At this point, you are feeling good about the problem opportunity and market you are going after. You have a good understanding of the customer and can give your elevator pitch confidently.

What you likely don’t have is significant funding to get this venture off the ground! The key is getting the concept de-risked so that you can bring in new tranches of investment, start selling to customers, and keep the ball moving toward your end goal we first began dreaming about. To do that, you must prove technology and you must prove market viability.

You need a prototype that can deliver some of your value proposition to your customers and you need someone willing to pay you for it!

Yes, you need sales and you need them fast! You need a minimum viable product prototype and you need to seek opportunities to actively demonstrate it for your customer base. Initially you will provide free demos just learn from them so they can shape the product, but eventually you will want to push them to pay or at least proclaim they would pay for the product.

A roadmap for this must be put together. You have limited time, money, patience. The second question investors are going to ask you is “what are you going to do with my money?” Having a roadmap such as the one below is a good start and will get you through a first investor meeting. As investors dig deeper though you will need to provide good detail on each step. You will need that business plan I spoke about in my business plan/model post.

You will want to summarize your plan in 2-3 sentences (bottom) to add on to your elevator pitch. 

You are now well on your way. Be sure to keep the following in mind all through this process. The customer focus is just beginning!

CONTINUE TO TALK TO THE CUSTOMER

LISTEN TO FEEDBACK

PRE SELL*

* Interested in sales? Be sure to check out my sales primer!