Validate the need for speed of idea-to-market

[harryworld]

Customer Hypothesis: Financial Background want to start a technical startup Problem Hypothesis: Can't find the right developer

[harryworld]

Steven Chan:

What problems in general?

• Hard to find developers
• Not sure whether it is good product
• Build the product himself, take 3 months already, not much progress
• Bankers are more likely becoming fund managers, hedge fund owners, not likely entrepreneurship

Want to have fast idea-to-market? No

• 9 to 12 months are ok

Friends

• One friend working on organic food delivery website

[harryworld]

David Hammond

What problems in general?

• Don't know the developer community
• Don't know the methodologies in running a startup
• The first developer is by introduction thru friends for a relatively long time (months)
• Meet two HK developer vendors, one software house, and PCCW solutions, not able to get started
• Joined GA course and find developers from our pool

Want to have fast idea-to-market? Yes

• 3 - 6 months
• Want to start an idea implementation process after it comes to a certain confident level
• It may be the idea out of 20 ideas

Friends

• One friend starting a startup
• One friend working on consulting projects

[harryworld]

Gene

What problems in general?

• Don't know how to hire developer
• Not know the language to talk to developers
• Selected to switch the job first, and think about the idea later
• Don't want to pay much for developers, may be around 15K for a project to test out

Want to have fast idea-to-market? Yes

• Around 3 months now
• Thought at least 6 months before taking WDI

Friends

• Talk to one potential client before
• Boxful founder

[harryworld]

Paul

What problems in general?

• Don't want to give out equity
• Don't want to spend too much money, probably less than 50K
• Compare risk taken vs gained
• Pay less, so even it is a failure, doesn't lose much
• Want to look for a technical partner
• Would be more passionate if they quitted the job already, and being entrepreneur full time
• Think that should quit the job, and giving out half of the shares for a technical partner

Want to have fast idea-to-market? Yes

• Around 1 month now
• Thought of 6 months before taking WDI
• Mainly due to learning the know-how, and it's feasible to have something done within 2 weeks

Friends

• Got some friends want to start a startup

[harryworld]

Wing from Cyberport

What problems in general?

• Portfolio Management Product
• Not quite expandable in HK, want to expand back to London
• One developer from India, another more senior (old friend) from Japan

Want to have fast idea-to-market? No

• Spend around 1 year to develop

[harryworld]

Wissam

What problems in general?

• Not starting a business right now
• Consider the stable income from banking, and balance business with family
• Invested in one restaurant and one english learning center
• Expect slow return on investment (around 3-5 years)
• Want to take less risk in starting a business
• Expect to have one to two partners to start it together

Want to have fast idea-to-market? Yes

• Around 3 months
• No technical startup idea right now

[harryworld]

阿仁

What problems in general?

• Had an idea half year before, tried playing around with it online
• Talked to developer friend, got some quotations of 50K upwards, think too expensive
• Want to get started, read the book Business Model Generation, but didn't draw down the idea

Want to have fast idea-to-market? Yes

• Around 2-3 months

[harryworld]

Jasper Ng

What problems in general?

• Don't know how long time to develop one app
• Don't know how much does it cost
• Want to create the app before thinking about revenue model

Want to have fast idea-to-market? Yes

• Around 1 month

[harryworld]

Learnings:

• Generally want fast idea-to-market
• The definition about fast is about 3 months
• Trust level is low
• Want to look for technical partner
• Don't want to pay much on equity and development cost