#24: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

This is a classic tale of when a good idea makes bad business. On the surface of it Tom’s idea ticked all the right boxes. He discovered a problem a lot of people encounter, he had the skills to scope and execute a solution and the hustle to find potential customers and validate a desire for his solution. However, he missed one crucial element when creating a startup, figuring out a business model.

You can’t just create value for the user: that’s a charity. You also can’t just create value for your company: that’s a scam. Your goal is to set up a positive-sum exchange, where everyone benefits, including you.

Could Tom have saved a lot of time and money figuring out his business modal before jumping into creating a solution? Yes, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. In this post, Tom shares his learnings and insight and the importance of undertaking validation work prior to jumping into creating your product head first. (9 min read)

When was the last time you completed a side project? Have you ever felt that you were trapped working on something that you don’t enjoy anymore? Do your self-imposed deadlines to launch keep passing by? If so, you are not alone. I personally often find my half-baked ideas and products fall by the wayside. Dominick Schroer shares his new approach to completing his projects. In short, pick a very aggressive and limiting timeline, reduce the project to its absolute minimum and execute that plan to completion. Sounds simple right? (3 min read)

Serial founder Rob Walling talks through the Stair Step Approach to Bootstrapping, with examples from his experience and those of other successful founders. Rob is certainly in a great position to impart his wisdom on this subject, having built 7 businesses to six- or seven-figures in revenue without taking outside funding. In short - Step 1: create a simple product, with a simple marketing plan (something you can build and market yourself). Step 2: double down on step 1 and try to understand if it’s feasible to grow it to a “full-time income” with one product line, if not you might need to cobble a few together. Step 3: level up and take a bigger risk by going after a stand-alone product with recurring revenue.

🎁 Bonus Read: Check out Rob’s 7 part series of posts centred around startup marketing