How do you know when to stop and move on to the next venture? 🤔
Good day fellow entrepreneurs! Hope everyone's week is going great so far.
I know there is no right or wrong approach - some of us choose to play the numbers game (the more projects you create, the higher are the chances of success), some prefer persistence with 1 or 2. My question here is - how do you decide when is it time to stop and move on to the next venture? What metrics do you use for that?
I have seen some people saying "2 months for validation is enough; if there are no customers, then probably I am not solving the problem". But what if you are simply not reaching out to the right people?
At the same time others spend a lot of money on marketing looking for the right audience, but when do they realise that their product is simply not solving the problem?
I am sure some of you have dealt with this dilemma, would be very curious to pick your brain. Thank you in advance!
Yeah this is a great question. Imagine being one or two cold DMs away from your first real user and giving up. Painful.
I think there's no real way to know this, and the truth is there's probably someone somewhere that wants your product but the question is how many ppl are there and how easy is it to find them.
As a side note, creating products you yourself use is important. That way, on top of the experience, you get value from your product. I've done this with both my products Light Bulb and Timeva and use them both to this day. It makes a huge difference and also encourages me to keep improving them and building new tools I want.
Lmk if this was helpful.
Thanks for your input Dan;) I was wondering, when you faced a problem and decided to solve it for yourself primarily, did you check the market if there are already solutions for your idea? or were they first of a kind? or you simply didn't like the existing ones and decided to make a better version? Appreciate.
I always check the market but only after I sketch out the core idea.
Sometimes the idea already exists. For instance, I had the idea to create a crypto currency notification platform. It doesn't exist in the way I was thinking but existing applications came close enough not to build it.
With applications I decide to build, they're not existing applications doing exactly what I have in mind. That's where the edge may or may not exist.
👍
My answer will be controversial.
If you're looking to start lifestyle businesses that generate an income, keep trying and no need to use those common startup approaches to guide you in the process because they don't apply to your type of business.
If you're founding real startups, I'd timebox it no matter how long you get validation or traction or whatever you feel like leading signals. Not getting those signals itself is a signal that something isn't working. By timeboxing it, you have time pressure to perform which is not dissimilar to running a funded startup process-wise. Don't use excuses to extend more time for one idea. My view is that trying more ideas in quick succession is always better than sticking to one idea for a prolonged period of time.
If they are still not buying than your hypothesis is wrong and you need to pivot. Pivot is not necessarily product pivot it can be customer pivot as well i.e. you talk to different set of customers say CFO's with the same product. Once you find the PMF than you go ahead further else you decide to stop it.
solid approach, thank you for the comment:)
While I agree with what @pdyc said, it's never as straightforward. You'll always see competitors who're offering a similar product and making a killing with 1000+ customers.
I think it boils down to the ability to find early customers. If you get that initial traction, your journey becomes easier. If you struggle very hard to find initial customers; I'd say 3-4 months is good time to decide whether you should continue.
and again probably depends (subjectively) how much effort you input during those 3-4 months, how much marketing you do, how many potential users you approach, etc. etc.....no golden formula at all.
That's right. There are no formulas. You'll know when you must quit. However, you might want to try selling the software to different groups of people that you think are your customers. Try at least 3-4 different groups before deciding.
thank you for your inputs, appreciate ;)