How Much Technology Does Your Startup Need Now?
This is an email I recently sent to a couple of founders to help them frame how they should be thinking about the scope of their MVP. I've lightly edited it here, but it's still written in the second person.
I often see parallels between building tech for a startup and shipping ports. When you think of your long-term vision you are naturally going to envision the resultant container port, something akin to what the Port of Seattle[0] looks like today:
However, the port didn't start as large as it is today, nor with all of the existing infrustructure. When European explorers arrived in the Americas, they dropped anchor off the coast and sent a row boat into land, offloading any materials they needed from the row boat.
Here in the Virgin Islands, Columbus first landed in the Salt River Bay on St Croix. That site today is still Salt River Bay and not the Salt River Container Port. The port on St Croix ended up being built on the south side of the island. Additionally, the busier container port is likely the Port on St Thomas, not St Croix. So, prior to building a lot of infrustructure you need to first be sure you're even putting it in the right place.
Second, you must ask the question of how much infrastructure investment is necessary and appropriate for each port. As you can see from the Port of Seattle photo, all of the cranes have been placed on land. This infrastructure is extremely expensive but at sufficient container volumes the extra speed of offloading makes that fixed cost worth the investment. However, you don’t see the same infrastructure investment here in the Virgin Islands.
