SCRATCHING YOUR HEAD
INSTEAD OF SCRATCHING YOUR ITCH
The Problems With Startup Material
Influencing, Affecting, And Hindering Startups
Books, Podcasts, Guides, Tool-Kits, Frameworks... ISSUES
UNUSABLE LEVEL OF DETAIL
Where's The "How-To" Bit?
Inspirational fluff, endless anecdotes, and SEO-c**p, alongside bull*t instructions like "Now do some marketing". Not ignoring the sound-bites of successful founders blinkered by survivorship bias. They may as well recommend you use Midas's middle finger.
YOU TOO CAN GET THE SAME RESULTS
If You Use My Secret Whatever... But You Won't
Great results have you got salivating. But you lack contextual appreciation so you'll blindly copy it without any innate understanding. When you do get the context, you realize similar results were never on the cards. But hey, you’re in their funnel. That’s a win-win in their book. Which you can purchase from their website.
Excessive Focus On The Product
STARTUPS FAIL FOR MANY REASONS
And Not Just No Market Need
No market need is only one reason, yet we have lop-sided product-based approaches. What about the other landmines? You’ll have to navigate past them as well.
FOUNDERS WEAR MANY HATS
Research Hat, Marketing Hat, Sales Hat, Jimmy Hat...
You know you have to make something people want. But you also have to make people want something. Each hat is a career in its own right, but you’ll have to wear them all.
Dubious Experiments Questionable 'Validation'
FAIL FAST - LEARN SLOW
How Many Things Are You Attempting To Validate?
Attempting to validate the problem, the audience, the solution, the channel, the content on the channel, the targeting factors, taking into account buyer intent doesn’t exclusively mean early adopters. Then there is your landing page skills and copy-writing chops. Get those things right, then yes, you are attempting to validate market demand using a landing page and mock product.
Not Fully Taking The Effects Of Time Into Account
SHIP EARLY AND MINIMUM
Oblivious To The Passage Of Time
Markets evolve, competitors multiply and audiences expect more. You can ship too early. Take into account the passage of time, and that minimum is a rising expectation we have to meet.
GETTING OUT OF THE BUILDING TOO SOON
Fishing Instead Of Experimenting
An open mind doesn’t mean an empty mind, otherwise, you won’t have the context nor level of knowledge to appreciate what you find. Some facts are undoubtedly outside the building, but you need to get to the right people, and probe in the right manner with a solid hypothesis.
Undoubtedly Fantastic Stuff Shared By A Few
BRILLIANT ACTIONABLE STUFF
But Narrow In Scope
Fantastic resources shared by brilliant minds that go deep, but are narrow in scope. So you’re putting a jigsaw puzzle together, not knowing if the parts contribute correctly to the targeted whole.
SCATTERGUN TACTICS & PROCESSES
Not Contained Within An Overall Strategy Nor System
A lack of congruency between macro and micro-goals can result in doing tasks that don’t lead to the desired objective, or even lead you astray. Like tactics oblivious to strategy, and orphaned processes not housed in a system.
Incubate Your Mind So You'll Stop
Blindly Copying Tips & Tactics, Hoping To Find A Magic Bullet
Prematurely Implementing Hacks Cutting Out What You Need To Know
Inappropriate Methods So You're Trying To Run Before You Can Walk
There Are A Few Holistic Resources
That Cover Idea To Launch
