I am thinking a lot about Startups and the new generation business and how today we can so easily jump start. The cloud, open source, gig economy, co-working spaces. They all make it easier than ever to get us started. You get the drift. That’s quite obvious as I am in the middle of one with Pitch.Link. The challenges of something new that in turn challenges the status quo is for another discussion. Today let’s talk about Value. The Value that we need to deliver to our prospective customers which in turn helps us get to sustainable revenue. That sounds simple, right? It could be the route to Startup Success Rate going from the current 10% to, say 50%. Occam’s Razor!
We have been reading and talking about MVP. It is rare to be in a startup group where one does not hear the term MVP – a minimum viable product. This is, as usual, from the builders point of view. Like in sales, most terms (even the term ‘Customer’) are projections of the seller POV. The ‘customer’ is a customer wrt the seller. On her own, she is a ‘Buyer’. We need to recast this whole selling process from a process of equals, if not from the Buyer’s side. After all she is the source of the cash that makes the transaction viable. But I digress.
MVP is what you build as the ‘selling’ company to give one complete use case to one target market. From the target market or Buyers point of view, we need to define the Minimum Viable Value (MVV) that needs to be delivered to the target Buyer.
What value will make it worth her – Time (to understand and test the solution) + Pain(of change) + Cash/investment (cost payable that makes it viable for the seller to continue to sell, develop and support the solution).
This is critical for the Buyer. If the buyer wears down the seller to an extent where future support becomes a question – the investment in the product or service can come to risk in its entirety. Irrespective of the bargain.
This is what we need to figure as we go out with our MVP and validate it with our prospective buyers. If we are not able to arrive at the MVV we will not be able to create a business which is built on the solid foundation of revenue.
Because sooner or later funding will run out. If you are able to raise funds that is. What will truly sustain your startup ( and mine) is revenue.
Please share your thoughts on how Startups can be focused on discovering MVV which in turn ensures sustainable revenue.
