[takanori]

Before you write a line of code for #2, have a clear strategy for app distribution, user acquisition, free to paid conversion. It won’t just happen because you have a great product. Just remember to make a million a year, you need 10,000 people paying you $10 a month.

[downandout]

This. A mediocre product with a strong marketing strategy can make millions. A spectacular product with no marketing plan will make nothing or close to it.

Products that spread through word of mouth are few and far between these days. Facebook has made sure of that by snuffing out most newsfeed virality (unless you are paying them for it) such that even if your customers want to share your products with their friends, few of them will see it. Growth rarely happens by accident these days.

Do not attempt to even create a product that you are going to depend on for your livelihood without a specific marketing strategy already planned out and ready to execute. That strategy should be able to generate a positive number when when you subtract estimated, realistic customer acquisition costs from their estimated, realistic lifetime value. There is a great podcast called TheTop [1] covering a number of tech verticals where existing companies go into these numbers in specific detail. I would recommend you find an episode about a company in your vertical and listen to their numbers.

[1] http://nathanlatka.com/podcast-thetop/

[rognjen]

I don't entirely agree with this. I think it's useful to build a proof of concept even without any follow-up plans or objectives.

Besides the fact that it'll be easier to visualize and present the idea to people, the act of building a proof of concept or a real MVP would be learning experiences themselves.

In fact thinking about what's to be included as part of the MVP and prioritizing to fit within a pre-set deadline would be extremely valuable.

[nikanj]

Let's be honest here too, it's FUN to build a proof of concept.

This is a very, very common failure mode of new entrepreneurs. As long as you don't have any customers, any promises, or any deadlines, you can focus on the best part of being a programmer: programming. Thus people often end up postponing the customer acquisition farther and farther into the future, until they run out of savings, or just abandon the project because the bright flame of new creation has dwindled.

Running a software business sucks. You have to mete out your attention extremely carefully, and without well-vetted potential customers to build things for, building things should be very low on your priority scale.

You can achieve most of your stated MVP goals with a sketch made in Adobe XD, with a fraction of the time spent.

[rognjen]

Everything you've said is true but I think we don't agree on what a proof of concept is.

I think of it as something that does the main purpose that looks entirely real (so has a domain and is responsive for example) but doesn't actually function. This can definitely be done in a similar amount of time as the XD sketch. Perhaps slightly longer but it'd look more real and therefore would be taken more seriously.

In fact its most important purpose is to save you from building something that does actually function.

[JamesBarney]

Building a proof of concept is an incredibly expensive way to figure out what clients want. And many times you find out you're so far off that none of the project is reusable.

Also plenty of clients will take meeting without an proof of concept. And this is especially true when you have a really good idea.

[rognjen]

I've found the opposite to be true -- easier to get a meeting if you have something to show even with a mediocre idea.

[JamesBarney]

In my experience it didn't make a huge difference. More than half the time the individual didn't even want to see it. Just wanted to talk about how it would improve their business.

[jlelonm]

What is the better way to figure out what clients want? Conversations?

[JamesBarney]

Yeah it takes a lot less time to have a conversation than to build an app.

Makings the cold calls and cold emails felt a lot easier with an app built but at least in my experience didn't make a big difference in response rate.

[takanori]

The best way is to have that problem yourself while working in at an ideal customer.

[cageface]

Yeah. I spent the better part of two years building something I really wanted to build that I thought people would really want to buy. Turned out I was wrong. If you're burning through your own savings you need to find out as early as possible if there actually is any real demand for your product.

[driven20]

This is exactly what I'm afraid of. Sorry it didn't work out for you.

[cageface]

I learned a lot in the process. If I ever try anything like this again I'm going to focus on validating or rejecting the idea as quickly and cheaply as possible. There are some good resources online on ways to do this.

[jhabdas]

That sucks. Did you open source it, at least?

[cageface]

I wrote a bunch of custom audio DSP code that I still tell myself I’m going to do something with one day.

[driven20]

I think this is good advice. I should think things through more...

Also, I am willing to take a pay cut if I can work on my idea, instead of working for something else. I don't need a million dollars haha.

Right now, I would be happy if I got something that pays me half as much as I used to make. Heck, if it only brought in $1,000/mo for a while I would be happy with that.

[exxybebbi]

Or one person paying you 1 million...

[takanori]

That’s the dream. But then you’re probably limited in total addressable market.