Great post. In particular, I liked the part about the "Hierarchy of Proof" in pitches:
On the bottom, and least convincing are statements about your “idea.”
Next are hypotheses – “I think customers will care about x or y “
Better are facts from customers – “We interviewed 30 customers with 20 questions”
Even better is “Customer Validation”– “We just got $50K from a customer” or “we got 100,000 users spending x minutes on our site”
Finally if you’re ever so lucky – “Everyone’s buying in droves and we’re here because we need money to scale and execute”
If you’ve actually been doing Customer Development at a minimum you’re at step 3 or 4. If not, you don’t have enough data for a VC presentation. Get out of the building, get some more customer feedback, spin your product and go back and read the book.
On the bottom, and least convincing are statements about your “idea.”
Next are hypotheses – “I think customers will care about x or y “
Better are facts from customers – “We interviewed 30 customers with 20 questions”
Even better is “Customer Validation”– “We just got $50K from a customer” or “we got 100,000 users spending x minutes on our site”
Finally if you’re ever so lucky – “Everyone’s buying in droves and we’re here because we need money to scale and execute”
If you’ve actually been doing Customer Development at a minimum you’re at step 3 or 4. If not, you don’t have enough data for a VC presentation. Get out of the building, get some more customer feedback, spin your product and go back and read the book.