Your MVP should test product market fit PLUS a customer acquisition channel

I have tons of ideas and of course some aren't viable so I like to throw things against the wall QUICKLY and see what fits.

I've started 3 companies. Sold 2 ... working on selling my 3rd now and working on my 4th.

Here's what I think most new entrepreneurs don't realize.

Building your product is the easy part. Getting it out into the hands of the customer is BY FAR the biggest challenge.

So much so that it doesn't make sense to focus on a good idea. Focus on cool distribution channels and then see what ideas fit the channel.

You have to REALLY understand the channel.

This could be PPC, SEO, partnerships, built-in virality, etc. But you have to nail it.

You damn well have a product that delights your customer of course.

But if you can't get distribution who cares! No one is using it and you've failed. You've failed to change the world. Your VCs are pissed at you, etc.

So your MVP really should be focused on testing THREE things which you should be measuring.

1. Do people actually like my product.

This can be done by setting up a net promoter score in your product. Figure out what is typical for that industry by reaching out to other companies or trying to review as much literature to find other NPS mentions. Talk to them. Listen to what they say.

Some might hate your product or just not get it but if you're having people tell you its amazing then you're on the right track.

2. Make sure they're paying. Actually PAYING for things is insanely important! If they're not willing to pay your'e dead in the water. Get them paying ASAP. Then start to track this as a KPI.

3. Make sure you're growing based on some percentage of previous growth. You want a steady 30% each month. If you're just growing a static 2000 users or so every month it might be viable as a business but it's kind of a bad position to be in. You're going to eventually get top-heavy and have difficulty acquiring more customers.

If you can pull off SEO you might be able to get 10-50k customers / pageviews per month and this is a GOOD distribution channel initially but make sure you can bake in some sort of viral growth so that the thing scales.

You want something that grows by itself.

If you can prove all three above you have a winner!

Get the damn MVP out the door. Test all the above. Try to do it fast.

If it fails. Learn your lessons and try another MVP . Keep iterating until you get the right blend of 1, 2, and 3 above.

#growth #mvp