James Sinclair tells startup founders to stop debating market size and instead find 10 real people who confirm they have the problem, already cobble together solutions, and would pay for yours. Get emails, calls, or Zooms as proof for investors and early customers.
Chapters
Startup founders who are believing truly that their problem services an enormous segment of the market or has a niche segment of the market. But they know who their customers are. They know their customers are going to want the solution. They know their customers will pay for them. Amazing. I'm with you. Buy me 10. And I don't mean go on LinkedIn and find John in sales at Ford and be like, well, everyone in sales has this problem. Or, you know, Terry, you know, in HR at Tesla, because everyone HR in this problem. Problem. No, I mean find me actually 10 people that you've spoken to that will validate that this is a problem they're having, that they are solving it in some way now and therefore allocating a budget. And really what we're talking to is a big loop to an older video about early evangelists, which is early evangelists, people who know they have the problem, recognize it, are already creating some sort of a solution by stitching tools together and are paying for those tools in some way and therefore would be willing to pay and invest and take a moment in an unproven solution. So find me 10. Maybe that's you just sending an email to 10 people that you think are good fit for your software and being like, hey, I'm a startup. This is the area that I'm building. This is the problem statement or the hypothesis. I know you're very busy. I would love to know if you agree with me. I would love to know if you agree with me and have any other thoughts. I would love to know if you agree with me, have any other thoughts. I would like to spend 15 minutes just helping me understand how to better articulate. I'm okay with you finding me 10 people that would use your solution without knowing if they'd pay or what they'd pay. I'm okay with that for now because the first step is making sure your problem is real. So find me 10. If your problem is that amazing, put in the work. Find me 10 customers that agree with you. Wouldn't that be an amazing slide for your deck? Here are 10 random people I reached out to across the United States based on their Personas, who have all validated that the problem is real, that they're currently doing this, that there is a market gap, Wouldn't it validate it for yourself, your investors? It'd be phenomenal. And by the way, those are going to be your first few customers. They just don't know it yet. So if you're so strong in belief that your solution has a market, find me 10 people. Actual 10. Show me the emails. Show me the zoom call. Show me the phone call where they say, we agree with you, but not 10 people you know, 10 people you don't. Good luck.
