{"id":46523,"date":"2023-10-20T15:50:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/ten-questions-all-early-stage-startups-need-to-answer-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:50:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:50:21","slug":"ten-questions-all-early-stage-startups-need-to-answer-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/ten-questions-all-early-stage-startups-need-to-answer-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten questions all early-stage startups need to answer – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
I recently did a workshop with five early stage companies. Here are my questions during the session, I hope this would help you get clarity on your business too.<\/p>\n
Clearly articulate the problem and convince us the problem is real. Don\u2019t jump straight into the the technical details of your solution, or start a product demo.<\/p>\n
Which one would you seek treatment first? A knife wound on your stomach bleeding like crazy, or a paper cut on your finger. Will you pay for a patented world class paper cut treatment using some cutting-edge technologies?<\/p>\n
Who will pay for your solution? If no one is paying, there will be no business, period. Think about who your customers are, why do they have the problem, where do they hang out etc.<\/p>\n
Ask your potential customers questions to validate your idea. Don\u2019t spend $100,000 to build the prototype first. You could even sign up a few pre-orders this way.<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t find any potential customer to talk to now, how are you going to find them to sell to later?<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t focus on your customer acquisition effort if you don\u2019t know who you are selling to clearly.<\/p>\n
If you solve a $10 problem for your customers and charge them $1 for it, then this will be a viable business. At what point is your solution too expensive? At what point is it too cheap and your customers will start to question the quality?<\/p>\n
If it costs you $1 to make and you are charging your customers $10, then this will be a sustainable business. What is your margin?<\/p>\n
Lean canvas is a good tool to visualise your business. The left hand side of the canvas is everything around the product, and the right hand side is the market. The holy-grail of a startup is to achieve product-market fit.<\/p>\n