Customer Validation Quotes

Get your product in front of actual, living, breathing strangers. Your college roommate's approval does not mean there's market demand.

I'd stay away from investments in a variety of sectors that are capital intensive. Anyone who says we need $100 million before we know if what we're doing makes sense and the customers want it - that's not going to work.

What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don't do that, it won't matter how clever your business model is.

One of the top causes of startup death - right after cofounder problems - is building something no one wants.

Unless you have tested the assumptions in your business model first, outside the building, your business plan is just creative writing.

Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.

HubSpot has used the lean startup method to build a spectacularly successful company. What I particularly love about HubSpot is that they are so geeked out on data analysis and making evidence-based decisions, which are at the heart of the Lean Startup process.

The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

It's one of the most validating things you can do for a product is go out there and get them to commit to pay you up front.

You can be a great researcher, and you can think you have great ideas, but until you're forced to talk to a potential customer, you never really know.

The Lean Startup has evolved into a movement that is having a significant impact on how companies are built, funded and scaled.

Auctomatic was a compressed start-up experience, going from start to launch to acquisition in under a year. We spent a long time building the product before getting our first customer, whereas with Stripe we made sure we had paying customers from the very start.

The reality is the Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Lean startups waste less money, because they use a disciplined approach to testing new products and ideas.

Getting it off the ground is one thing because it has to do with finding the proper people and the financing, but finding the subject is another thing and this is always for me the most difficult part.

Satisfy the deep subconscious needs of your customers - to feel important, to feel valued, respected and worthwhile

Using the Product Development Waterfall diagram for Customer Development activities is like using a clock to tell the temperature. They both measure something, but not the thing you wanted.

The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build-the thing customers want and will pay for-as quickly as possible. In other words, the Lean Startup is a new way of looking at the development of innovative new products that emphasizes fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and great ambition, all at the same time.

I basically apply with my teams the lean startup principles I used in the private sector - go into Silicon Valley mode, work at startup speed, and attack, doing things in short amounts of time with extremely limited resources.