
What Is Your Minimum Viable Market? | Jason L. Baptiste - jayliew
http://jasonlbaptiste.com/commentary/minimum-viable-market/
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tommynazareth
Reading this article helped rejuvenate my efforts on a fitness product I've
been working on. When I first started discussing the idea with my girlfriend,
we immediately saw how it could become the biggest thing in fitness and take
the world by storm. I couldn't imagine such an awesome product not being a
household name and a source of tens of millions a year. I sold myself so
completely on the life changing power of the product that I assumed everyone
who heard about it would instantly be on board.

After a couple weeks of working, the glow began to wear off. I still believe
in the project, but the more people I pitched the idea to, the more clearly I
understood the challenges of marketing. My thought process had been "fitness
is a billion dollar industry, my product has one or two successful competitors
that I can out maneuver, so, a billion * a decent chunk of the market = $."

Now I realize that I don't have the experience or resources to reach a huge
market. I read this article some weeks ago and I felt comforted by the idea
that that is not a horrible thing. If I can really connect with a large
percentage of a smaller audience, than I can find users who are really happy
and excited by my work and want to share their excitement with others. I would
feel good about being able to deliver incredible value to a select group, and
if the momentum carries the project into new markets I'll be happy about that
too.

My minimum viable market is small groups of friends in offices who want to
help each other stay on track losing weight, and a slightly expanded market
would include friends attending aerobics classes together. Now that I am okay
with targeting a smaller group of potential users, marketing doesn't seem
nearly as overwhelming and frightening and I've been able to make some great
progress.

