So the first thing that I'm going to tackle is idea validation i.e. the research phase of starting 1
your app or starting your startup. 2
And this is something that a lot of people want to skip over but it is so important 3
and I can't stress enough how important it is. When most people launch an app 4
the thing that they imagine will happen is that overnight it'll be a huge sensation, 5
you'll see it on tech crunch to end up here and they'll be headlined like "Your app is a huge hit and 6
you're the next month Zuckerberg." 7
And this is because the media that we consume is hugely biased. 8
We like to see news stories on overnight sensations like the Pokemon go appp or we see people having very very 9
public failures. 10
And the truth is that in 99 percent of all the companies of all of the apps that get started will get 11
built, 12
the saddest thing is not failing publicly but in fact it's no one having ever noticed it existing. 13
And that's what happens most of the time. 14
So in order to ensure that your idea or your product has the highest chance of success, the most important 15
thing is to do some form of idea validation or market or product validation. 16
And if you're somebody like me you'll probably have an idea every five minutes. 17
You know Indeed if I'm brushing my teeth or if I'm walking down the street I will have an app idea or a 18
business idea just pop up out of the blue. 19
And the question is how do you know which of these ideas are worthwhile? 20
How do you know which one that you should pursue and which one is going to be a success? 21
So that's what idea of validation is all about. It's about getting feedback on your ideas seeing if it's 22
worth putting in the time putting in the energy putting in the money in order to make it successful. 23
Now one of your most important resources is not money but it's actually time. 24
This is the one nonrenewable resource that we as all humans have and that also means that if you spend 25
a year working on an idea that eventually tanks and doesn't go anywhere, that's prevented you from working 26
on your 10 other ideas one of which could have been a success. 27
So it's important to save yourself time as well as money in order to maximize your chances of success. 28
Now the other problem is that how do you know if your idea is actually a good one? 29
And I love the sketch from Silicon Valley because it just describes so many people that if you've been 30
in the tech industry for a while you will come across. Terrible ideas from great people. 31
Usually when I'm riding on the back of an Uber. - "Ever been lost in the parking lot before? What my app would do 32
is use existing AVL technology right? 33
So you would just type in the VIN number and if your car doesn't have AVL capabilities you would just type 34
in like what section of the parking lot you were in like P3 or ground 7. 35
- So you just you just write down what section of the parking lot you're in ? 36
I mean what are you doing after that? - So you can remember where you parked." 37
- Right. 38
What don't you just write it down on a piece of paper? 39
- Well yeah but this is for your phone. 40
- OK. 41
So it's just like a notepad? 42
- Exactly! See? You get it. 43
- I get it. 44
OK. 45
So aside from being one of my absolute favorite shows, but it also illustrates a really valid point. 46
There's a lot of people spending a lot of hours in their life on an idea that's probably not going to 47
work. 48
And the reason why I say it's probably not going to work not because I have any you know advanced insight 49
or that I can predict the future, but it's because they haven't ever validated their idea on a buying 50
customer or on a future user. 51
So essentially, you know, when we think about startup founders we think you know there are huge risk takers, 52
they've quit their job, 53
they've given up everything, remortgaged their house in order to do this thing. 54
But actually you know if you listen to somebody like Richard Branson actually you'll notice that the 55
thing that differentiates successful founders versus unsuccessful founders is that they want to limit 56
their risk exposure. 57
For example, when Richard Branson started Virgin Atlantic you know he had a deal which allowed him to 58
hand back the plane if it didn't work 59
after a year. 60
So unlike what the media portrays, startup founders are not these huge risk takers because nobody can 61
predict the future. No matter how great your idea is if the time is not right or if certain conditions 62
aren't met it just won't work. 63
Why is it that the Palm Pilot didn't take off in the same way that the iPhone did? 64
Because the time wasn't right. And there's things that you can't predict as a human. 65
So you must must validate. This is the progression that I see a lot of potential founders having in their head 66
and it's the idea of creating a prototype, then use that to raise funding, 67
then you build a great team and then you put it out to the market and then you have overwhelming success. 68
Now unfortunately, this rarely works. And I'm not saying that it never works 69
I'm sure there are examples but this has a lower chance of success than an alternative pathway. Which 70
is where you validate the idea first in the market, 71
see if there are people who are willing to download it or use it depending on what it is that you're 72
building and then create the prototype and then demonstrate that you've got traction, that you've got growth 73
you've got more and more users or they're spending more and more time in your product. 74
And then you take that evidence and then you go and raise funding. 75
This has a much higher chance of success than the previous one. 76
So I think I've stressed the importance of idea of validation enough. 77
So let's look at some of the ways in which you can validate your idea for little or no cost.