The Valley of Despair

The gap between bringing an MVP to market and actually gaining traction is massive.

A “crevasse” as Scott Cook satirically puts it in an interview with Sal Khan. This is the phase where founders survive off Ramen noodles and sleeping on the floor of their office.

There is a way across this valley of despair though.

For Intuit, Cook attributes his eventual success to word of mouth—they were the first software company to utilize consumer feedback.

Keep in mind, this was in the late ‘80s when user betas were not easy to facilitate, nor timely in data collection.

As entrepreneurs in the age of the internet, we have the distinct advantage of near instant feedback. With an afternoon building a landing page and a couple hundred bucks on ads, we can validate an idea within the week.

The speed of communication we now enjoy is an accelerator for any startup.

It’s your ticket through the trenches.

Source: Sal chats with entrepreneurs: Scott Cook

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