MVP Playbook for Founders – Feedback Wanted

[jobmatchbox]

This is a link to a post I wrote a few days ago. Let me know what you think!

http://socialmatchbox.com/wp/2014/08/05/how-much-will-it-cost-to-build-my-startup-mvp-part-1-what-is-an-mvp/

So you know where I am coming from on this: I have co-founded 4 startups (2 profitable), spent the last 4 years building and launching my latest. I have directly advised, mentored or otherwise helped several dozen startups (Consumer, B2B, Mobile) go from the idea stage through early product design and development to fundraising and on from there. 6 had successful exits in the last couple of years including ($57M, $117M, IPO, ...). For the 6 exits, I played a key role in building their teams at all levels from college hires to CxO's. I also hosted the largest software product startup launch event on the East Coast for five years (I had lots of help). I wish I had knew then what I know now.

When someone tells me they have an idea I would like to share some of what I know and have learned with them so I try to blog about my experiences.

[luketucker]

Hey Bob,

Read the post. Thanks for sharing! Just a few quick thoughts / feedback:

1. I really appreciated that you define your terms. I think it’s very important to know and set that baseline for your reader.

2. I also like that you provide a lot of outbound links. Others may not like this but I always find it helpful.

Here's Some critiques… 3. Not sure you answered the question in your title: “How much will it cost build my startup MVP?” By the title I was looking for a breakdown by product type / business model. Assuming your giving feedback on building a software based product you can eliminate hardware plays, etc. But there’s a big MVP buildout cost difference from a photo sharing service, to a SaaS business, to a mobile messaging app. If you answer this in your second post, awesome! The only suggestion I would provide would be to put a good teaser at the end of this first post for the “stay tuned” and provide a little content hook for the reader.

4. To some extent, feel like you copied and pasted too much from the sources you referenced. Based on your impressive bio I would be stoked to hear about your experiences (the struggles, the triumphs). That’s what would really draw me in. I’ve read all those books and it’s always a good refresher for sure, but your own anecdotes and info would be gold to me! Show your personality and flair.

5. The structure of the post was hard to read. I would focus on a hierarchy of the content (lists are always great!). A few thoughts: inset quotes, pics, graphs, tables, indent the bolded sections).

All around, thanks for posting and look forward to following your story. Cheers!

[jobmatchbox]

Luke,

Thanks for the feedback! I will take some time and make some formatting enhancements as well as add some visuals. I plan to really dig into the "cost" as soon as I have some time to get back to writing. I decided to focus on the cost of building an MVP for this series rather than a product. For this first post in the series the focus is on defining an MVP. Since there are so many similar, yet distinct ideas about what an MVP actually is I want to get this right before I tackle actual costs. A lot of founders get lost chasing a huge product rather than an MVP, but they think they are going after an MVP. This is especially true for first time founders. This is ultimately an experiment/research effort in search of a scalable business not a product (i.e. photo sharing service, SaaS product, mobile messaging app). The business may reject the initial hypothetical business or product and re-focus or even change focus.

Bob