How to Gather Notable (Believable) Customer Feedback and Prove Traction Even Before Product

Building a startup is easy, right? All you need is an idea, and the right skills, with related past experience, alongside a strong team, with just the right amount of money, a grand vision, an insane level of perseverance, people open to giving you a shot, and a bit of luck, all at the right time.

That is why I want to spend some time sharing the importance of customer development (also used interchangeably with the terms user discovery and idea validation) – so you don’t waste months or years of your life building something no-one wants.

But first, let’s level-set on the average progress early-stage startups have made on their product at the pre-seed and seed stage. I’ve found that through the years, as the market has become more crowded and therefore competition has increased, expectations of having some sort of MVP earlier and earlier in a company’s lifecycle have become the norm. In fact, according to DocSend’s research, a heavy majority of companies have gone out to fundraise their first official venture-backed round with at least an alpha or beta version of their product.

As a founder, R&D and market research is hopefully what drives you in these early days of building a company. My love for market research came from these books: The Startup Owner’s Manual, The Lean Startup, Running Lean, Sprint, and Hacking Growth. Check them out if you find yourself resonating with the lessons within this blog and want to dig in deeper.

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