Black. Steel Sky partners 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.520 with passionate founders innovating in women's health. We invest in 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:26.840 series A companies with product founder fit demonstrated solutions to 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.720 critical women's health issues and readiness to collaborate with leading 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:35.119 healthcare institutions. I'm so glad about that product founder fit 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.240 statement because it's a great segue into today's episode. 'm 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:41.840 with Lucas Black Tech, Green Money. That was your afro 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.600 tech news. If you want more stuff like that, go 0:02:44.639 --> 0:03:01.480 to afrotech dot com, pin it to your bookmarks bar. Now, 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:06.560 we're taught to give things our best, especially if you're 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.200 starting out in business. You know you've got to give 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.280 it all you got in order to find success, right, 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.640 you know, but what if with respect to business and 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.960 ideas in the beginning, that's the absolute worst thing you 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:25.920 should do. I want to talk about minimum viable products, 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.840 and this word is specifically for businesses and startups that 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.200 want to scale, meaning you want to grow your revenue 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.200 faster than your costs. It's not like, you know, you're 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:39.960 building a long care service or some lifestyle business like that, 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.560 where if you want to cut more yards or cut 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:47.160 more hair, or you know, do more nails, you've got 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.080 to hire more people or purchase a lot more equipment 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.080 in order to do that and grow. Because you're one person, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.840 you've got limited resources, limited time, et cetera. It's not 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:03.600 designed to scale. But in a scalable startup, you're growing 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.520 your revenue faster than your costs. So in this regard, 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.600 we're talking about something that might be leveraging technology, whether 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.960 it's an application or a website, even a fashion brand 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:17.960 or any event like let's say you're putting on a conference. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.919 Those things, the revenue can grow for a business like 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:27.000 that faster than the amount of effort, resources, etc. That 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:31.360 you're putting into it. So my goal by the end 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:36.800 of this episode not only is it that you're convinced 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.320 that you may not need to dive in with both feet. 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.520 I want to get you to embrace the logic and 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.000 why that might not be smart, but also my hope 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.800 is that you have an idea of what you should 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:54.440 do next with this information. So unlike the kind of 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:58.000 businesses that I mentioned earlier, the landscape or the barber, 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:02.240 the nail tech small businesses, if you think about it, 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.680 we're not necessarily trying to be profitable upfront those kind 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.520 of businesses. You're trying to be profitable with every deal 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:16.560 with a scalable operation at the MVP stage. All we're 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.480 trying to do at this point is prove that people 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.880 want what we're building and that they'll pay for it. 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.840 And so with that, I need to start this conversation 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:32.320 with talking about passion and romance, and not the kind 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.120 of passion in romance you know that you googly eye 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.839 and somebody, but the kind of passion in romance that 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.360 you might be googly eye and your ideas. I'm going 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.200 to just say it in the most stark terms. I 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:49.440 know how just because you care about the thing that 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:54.080 you're working on does not mean the market does. And 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:56.640 that's not easy for a lot of people to hear 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:00.719 because we believe that because we think we have the 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:06.479 best idea for solving whatever problem that the world believes, 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:11.040 the market believes it's a worthy idea to be on 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.920 the shelf. Because some ideas that you have, people may 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.279 appreciate the idea, but they're not willing to pay for it. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.520 It may not be a problem at the level of 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.359 them bringing you know that they want to go in 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.400 their pocket and reach out their wallet or pull a 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:31.280 phone out for Apple pay. They may have the problem, 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.640 but they don't have the pain at such a level 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.520 that they are willing to solve the problem with your solution. 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.599 And think about it this way, it's not always pain 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.520 that people are trying to solve for it's also desire. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.560 Maybe they think what you're doing is cute, but are 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:55.200 they willing to embrace you or cute for themselves such 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.440 that they'll pay for it at a rate or at 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:00.719 a dollar amount that makes it make sense for you 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:05.360 to produce the thing. So just because people have displayed 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:10.600 some level of interest in what you've displayed interest in 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:13.640 developing does not mean there's a place for it on 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.680 the shelf. This is what this process of going through 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:22.800 the minimum viable product phase will help you figure out. 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:27.120 So what is a minimum viable product? It's just the 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:30.320 finest for those of us who don't know what it means, 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:34.960 a minimum viable product. And I'm gonna give you my 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:39.160 pairaphrase and then I'll give you the actual definition per Google. 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.400 So the definition, if you ask me, is what is 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:48.320 the least I can do? The least viable thing I 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.440 can do? And I'm going to come back to that word, 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.600 the least viable thing I can do to prove that 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.280 it is worth it to go to the next step 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:01.360 and invest more in it. My idea in my business, 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:04.640 what's the least thing I can do? Because all I'm 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:06.680 trying to do again, all I'm trying to do at 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:11.280 this stage is prove that the market wants it and 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.960 they will pay for it something the market wants. There 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.280 are some things the market wants that it will not 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:21.320 pay for at a level that makes it make sense 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.000 for a producer to produce it. So I went to 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:27.800 Google and just the first website that came up was 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.600 my VA three sixty. I don't even know who does 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:32.640 this website, but it's just the first one that came up. 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:38.000 So their definition of the minimum viable product is the 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:41.440 first form of a product that you can release to users. 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:47.880 It provides core functionality without any additional features. Entrepreneurs use 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:52.600 MVPs and viable products to assess how customers feel about 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.760 an idea. If the idea does have potential, they use 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.880 customer feedback to develop the next version of the product. 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.200 There's a couple things in there I want to point 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:07.679 out because it's important to do, because I started this 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:11.480 conversation off talking about why you should not give your 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:16.280 best in the early stages of a scalable startup scalable business, 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:23.520 and that was a little bit intentionally abrasive, because I 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:25.560 believe you should always give your best. But what I 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.440 mean by not giving your best is don't do the most, 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:35.560 do the least. You have to do viability in order 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:42.960 to prove. But that viability standard means you gave your 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:48.319 all at that minimum level. What all can you do 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:53.640 at this minimum level to make it viable? So if 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:58.640 I am interested in starting, you know, let's say I 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.520 want to start a new website and I want to 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.920 do news what is a minimum viable product? Because I 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.800 don't have any eyeballs come into my domain today, I 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.800 don't have any eyeballs downloaded my app and subscribing to 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.800 my newsletter. I don't have any eyeballs or demands from 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.480 advertisers to come and check me out. What is a 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:25.440 minimum viable product in that scenario. In that scenario, a 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:29.720 minimum viable product could be my Instagram page. How many 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:33.760 people can I engage in the types of content I 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:38.200 am going to produce things to produce content around, produce 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:45.319 ideas around, produce words around such that I see okay, yesterday, 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:47.800 it was one hundred people. Following today's it's one hundred 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.120 and ten people following Tomorrow, there's one hundred and fifty 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.720 people following a week from now, there's two hundred people 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.600 following and my engagement on every post continues to go up. 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.120 That is some sort of proof that people are interested 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:06.600 in my take. So what is the next step from 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.679 that Instagram or that Twitter account, or that Facebook profile 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:14.280 or that LinkedIn situation. I could go start a newsletter 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.360 for free. There's plenty of websites where you can go 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.760 and you can create a newsletter. Keep it under most 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:22.400 of them like make you keep it under a certain 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:25.520 number of subscribers at the free level. Like let's say 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:27.440 I don't know list to be true, but let's say 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:33.280 like constant Contact or what's another one, Mailchimp. Let's say 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:36.120 constant Contact. A Mailchimp will allow you to create a 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:41.520 newsletter for free if you have less than one hundred subscribers. 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.000 I think Mailchimp actually does. It's constant Contact. I don't 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:49.480 believe does. But Mailchimp, I believe, has their pricing structure 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.440 to allow you to use their service for free if 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.440 you have under a certain number of subscribers. So, if 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.480 you want to be the next big publisher, the next 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.920 big blog, the next big you know, hot take giver, 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.840 the way to do that is to create content and 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.800 build a following. You don't go and build a ten 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:15.199 thousand dollars website on day one. You don't go and 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:20.000 buy twenty thousand dollars cameras on day one. You don't 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:25.280 go and invest in studio time at your neighborhood podcast 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.680 studio and spend you know, thousands of dollars an hour 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:36.400 just to figure out if people want to consume your stuff. Now, 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.720 if you got it and you want to do that, hey, 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.119 by all means, but in a minimum viable product scenario. 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:49.679 To save you the time, the effort, the resources just 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.680 to figure out if people care about your take is 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.560 to start with what is the minimum What is the 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:02.439 least viable thing you should you doing just to prove 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.760 that the one hundred dollars you're gonna spend as an 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:12.360 investment into more equipment, better resources, it's people, etc. That 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:17.040 it's actually going to a good cause. That's what the 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:21.320 minimum viable product is designed to do. So, if you 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.920 are I talked about fashion early, if you're creating a 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:29.840 fashion brand, you don't necessarily have to go and spend 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:34.800 a bunch of money on inventory. There are plenty of websites. 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.120 Spring is now one of them, used to be called 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:42.600 Tea Spring, Shopify, does this now where you can create 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.520 you can even sell the T shirt designs and the 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:52.280 shirt designs even other branded things that you design and 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.520 you don't pay anything effectively until somebody buys it and 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:59.320 then they print it, they create it with your designs 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:04.240 on demand. Amazon, I believe, is getting into this business. 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.320 I know Shopify, does I know t Spring which is 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.720 now red, which is now Spring Red Bubble is one 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.760 And this is something you can do just to prove 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:23.920 that people want your stuff. Every year, at least once 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.560 a year, sometimes twice, but at least once a year, 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:30.360 I get somebody who is because I have a marketing 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.200 technology agency. Also we do video production and all that 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:37.320 stuff creatio and so every year I'll get at least 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.680 one person who says, hey, I created this book. I 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.880 want to market and sell it, develop a website for 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.320 it so I can sell it. And I'm like, I'm 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:51.360 thinking to myself, like, who's waiting for this book? Who's 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:56.800 who asked you for this book? And so they spent 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.880 all their blood, sweat and tears writing this book that 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:05.320 nobody's waiting for. And it baffles me that people do 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.120 this now. If you want to write just because you 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.720 got to get it out. That's fine, but there are 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.920 better ways. If you're writing in order to be a 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:18.560 published author, in order to sell your knowledge, insights, words, 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:23.520 there are smarter ways to go about doing it. For instance, 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.840 if I'm writing a book, here's what I would do. 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:32.960 I would write one chapter of said book. I would 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.280 write one chapter of the book, and I would write 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.840 no more. Unless you know, again, you just got to 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.480 get it out, that's fine, But I would write one chapter. 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.480 I would create a one page website. You can do 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:48.120 this on the variety of sites. Google allows you to 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.680 do this for free. If you want to spend a 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.120 little bit of money, that's fine too. But create a 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:58.920 one page website that allows people to insert their email 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:04.840 address for a free chapter of the book. Now, nobody 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:09.640 knows you haven't started writing the whole book. Only you know. 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:15.680 But you can say, hey, book name is how to 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.960 Build an MVP. It's coming out in twenty twenty five. 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:21.720 But if he goes to this website right now, you 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:25.240 get a free chapter. And in order to get that chapter, 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.040 when they get to the website, they got to give 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.040 you that email address. So they give you the email address, 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:34.720 they automatically get this free chapter. In their inbox. It's 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:42.520 just a PDF. It's easy. So now, not until I 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:46.280 have created this one page website that allows me to 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.479 collect email addresses, and in return for those email addresses, 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:55.240 an automatic email get sent to that new subscriber, because 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.360 you're adding them to a newsletter, which is the point 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:02.080 of this. Not until I have done that at enough 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:07.200 and got enough subscribers, would I believe that there's enough 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.479 people who want my book on creating an MVP. So 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:17.159 if I'm looking at this website and I'm seeing three people, 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.320 I'm making up numbers, but three people in three months 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:25.360 have signed up to get the free chapter, there's probably 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:31.160 gonna be one person waiting for the book. That's with 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:35.760 thirty three percent. That's high because not everybody who subscribes 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:42.000 actually wants the content. So you got to determine the 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:46.600 MVP to determine if I should spend the hours it's 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.080 gonna take, the weeks is gonna take, the months, is 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.879 gonna take, the dollars is gonna take to then go 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.960 get somebody to create the artwork and do all the 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.960 illustrations or whatever whatever whatever like, if I'm going to 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:04.720 spend that spend that time, energy resources, etc. On this book. 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:09.679 I better know somebody's waiting for the book. So what 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:13.080 you do is once you know, hey, there's a thousand 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:16.120 people waiting because a thousand people signed up for this thing. 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.480 I know too many people who have books, boxes of 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.400 book boxes of books in their garage that they wrote 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.960 a book and they thought they were going to be 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.080 on the New York Times bestseller list, so they went 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.080 and bought all of these books of the thing that 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:38.600 they wrote that nobody asked them for. They didn't do 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:42.080 any preparation of the market. They didn't do any market 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:46.560 development to generate excitement interest in the book that they 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.400 were writing. But what I gave you is a very 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:53.800 simple way to do it. And you can do this 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.480 with almost anything. You can do this with an actual application. 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.200 You can build your debt and you can start getting 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.479 market research on hey, this is how the app works. 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.199 And you can build mockups. There's actually websites that you 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:13.000 can go to, such as flutter or flow is one, 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.560 retool is another. And what you do is you go 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:22.080 to these websites and you build a mock up of 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:25.560 your app, a mockup of your website, and then you 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.600 start showing this thing to people, you start demonstrating it 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.400 to them. The buttons are very often on a lot 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.160 of these apps. The buttons will work. So if I'm 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:36.760 on one page and I click a button, it'll take 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.919 me to what I would see actually as the second 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:42.160 page in a real app on my phone, but it's 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:45.159 just a mockup. And so the buttons are like clickable 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.800 very often in a lot of these new prototyping softwares. 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:54.040 And so then I'm taking that and I'm showing people 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:57.200 who are in the target demographic, the people who are 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.040 the people who I'm targeting or will target. Once I 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:04.720 have found that the marketplace actually wants this thing and 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.159 they want it for me. Oh, we'll come back to 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:10.280 that in a second. That the marketplace actually wants this thing, 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:14.480 then I know, okay, I might have something here. Because 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.000 I actually showed this to people who could use it. 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.679 They would pay for it. They might even even signed 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:24.359 up for my email list. They might have actually given 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.679 me a dollar to be the first user once it's built. 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.320 All sorts of ways you can determine if people are 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:37.919 serious about using the product when it's ready. So I 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.960 mentioned a second ago, I meant to mention this at 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:43.000 all in the episode, but I'm glad I said that 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:46.560 it was do they want the thing? And are you 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.520 the best person to build it? Because there is such 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:55.119 a thing as product market fit, which means that my 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.159 product is designed in such a way that the market 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:02.560 who it's designed for it's built for they match. So 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:06.359 the people who would use this thing are willing to 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.000 use it because it's made for them. Is my product 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.320 design to situate that it's made for the market that 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.680 is trying to satiate? Then there's a question of founder 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.840 product fit. Just because you have an idea for something, 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:27.439 what makes you uniquely situated to do this thing? What 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:31.080 is it about you that says, you know what? I 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:36.680 believe you're the guy to solve this problem because eventually 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.320 you're going to have to sell users. Eventually you're gonna 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:42.800 have to sell investors. And what they're going to be 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:47.359 looking at is not just the idea, not just the product, 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:52.520 not just the team you developed. They're also going to 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:54.800 be looking at you and saying, what is it about 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.760 this person? What is it about Jill? What is it 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:03.040 about Henry that makes me believe he's going to go 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:07.640 out into the marketplace evangelize this thing and win? Are 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:11.960 you the best person to solve the problem that you're 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:18.280 trying to tackle just because you're passionate about it and 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:20.960 just because you had an idea or just because you 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.320 had the idea, does that mean it's best for you? 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:29.200 That's work you gotta do. Do you have the skills 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:37.760 those personal qualities that the market believes aligned with the 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:43.840 solution to the problem. So these are things that at 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:47.080 your early days of starting a company, starting one that 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:51.480 specifically scales or that should scale. These are the questions 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:56.320 you have to answer and so your work, hopefully number one. 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:59.920 Hopefully what we've accomplished today is getting you to think 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:05.720 about are you doing too much too early? What are 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:12.640 things you can do that might not be the ultimate thing? 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:17.040 And look Amazon. When Amazon started, Jeff Bezos knew, Hey, 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:20.240 one day, I would really love to be able to 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:23.639 sell TVs on the internet. One day. I would really 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:26.760 love to be able to sell a car on the 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:29.240 internet one day. I would really love to be able 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:33.399 to sell anything on the internet. But what can I 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:39.560 do today to prove that the market will buy things online? 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:46.280 I'm going to sell books online. That's it. When Amazon started, 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:51.560 all they sold was books online. And then as that 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:55.040 started to make sense, say, okay, what things go with 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:59.840 books that people say that they're here buying books are 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:05.840 what kind of things can we sell that book lovers 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:09.040 since they're coming here already to buy books. Oh, they 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:11.720 might want a bookmark, they might want a pencil, they 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:15.840 might want a journal. And so they started to expand 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:19.439 and then sell more and more and more things. But 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:23.960 the minimum viable product was a website that just sold books. 0:24:25.840 --> 0:24:28.719 So you need to start thinking about what is it 0:24:28.800 --> 0:24:32.360 you can do today with the limited resources. Sometimes having 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:35.679 limited resources is actually a blessing in disguise, because you 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:39.440 shouldn't necessarily always go spend a whole bunch of money 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:43.440 on something that's unproven. What you should do is put 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:46.520 a little bit towards it, whether that be time, resources, 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:49.480 dollars or whatever, and just see if the thing starts 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:51.960 to go. And then once you figure out what goes, 0:24:52.359 --> 0:24:57.119 that's when you pour fuel on the fire. But you 0:24:57.160 --> 0:25:00.600 don't pour all your fuel into this thing that and 0:25:00.640 --> 0:25:05.200 there's no fire. What you want is to figure out 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:09.840 what actually is showing some signs, and that's where you 0:25:09.960 --> 0:25:15.560 go to the minimum. The minimum viable product helps you 0:25:15.640 --> 0:25:19.720 that this process of developing a minimum viable product, the 0:25:19.800 --> 0:25:23.240 thing that you can do at with the smallest thing 0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:25.800 you can do that takes the least amount of resources, 0:25:26.119 --> 0:25:33.320 that's actually viable, the least viable thing, not the least alone, 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:38.320 but the least viable thing. What is that thing that 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:42.520 you can do in your category? And so think about that, 0:25:42.960 --> 0:25:47.119 and then once you determine that, do that and only 0:25:47.200 --> 0:25:52.720 that until you found success. And once you found success, 0:25:52.880 --> 0:25:56.720 you know then that people actually might want this thing. 0:25:57.160 --> 0:25:59.960 Then you go and put the resources, spend the extra time, 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:02.840 you know, take off a day, a week of work 0:26:02.960 --> 0:26:05.760 or whatever, spend a little bit more money on the thing, 0:26:06.359 --> 0:26:09.840 you know, buy a better piece of equipment. But not 0:26:10.000 --> 0:26:12.440 until you figured out that the market actually even wants 0:26:12.520 --> 0:26:15.640 this thing from you in the first place. What's interesting 0:26:15.840 --> 0:26:18.720 about the minimum viable product and all everything I just 0:26:18.760 --> 0:26:21.920 said it's interesting about it. But what's interesting in this 0:26:22.080 --> 0:26:28.800 moment is the viability actually is a moving target. So 0:26:29.000 --> 0:26:34.120 as you build viability at one level, the point of 0:26:34.160 --> 0:26:37.320 a business is to grow, and so what is the 0:26:37.440 --> 0:26:43.879 viability requirements at the next level. So you're always looking 0:26:43.960 --> 0:26:49.919 to test features, test things, test test new avenues for 0:26:50.040 --> 0:26:55.399 business growth, not with again, not with both feet jumping 0:26:56.080 --> 0:26:59.960 out the window, jumping into the water, but your test 0:27:00.160 --> 0:27:05.080