Startup 101 How to Validate Your Startup Idea

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=xElis_sfGRI

In today’s video of Startup 101 series, we will discuss how you can validate your startup idea and make sure that the idea is worth pursuing. • 00:00 Introduction • 01:15 Identify the problem you are solving • 02:04 Importance of identifying your target customers • 03:14 Ask people if they are willing to pay for it • 04:44 Define core features of your product/idea • 05:23 Learn from your competitors • 06:15 Get feedback from your network • Identify the problem you are solving: While creating a product for your startup, you have to be very specific as to what is the problem you are going to solve. Most entrepreneurs usually try to solve the problem they have faced, as it gives them a better understanding of the problem and how they would like the solution to look like. Once you have the idea, the first step is to identify the specific problem and pain points you are solving and then you move on identifying your target customers. • Importance of identifying your target customers: Even if you have an amazing idea, an amazing team and an amazing product, chances are you won’t be successful unless you identify who will be your target customers. You can make the best product out there but it won’t make you any money or help your startup grow if people are not willing to buy it or you are marketing your product to the group of people who are not even interested in your product. This is why identifying your target customers is an important step in validating your idea. Take the example of grooming startups. Chances are if you are trying to sell personal men grooming services to a middle-class Indians, you won’t find a lot of takers, as grooming is not something middle-class Indians might be willing to spend their money. However, this idea might find its target customers among the people with high net worth. These are the people who need to be groomed as their appearances are of utmost importance to them. This means, for a high-end grooming startup, people with the high net worth will be the more appropriate target audience instead of the middle-class Indians who would prefer to spend their money on necessities. • How to identify your target audience: The best way to find out your target audience is by talking to people and asking if they are willing to pay for the service you are providing. This approach will not only help you make sure that there is a demand for your service but also help you find the right target audience. People might appreciate your product or efforts but there is no sure shot way to properly validating your idea or product unless you know that they are willing to pay for it. Also, by getting them to sign up for your service, they can now help you develop your initial product into a complete product by asking for their continuous feedback and improving on it until you get the perfect product. • Define the core features of your product: When you are trying to create a new product, you need to make sure that you add the core features that define your product. Take for example Facebook. It has thousands of features like video sharing, chatting, games and advertising but at the core of it, it is still a social networking platform. It is your core product that will help you differentiate your idea from your competitors. • Learn from your competitors: Check out your competitors and understand what they are doing good and what they are doing bad with their products. This can help you improve your own product without having to do things from the scratch. There might even be cases when you might not have any competitors. This situation calls for caution, as you need to understand why is it that no one else is working in that space. There could be two possibilities, either no company has actually been able to survive in the space or no one has been able to startup in the space. For the first situation, you will need to understand what are the challenges they faced and what made their product unsuccessful and in the second case, you will need to understand if the market is big enough for you to be profitable or is it even feasible. • Get feedback from your network: Getting feedback from the people in your own network like other entrepreneurs or VCs and also help you find new insights and implementation of your idea. The more people you talk to, the more refined your idea and product can become. • Give us a like and subscribe to Backstage with Millionaires if you liked our video. Let us know what you think about this video in the comments below. • Follow Backstage with Millionaires to remain updated with our latest developments. • LinkedIn: / backstagewithmillionaires • Instagram: / backstagewithmillionaires • Twitter: / bwmillionaires • #startupidea #backstagewithmillionaires #bwm

#############################

New on site