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Start with a prototype

December 16, 2013 • By Daniel Tenner on December 30, 2010 • Product

This article is fairly basic, but it does cover the essentials of why and how you should go about putting together a prototype (software or hardware), and also points out that you should test the prototype not only technically, but, even more important, commercially, before raising money.

Validate the customer need and opportunity. I always hate it when I see startups invest millions of dollars in technology before they validate their ideas in the market, only to find that customers seem to be looking for something slightly different. Test your idea early in a form that is easy and inexpensive to modify.

Vinod Khosla

Agree when possible. But sometimes there's no choice. And sometimes you need pivots or convincing the market when a customer doesn't know they need what you think they do. (Yes this is anti-MBA). I used to lecture on why not to listen to your customers? How many of us thought we needed Facebook? Starting in a niche hne your offering is needed is best and then using the niche as a beachhead. Nobody in 1996 wanted an public internet router! Customers are not visionaries but know when something feels right. Focus groups are generally worthless for brand new spaces.