100% agree, but with the caveat - Lodger taught you a skill. It was a safe space to learn a transferable skill, an end to end demonstration of your ability to execute which gives confidence for your next venture.
Obviously depends on your desired outcomes, but was that 9 months really wasted (other than the sunk design costs)?
My first product only ever earned like £30, I did the same thing - hid away for months, taught myself Ruby/Rails, launched to crickets... did some immediate low-key biz dev and gave away free trials, spent hundreds on servers, and 4 months later someone paid... once.
That though, has made every step since then infinitely easier.
1
Lodger definitely served a purpose. It was a big learning curve and not a complete waste. Just in a financial sense.
Interesting to hear of your experience, too. Sounds very similar to my own. Thanks for sharing!
2
Thanks for the reminder, @ashleybaxter! Excellent piece. And congratulations on your company!
I didn’t have any connections in the buy-to-let scene. Rounding up a herd of landlords for customer development seemed intimidating.
This is where I usually get stuck. I don't want to be spammy or annoying. Did you have to do this for With Jack? Any tips?
2
Hey Ryan! Thanks :-) The good thing about With Jack—and one of the reasons I think it got off to a good start—was because I'm targeting an audience I was already in front of.
With Jack is for freelancers, mostly in the design and development field. I already had followers on Twitter and was speaking at web conferences / meet-ups. I definitely think it helps to target an audience you're already in front of and enjoy being around.
I didn't have the motivation to find 20+ landlords and talk to them in-depth about their problems or desires, but I have that motivation with freelancers.
In some cases even, people don't share their idea, to prevent someone from stealing it. As this community knows very well, ideas without execution are worthless, so you might indeed share it to get some more opinions and ideas on what that final product/service can be.
Documenting my journey of building my business has also been a very beneficial way to have a conversation around what I am doing at points in time where I can iterate/change, especially during the prototyping phase of my business, it was very beneficial to get that initial feedback before launching the product.
2
Yes, I think it's pointless wasting energy on idea theft. There will always be competitors! And what you said is bang on; "ideas without execution are worthless". Good luck with Dulo :-)
How did you manage to validate your idea for With Jack? Your post mentions your landing page and signups but not how you drove initial interest to the page that led to the signups. Do you have any insights I could steal from you here?
I'm a developer (also based in Glasgow area) working on an idea and I keep feeling an urgent need to validate it. The only problem is that I don't know how or who to contact (or even what to say) that will get me useful feedback and confirmation that people like them will want to pay money for it.
Any tips you can offer would be hugely appreciated!
1
Hi Connor, I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner. Haven't been as active on IH lately.
How did you manage to validate your idea for With Jack? Your post mentions your landing page and signups but not how you drove initial interest to the page that led to the signups. Do you have any insights I could steal from you here?
It's really tough to validate anything in insurance. There's a lot of capital required and it takes months to get regulated. So, I did my best with what I had.
Firstly, I signed up as an affiliate for an insurance broker. Instead of building out my own tech and becoming authorised, it meant I could launch quickly with a landing page and gauge interest. This landing page lead to 55 paying customers and £14,000 GPW.
That was the first stage. From that, I had a small group of people interested in what I was building when I decided to move onto the next stage. I had also been very active on Twitter over the years as well as attending conferences and meet-ups. This meant I was making friends in the industry I was targeting (not intentionally. I had no ulterior motive—just a genuine interest in design and tech!).
Because of my friends / connections in the industry, I was able to drive some sign-ups to the holding page I mentioned in this article. That was where the modest 120+ sign-ups came from.
I'd be happy to meet up, have a coffee and go into things in more details seeing as you're local!
1
Great article @ashleybaxter! I was at your talk in Newcastle, which was awesome by the way, and came away feeling like a bit of a fool because I'd been keeping my idea mostly secret and hadn't thought too much about validation. Now I'm starting a blog to write about my process and have pinned my vision right on the homepage.
As someone who's naturally quite introverted (like the majority of devs,) the idea of talking to people about an idea and asking for their feedback is scary, but you have helped me to start to change my mindset. Thanks for sharing!
1
Hey James! Wow, small world :-) I definitely didn't want to make anyone feel like a fool, but I'm glad you're more open to idea validation. What's your blog (if you're willing to share)? Also, I recommend reading The Mom Test if you want some pointers on talking to people and asking for feedback.
1
Haha maybe fool was a bit harsh. It felt more like a guided epiphany! My blog is at http://jamescook.design
Thanks for the book recommendation, I'm still finding my writing feet so looks like it'll be dead useful, cheers!
1
I assume that had you validated Lodger, you would have outsourced the coding? Or are there examples of people who practiced this advice on their first software project? I.e. they didn't know how to write software, they put up a landing page and got signups for a software product, then they learned how to write software and shipped it? It seems hard to learn how to code and incorporate customer feedback at the same time.
1
Initially I did intend to outsource the coding. I had a meeting with a developer and told him of my interest in Ruby. He encouraged me to use this project to learn. I'm glad I didn't outsource it as it would have been even more of an expensive mistake :-) At least I came away with a new skill.
Whether you are using a project to learn to code or teaming up with a developer, I think the advice still stands—it's important to gauge there's a need for it before writing a line of code.
With that said, the chance of someone's first project taking off and becoming a business is pretty slim. It's OK to experiment and make mistakes, but my point is that a lot of mistakes can be avoided if we involve our target audience and potential customers as early as possible.
1
Yeah that makes total sense. Giving it some thought, a person could def learn to code and validate at the same time, it would just require stepping outside their comfort zone; the learning process wouldn't be as safe and comfy with the pressure of meeting customer expectations. Great points!
1
Can anyone recommend an approach to gauging market interest in something mass market? I'm cooking something up that's B2C with broad demographic appeal. Moving into a well-established space with big players, but taking a different tack. Hopefully supplementary and not competition. Am I going to need a market research firm to case a wide net?
2
Is it possible to take this broad demographic and break it down into smaller niches? For example, I'm targeting freelancers. There's 2,000,000 in the UK but I've started by focusing on a very small sub-set of that market (web designers and developers).
1
You know why I love this article ?
It's the specific examples which provide more depth to the adages like "Get out of the building" or "Don't code in isolation".
It does take time to internalize these lessons. One way to speed this learning process could be to document one's story as one commenter mentioned. However journaling feels like unproductive use of time compared to coding or talking to customers. I am curious how you go about making time to write about the journey.
Keep writing and Good Luck with "WithJack" 😊
2
Thanks for the comment, Abhishek.
In terms of making time to write about the journey, I don't have kids or a family at home so I have more time for these types of activities than perhaps others do. With that said, I do think most people can find 30 minutes a day to do an activity of their choice (writing, working out etc).
I'm also not VC funded and am building With Jack on a budget, so I think creating content is a good (and affordable!) avenue to get the name out there. It also helps me reflect and understand my business better :-)
1
This is awesome. I love when entrepreneurs give the full uncensored story. I helps others like myself get better. I am currently working with potential customers to validate my project. I got "slapped" on the first meeting. After two years of work.
1
I am glad you found it useful! Sounds like you have the right idea speaking to potential customers. Good luck with your validation.
1
Thanks Ashley!
1
Completely agree with these statements, I have also made this mistake when was confident I knew what my customers needed in a try to transform my business model as a result ended up shutting down the project and the money was wasted. Nothing but pity left (and experience though).
I am happy you've had this experience too and finally made it right.
1
Yes, even though our failures were tough to swallow at the time they at least mean we won't make those mistakes again. Silver lining!
0
Great article. Thank You!
i think nearly everyone has made the mistake of perfecting + not validating.
i made all the same mistakes as you did with 140canvas.com
Pieter did with his you tube analytics tracker / marc kholbrugge did with a reading annotation app.
The list is endless!
2
You're right, the list is endless. We all have to get those mistakes out of the way. I'm sure I saw 140canvas featured somewhere recently. Maybe it was on here or a video I watched. It was about how you sent the canvas to a famous YouTuber. Man, I wish I remember where I read / watched it.
100% agree, but with the caveat - Lodger taught you a skill. It was a safe space to learn a transferable skill, an end to end demonstration of your ability to execute which gives confidence for your next venture.
Obviously depends on your desired outcomes, but was that 9 months really wasted (other than the sunk design costs)?
My first product only ever earned like £30, I did the same thing - hid away for months, taught myself Ruby/Rails, launched to crickets... did some immediate low-key biz dev and gave away free trials, spent hundreds on servers, and 4 months later someone paid... once.
That though, has made every step since then infinitely easier.
Lodger definitely served a purpose. It was a big learning curve and not a complete waste. Just in a financial sense.
Interesting to hear of your experience, too. Sounds very similar to my own. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the reminder, @ashleybaxter! Excellent piece. And congratulations on your company!
This is where I usually get stuck. I don't want to be spammy or annoying. Did you have to do this for With Jack? Any tips?
Hey Ryan! Thanks :-) The good thing about With Jack—and one of the reasons I think it got off to a good start—was because I'm targeting an audience I was already in front of.
With Jack is for freelancers, mostly in the design and development field. I already had followers on Twitter and was speaking at web conferences / meet-ups. I definitely think it helps to target an audience you're already in front of and enjoy being around.
I didn't have the motivation to find 20+ landlords and talk to them in-depth about their problems or desires, but I have that motivation with freelancers.
Completely agree with you @ashleybaxter 👍
In some cases even, people don't share their idea, to prevent someone from stealing it. As this community knows very well, ideas without execution are worthless, so you might indeed share it to get some more opinions and ideas on what that final product/service can be.
Documenting my journey of building my business has also been a very beneficial way to have a conversation around what I am doing at points in time where I can iterate/change, especially during the prototyping phase of my business, it was very beneficial to get that initial feedback before launching the product.
Yes, I think it's pointless wasting energy on idea theft. There will always be competitors! And what you said is bang on; "ideas without execution are worthless". Good luck with Dulo :-)
Thanks, @ashleybaxter ! Likewise success 👍
Hey @ashleybaxter - thanks for sharing your story.
How did you manage to validate your idea for With Jack? Your post mentions your landing page and signups but not how you drove initial interest to the page that led to the signups. Do you have any insights I could steal from you here?
I'm a developer (also based in Glasgow area) working on an idea and I keep feeling an urgent need to validate it. The only problem is that I don't know how or who to contact (or even what to say) that will get me useful feedback and confirmation that people like them will want to pay money for it.
Any tips you can offer would be hugely appreciated!
Hi Connor, I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner. Haven't been as active on IH lately.
It's really tough to validate anything in insurance. There's a lot of capital required and it takes months to get regulated. So, I did my best with what I had.
Firstly, I signed up as an affiliate for an insurance broker. Instead of building out my own tech and becoming authorised, it meant I could launch quickly with a landing page and gauge interest. This landing page lead to 55 paying customers and £14,000 GPW.
That was the first stage. From that, I had a small group of people interested in what I was building when I decided to move onto the next stage. I had also been very active on Twitter over the years as well as attending conferences and meet-ups. This meant I was making friends in the industry I was targeting (not intentionally. I had no ulterior motive—just a genuine interest in design and tech!).
Because of my friends / connections in the industry, I was able to drive some sign-ups to the holding page I mentioned in this article. That was where the modest 120+ sign-ups came from.
I'd be happy to meet up, have a coffee and go into things in more details seeing as you're local!
Great article @ashleybaxter! I was at your talk in Newcastle, which was awesome by the way, and came away feeling like a bit of a fool because I'd been keeping my idea mostly secret and hadn't thought too much about validation. Now I'm starting a blog to write about my process and have pinned my vision right on the homepage.
As someone who's naturally quite introverted (like the majority of devs,) the idea of talking to people about an idea and asking for their feedback is scary, but you have helped me to start to change my mindset. Thanks for sharing!
Hey James! Wow, small world :-) I definitely didn't want to make anyone feel like a fool, but I'm glad you're more open to idea validation. What's your blog (if you're willing to share)? Also, I recommend reading The Mom Test if you want some pointers on talking to people and asking for feedback.
Haha maybe fool was a bit harsh. It felt more like a guided epiphany! My blog is at http://jamescook.design
Thanks for the book recommendation, I'm still finding my writing feet so looks like it'll be dead useful, cheers!
I assume that had you validated Lodger, you would have outsourced the coding? Or are there examples of people who practiced this advice on their first software project? I.e. they didn't know how to write software, they put up a landing page and got signups for a software product, then they learned how to write software and shipped it? It seems hard to learn how to code and incorporate customer feedback at the same time.
Initially I did intend to outsource the coding. I had a meeting with a developer and told him of my interest in Ruby. He encouraged me to use this project to learn. I'm glad I didn't outsource it as it would have been even more of an expensive mistake :-) At least I came away with a new skill.
Whether you are using a project to learn to code or teaming up with a developer, I think the advice still stands—it's important to gauge there's a need for it before writing a line of code.
With that said, the chance of someone's first project taking off and becoming a business is pretty slim. It's OK to experiment and make mistakes, but my point is that a lot of mistakes can be avoided if we involve our target audience and potential customers as early as possible.
Yeah that makes total sense. Giving it some thought, a person could def learn to code and validate at the same time, it would just require stepping outside their comfort zone; the learning process wouldn't be as safe and comfy with the pressure of meeting customer expectations. Great points!
Can anyone recommend an approach to gauging market interest in something mass market? I'm cooking something up that's B2C with broad demographic appeal. Moving into a well-established space with big players, but taking a different tack. Hopefully supplementary and not competition. Am I going to need a market research firm to case a wide net?
Is it possible to take this broad demographic and break it down into smaller niches? For example, I'm targeting freelancers. There's 2,000,000 in the UK but I've started by focusing on a very small sub-set of that market (web designers and developers).
You know why I love this article ?
It's the specific examples which provide more depth to the adages like "Get out of the building" or "Don't code in isolation".
It does take time to internalize these lessons. One way to speed this learning process could be to document one's story as one commenter mentioned. However journaling feels like unproductive use of time compared to coding or talking to customers. I am curious how you go about making time to write about the journey.
Keep writing and Good Luck with "WithJack" 😊
Thanks for the comment, Abhishek.
In terms of making time to write about the journey, I don't have kids or a family at home so I have more time for these types of activities than perhaps others do. With that said, I do think most people can find 30 minutes a day to do an activity of their choice (writing, working out etc).
I'm also not VC funded and am building With Jack on a budget, so I think creating content is a good (and affordable!) avenue to get the name out there. It also helps me reflect and understand my business better :-)
This is awesome. I love when entrepreneurs give the full uncensored story. I helps others like myself get better. I am currently working with potential customers to validate my project. I got "slapped" on the first meeting. After two years of work.
I am glad you found it useful! Sounds like you have the right idea speaking to potential customers. Good luck with your validation.
Thanks Ashley!
Completely agree with these statements, I have also made this mistake when was confident I knew what my customers needed in a try to transform my business model as a result ended up shutting down the project and the money was wasted. Nothing but pity left (and experience though).
I am happy you've had this experience too and finally made it right.
Yes, even though our failures were tough to swallow at the time they at least mean we won't make those mistakes again. Silver lining!
Great article. Thank You!
i think nearly everyone has made the mistake of perfecting + not validating.
i made all the same mistakes as you did with 140canvas.com
Pieter did with his you tube analytics tracker / marc kholbrugge did with a reading annotation app.
The list is endless!
You're right, the list is endless. We all have to get those mistakes out of the way. I'm sure I saw 140canvas featured somewhere recently. Maybe it was on here or a video I watched. It was about how you sent the canvas to a famous YouTuber. Man, I wish I remember where I read / watched it.