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Mentor Minute - Nobody Cares by Phil Morle

Name: Mentor Minute - Nobody Cares by Phil Morle
Uploaded: 2014-03-13T05:43:08+00:00
Duration: 1 min 13 s
Channel: Royston G King
Description: In this Mentor Minute segment, Phil Morle tells early‑stage founders that the default state of a startup is that “nobody cares” about their product. This…

13 Mar 2014 · 1 min

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1:13

In this Mentor Minute segment, Phil Morle tells early‑stage founders that the default state of a startup is that “nobody cares” about their product. This harsh reality is actually an opportunity: because no one is invested, founders can experiment freely with real customers, quickly test whether a solution provides value, and learn from failure. Morle stresses the importance of putting a minimal offering in front of users, gathering direct feedback, and iterating rapidly—moving from one customer to many, even if early users are lost. He warns that every day spent delaying this customer‑facing experimentation is a day lost in learning the value proposition needed to build a sustainable business.

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I want to leave you with this thought though, as a starting point, which is that a great thing about being a startup, about being where all you guys are right now, is that nobody cares. Absolutely nobody. And that's what's troubling. And that's what our job is, to move people away from that to a point where they care. Right? But it's great because it means you can experiment with people. You know, you'll get your first customer, you can experiment with them and see if they find it valuable. And if they don't and you failed, you can move on to another customer. And then eventually you can move on to 5 customers and see what they think. And eventually, you know, another 10, another 50. But you may burn those 50. You know, it doesn't matter. Then you'll get another 100. But the only way you're really going to learn is by putting something in front of a real customer to actually put your value in front of the customer. That's what you're here to do. You're trying to make a business, you're trying to sell someone something and see if they're gonna buy it. If they're not gonna buy it, you're not making something valuable, you're never gonna have a business, and every day you delay doing that is you're delaying a moment of learning that's gonna help you make that value.