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So the first thing that I'm going to tackle is idea validation i.e. the research phase of starting
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your app or starting your startup.
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And this is something that a lot of people want to skip over but it is so important
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and I can't stress enough how important it is. When most people launch an app
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the thing that they imagine will happen is that overnight it'll be a huge sensation,
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you'll see it on tech crunch to end up here and they'll be headlined like "Your app is a huge hit and
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you're the next month Zuckerberg."
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And this is because the media that we consume is hugely biased.
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We like to see news stories on overnight sensations like the Pokemon go appp or we see people having very very
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public failures.
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And the truth is that in 99 percent of all the companies of all of the apps that get started will get
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built,
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the saddest thing is not failing publicly but in fact it's no one having ever noticed it existing.
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And that's what happens most of the time.
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So in order to ensure that your idea or your product has the highest chance of success, the most important
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thing is to do some form of idea validation or market or product validation.
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And if you're somebody like me you'll probably have an idea every five minutes.
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You know Indeed if I'm brushing my teeth or if I'm walking down the street I will have an app idea or a
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business idea just pop up out of the blue.
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And the question is how do you know which of these ideas are worthwhile?
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How do you know which one that you should pursue and which one is going to be a success?
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So that's what idea of validation is all about. It's about getting feedback on your ideas seeing if it's
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worth putting in the time putting in the energy putting in the money in order to make it successful.
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Now one of your most important resources is not money but it's actually time.
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This is the one nonrenewable resource that we as all humans have and that also means that if you spend
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a year working on an idea that eventually tanks and doesn't go anywhere, that's prevented you from working
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on your 10 other ideas one of which could have been a success.
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So it's important to save yourself time as well as money in order to maximize your chances of success.
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Now the other problem is that how do you know if your idea is actually a good one?
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And I love the sketch from Silicon Valley because it just describes so many people that if you've been
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in the tech industry for a while you will come across. Terrible ideas from great people.
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Usually when I'm riding on the back of an Uber. - "Ever been lost in the parking lot before? What my app would do
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is use existing AVL technology right?
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So you would just type in the VIN number and if your car doesn't have AVL capabilities you would just type
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in like what section of the parking lot you were in like P3 or ground 7.
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- So you just you just write down what section of the parking lot you're in ?
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I mean what are you doing after that? - So you can remember where you parked."
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- Right.
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What don't you just write it down on a piece of paper?
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- Well yeah but this is for your phone.
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- OK.
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So it's just like a notepad?
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- Exactly! See? You get it.
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- I  get it.
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OK.
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So aside from being one of my absolute favorite shows, but it also illustrates a really valid point.
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There's a lot of people spending a lot of hours in their life on an idea that's probably not going to
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work.
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And the reason why I say it's probably not going to work not because I have any you know advanced insight
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or that I can predict the future, but it's because they haven't ever validated their idea on a buying
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customer or on a future user.
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So essentially, you know, when we think about startup founders we think you know there are huge risk takers,
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they've quit their job,
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they've given up everything, remortgaged their house in order to do this thing.
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But actually you know if you listen to somebody like Richard Branson actually you'll notice that the
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thing that differentiates successful founders versus unsuccessful founders is that they want to limit
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their risk exposure.
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For example, when Richard Branson started Virgin Atlantic you know he had a deal which allowed him to
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hand back the plane if it didn't work
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after a year.
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So unlike what the media portrays, startup founders are not these huge risk takers because nobody can
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predict the future. No matter how great your idea is if the time is not right or if certain conditions
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aren't met it just won't work.
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Why is it that the Palm Pilot didn't take off in the same way that the iPhone did?
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Because the time wasn't right. And there's things that you can't predict as a human.
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So you must must validate. This is the progression that I see a lot of potential founders having in their head
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and it's the idea of creating a prototype, then use that to raise funding,
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then you build a great team and then you put it out to the market and then you have overwhelming success.
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Now unfortunately, this rarely works. And I'm not saying that it never works
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I'm sure there are examples but this has a lower chance of success than an alternative pathway. Which
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is where you validate the idea first in the market,
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see if there are people who are willing to download it or use it depending on what it is that you're
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building and then create the prototype and then demonstrate that you've got traction, that you've got growth
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you've got more and more users or they're spending more and more time in your product.
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And then you take that evidence and then you go and raise funding.
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This has a much higher chance of success than the previous one.
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So I think I've stressed the importance of idea of validation enough.
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So let's look at some of the ways in which you can validate your idea for little or no cost.