How many of you talk to your close friends and family about your startup ideas? And how many times have you gotten solid, honest, and constructive feedback from those people?
There are a lot of different ways to get feedback, validation, or approval on your ideas. These types of things can seem important to you because you’ll eventually want other people to join you, and you’ll want to raise funding. After all, why spend time on an idea that doesn’t seem exciting? You want to get validation, but you’re usually tempted to get it from the wrong people.
Your friends are great for friendship, and they will tell you what you want to hear. Your parents will probably be included in that same circle of telling you what you want to hear. Even at that, not all of your friends may be supportive of a great idea, because they may not be the type of person who would use your solution.
There are a lot of people who don’t even tie much credibility to an “idea.” I can tell you firsthand that ideas alone will make it difficult to get any amount of funding (if you’re familiar with Steve Blank, you realize that funding actually doesn’t come until much later anyway). Max Levchin will tell you that 5% of any good startup is an idea, and 95% is execution. That’s because most businesses rarely stick with their original plans. How many people in 1984 would have guessed that Apple would be in the mp3 player and cell phone industry today?
Take whatever idea you have now, understand that there is never a “right time,” and just start building your concept right now. Be open to changing the direction of the business model, but don’t seek approval or validation from anyone other than your earliest customers. The next question you’ll probably ask: do I need funding? Chances are, you won’t need funding until you’ve been validated by early customers and adopters.
About the Author
Jared Tame is an entrepreneur who has worked with hundreds of clients on website design, marketing, and sales, and currently works with StartPal providing high-quality, low-cost website design and e-commerce solutions to small businesses and startups.