

Ask HN: Tell us about your experiences of pitching to people who "got it" - sendos

When pitching my ideas/apps/products to people (friends, relatives, people at tech meetups, etc) there are people who don't like the idea, people who are lukewarm about it, and then there's the third category.<p>These people "get it". They see the big picture you see. They go there with you. They see all the use cases you envision and add more, usually enthusiastically. It's just pure <i>elation</i> talking with one of these people, especially after some lukewarm responses from others.<p>Of course, these people may be as wrong about the potential of your product as you are, so finding such people is no guarantee of success by any stretch, but it truly replenishes your energy after you talk to one of them.<p>What have your experiences been pitching to such people, especially when you were just starting out? Did their thumbs-up and feedback help more or less than the feedback from people who were lukewarm or negative about your idea or product?
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minalecs
I get same reactions, and I would disregard all of it... part of being an
entrepreneur is faith in yourself that what you are doing is right. I think
your only concern should be validating the idea and business. The people that
say they get it, question them and try to validate assumptions. Figure out how
to experiment cheaply, and build a mvp.

~~~
jaddison
I couldn't agree more; I've gone through the phase of accepting the 'excited'
people's input as valid and can testify that you need to qualify your
assumptions - derive facts by which to make decisions.

Read more on these topics with Steve Blank (read his The Four Steps to the
Epiphany!) and Eric Ries.

<http://steveblank.com/> <http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/>

You won't regret educating yourself based on the experiences of others. No
matter what you think, you're not smarter than the market; you need to
understand the market, and that means having the humility to prove your
assumptions.

