Validating Startups: Get Paid Before Building
As a 2X founder, I'm convincing 3 strangers to pay for a product that doesn't exist. It's not a scam... it's ✨ validation strategy ✨
My first startup, I spent months building, raised $4.5M, hired a team, then tried to find people who wanted what we made. We ended up pivoting to something else.
This time around with, Nicolas & I are doing things differently. Our process:
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Pick an ensh*ttified" company + problem you have
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List your riskiest assumptions, create hypotheses and figure out how to derisk them.
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Get paid upfront. Goal: find 3-5 paid design partners to give feedback and co-create the product with you.
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How? Talk to 50 people. Don't pitch. Listen! Then ask the ones who light up if they want in.
If you can't get 3-5 people to pay, it's okay! You either haven't yet found the right ICP or the market saving you from building the wrong thing.
For us:
- We're digging deeper in the e-sign space. I despised using Docusign at my prev startup & think there is a better way in an agentic world.
- We have 4 hypotheses we are derisking
- We are at 21/50 people we've spoken to
ON THAT NOTE: If you are sending 10+ proposals monthly and use AI heavily, send me a DM! :)
I'm Mika, an exited venture backed startup founder, now to building to $1M with just 2 people: me and my husband. Follow for real talk on founder life, AI & tech and living time-rich.