Ask HN: Build or Sell? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Build or Sell?

5 pointsUnbugMe4 comments

I've gotten two "schools" of advice quite often: A) Sell, sell, sell: Get out of the office, talk to people, sell an idea, then figure out how to build it.

B)Momentum is key: People are always interested in new products but its essential to keep the momentum going. Every meeting should have a clear next step that gets you closer to a sale and people aren't going to sit around waiting for 6 months while you build.

The first piece of advice leads me to think that I should be out talking to people more while the latter makes me think that the conversations I've had are good and I should focus on building and then start having more conversations once I've built an MVP.

How do I reconcile the two? Any thoughts for alternative plans?

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It’s an iterative process:

1. Talk to people until you find a problem with a solution that you can build that people will pay you for.

2. Build the smallest unit of product that can solve that problem. It doesn’t have to be scalable, it doesn’t have to be perfect or complete, but it needs to solve the problem.

3. Sell it to one or more customers who have the problem you can solve. Don’t build more until you have a sale, and ideally you should have one or more pre-sales.

4. Talk to your customers for feedback. Figure out which suggests are general and which are customer-specific. Build the general suggestions first if necessary. Otherwise, sell more.

5. Rinse and repeat.

If you are solo, expect to spend the vast majority of your time talking to customers and making sales. Product is not the time sink.

Some really good advice in this comment, especially number 2 in the list.

Answering some other questions might help you decide where to focus your efforts more on A or more on B. For example, and generally speaking:

1. Do you know your customers and their requirements? How valuable is it to them, does it address a pain point? Is it easy for them to use your product, i.e. fits in workflow without change or is there an incumbent process/product that needs to be replaced, etc.

2. Do you need a team to build an MVP, and if so, do you already have that team? More generally, do you require more resources (people, money, knowledge - e.g. from customers (1)) before you can build your MVP? Assuming that an MVP already delivers value to the customer and can be sold - is perhaps a POC a more logical first step (for example - if you need additional resources for an MVP)

-- if you know your customers and their needs and you have all the resources necessary for an MVP. Focus more on building an MVP. Start selling the MVP while focusing more on A to grow your business and revenue.

-- if you need resources you currently do not have for an MVP, or you are uncertain about the requirements, your customers, etc. Focus on A to either:

* find your customers and get the requirements. Possibly even a contract for a 'custom MVP'

* find investors (who preferably know your customers or their industry/requirements/etc.) to get the resources for an MVP. A POC will greatly help convincing investors.

* etc.

Without more details, we are stuck with generalities.

The two options do not seem to be mutually exclusive.

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