Connecting end customers, sellers and installers on a renewable energy marketplace that takes key pain points of all three parties to speed up the energy transition.
@@damientan4522 it would be the same thing sitting in front of a first time founder because he’s answering most likely all the questions they would ask. And also addressing the potential bad ideas they would speak of in the conversation. Of course, you say that because it’s here on TH-cam.
And WILL NOT listen to lol. They should though, this is the best way hands down. It took me many years to realize this because I was terrified of putting out something less than perfect. If you keep your eyes closed, the problems dont exist right?
My favorite quote ever: "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution". I've been a software engineer for over 22 years and it wasn't until I learned about MVP 5 years ago that I felt like I was making a real difference. This video is one of the greatest videos I've seen on MVP. Very well done!
These videos have saved me years and so much money/potential regrets - I would have fallen for so many of these traps, and I can see how much closer I am to my goals, and it's helped me make so much more money, for free! Thank you guys for putting this material out there. Thank you Michael!
I second that. I don't know if you guys know, but you couldn't have nailed it better on the content: this is some of the MOST valuable ways anyone could help aspiring entrepreneurs. So good!
Oh man, you completely changed my mind. last two months I have been working on my project and thinking about how to make it perfect and input enough information into the service. Without stumbling upon your video, I might have spent another two months heading in the wrong direction before launching. Now I'm thinking differently as you suggested and planning to share my MVP with my potential customers. Hope I can learn new things from here. Thanks for your contribution to my dream project. love man........ ❤
Stripe: 2010 Twitch: 2007 AirBnb: 2008 iPhone: 2007 I believe that a lot of the fundamentals you lay down are true, but I think there's a much higher level of execution expected by consumers now vs 15 years ago. While the "back in the day" stories are fun, I hope you can provide us with more recent examples, given your exposure to those startups through YC.
I had the same thought. These products when they were released at that period of time, had the base version of latest things few e.g: Apple - iPhone was not the basic in everything. it had the best and big display with touchscreen for that period of time. AirBnb - It didn't have the payment because it was not basic as it is now. Now since everyone is exposed very much to the internet, I think that things like a big display with touchscreen and payment are kind of basic and most probably will be expected from the users.
Counter to that it's so easy to spin up a lot of functionality that 10 years ago was a pain. You can use 'as-a-service' and cloud tools to get basic stuff like auth, db etc sorted in minutes when it used to take days.
Customer Expectations and competition is very high now .Internet & Google search are fast now than 15 yrs back so customers search alternativeTo products faster than ever immedietaly.
Let's say you want to build a phone with a hologram. The early adopters would not care about your phone even having a screen, that is how much they need that hologram. The big screen is not solving their problem. And the initial target should be early adopters, not everyone.
facts. The iPhone 1 in 2007 was still superior to its competitors, LG, Black & Berry and whatnot. I'm surprised Micheal Seibel is making such mistakes and not realizing all those services were far successful not because they had a shitty MVP but because they were first in the market for what they had to offer. Looking at back at 2007 and when those services were started and assuming that today you can do the same, is non sense. He failed to point out that an MVP has still to be superior to what exists in the market. It's all relative to what already exists. What was the alternative to AirBnb in 2008? Seriously, does anyone have any idea? That's what made them successful, not necessarily the fact they had a landing page with no features. So the goal should be to come up with an innovative solution AND an MVP, not just an MVP. But I do agree that you should cater to the early adopters and not the skeptics, or people who started using your competitor's services just recently. Those people you may be able to reach only once your service is already well known and established.
I've been in love with my MVP for many years and haven't launched yet 😭😂 I learnt a lot from this video. AirBnb, Twitch, Stripe also started from the bottom, improved gradually whilst they were learning from their users. Thank you Michael
Even though I've watched all YC videos I've made so many mistakes... I am rewatching all of them and understanding them better, thank you very much for the content, it is gold
This is probably the most important video to watch at this point in time for any founder out there either currently building or thinking of building a product
This is the Best advice for all first time founders. Awesome, Michael! Building an MVP quickly is an essential step in the product development process as it allows you to test your assumptions and validate your idea with minimal investment, helping you to save time and money in the long run.
This guy is amazingly calm explaining something that creates incredible fear, anxiety, and excitement for the majority of people looking to do an MVP. Thank you good sir for your demeanor and awesome information🔥🙏
Honestly I feel YC is giving us this because they wanna tell new founders this is how we prove our concept fast, get metrics and start taking action on our ideas. That way it’s more practical to go up to VCs such as YC to get investment as we have proof of concept. Super great valuable info 🔥🔥🔥
Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro 00:09 - How to Build an Minimum Viable Product (MVP)? 00:20 - Midwit Meme 00:54 - Launch Quickly and Iterate 01:50 - Pre-launch Startup Goals 02:52 - What's an MVP and Do Startups Need Them? 03:49 - Don't Worry About Losing People 04:26 - Founders Biggest Fear 04:53 - What Would Actually Happen? 05:39 - Fake Steve Jobs 07:17 - Examples - Software MVP 07:48 - First Version of Airbnb 08:36 - Twitch 09:15 - Stripe 10:36 - Solving Hair On Fire Problem 11:52 - Problem with Surveying Users 13:27 - You Don't Start With All Answers 14:00 - MVP is the Fastest Way to Start Learning 14:12 - Build an MVP Quickly 15:51 - Outro
Well, when I was 21, I had an idea, but I didn't have any money to develop an MVP. So, I learned to code by myself and built an MVP. It took me 2 years to learn and build an MVP, but now this video shows me how we can build an MVP. I love this video
I made the same error by several years, by today I'm YC alumni, and I will never spend so many years under development, MVP intent to be 3-4 months of development,
lol. 4 years of grit trying to build a spaceship and I was wrong all along. Years of testing and iterating, and the lightbulb just went off a couple of weeks ago. Built the MVP fast with a newly motivated small team. Showing our MVP to users tomorrow. Our runway is nonexistent, running on fumes, personal debt is scary lol. But I know we've built something people want. Wish us luck!
I think that all of the examples you gave have something in common. They were MVPs in a new tech space. I feel that customer expectations were lower because of this, and so an MVP was more lightweight. Whereas, today, I feel in many sectors the customers' expectation has been set really high, and so the MVPs in many areas of today have to be quite polished and not as 'minimum' as they used to be. Thoughts?
Thats something that I'm scared of, if u want to start a business improving something that already exist, you cannot spend weeks developing de product because if you want to improve something that already exist you need to do what they do and then go to your project. Making the weeks being months or a year.
Yes, my company is obsessed with building MVPs right now but they are not building anything that is unique or solving a real problem that our customers have. If anything our company is playing catch up to get to the same playing field that our competitors are at… but that is not what MVP is about. It’s not about building catch up products…. It’s about building something that is going to solve your customers problem that isn’t already on the market.
That's EXACTLY what I thought! Just about every possible product has been created in one way or another. No one is going to hit themselves with a brick today! 😂
I felt in love with my MVP so much that I abandoned it after putting a lot to make it near finished product. This video taught me the way to follow as against what majority do.
I feel that the 2014 Y combinator lectures have some of the best startup advice but please keep making these kind of videos that build up on those points.
My first video of a startup school and I'm amazed to see how excellent they are, as a software engineer working in mobile apps, I am moving more towards startup MVP development and perhaps becoming a founder myself one day. An important question is what should be the roadmap if you plan to work in MVP in 2023 when there is a lot of competition and people with fair advantages who can simply beat you in your own game
I spent a year building a product, and it isn't working as I expected right now I'm about to drop it down and I see this video. now I got a clear vision of that. thanks a lot ❤♥
One of the thing that affected me was the lack of tech skills to build a functioning MVP, i had to spend 6 months learning the MEARN stack online, then i managed to create an MVP and gave it to the users to test it and gave me feedback...Just imagine,i started in march last year, then spend 3 months looking for someone to develop the product,and when i couldn't find anyone, i decided to learn how to code on my own, and then launched a simple MVP in February this year... n
@ismaeltinta6118 it going slowly well, the product clicked with the target users ... But now the struggle is to find capital and build a team to scale up...
@@websterj5844 great. I am actually in the same path as you. Started learning to code by myself 3 months ago because of lack of funds to hire an expert developer.
Needed this, I keep getting caught up on trying to create a solution to every problem instead of getting the product out. I’m a real estate agent building a platform for my clients that list with me. I have my actual clients test it out and they typically have no problem testing it out for me as I’m a real estate agent building out a platform myself. Gonna stick with getting the basic, foundation done and out and build on top of that.
Michael, Thank you for this video. I am glad that I came across your video and got to know about your mindset and intellect by listening to your thoughts and thinking process.
One thing I've been wrestling with is really how to start building. I've been a developer for a long time and my first thought was using what seemed like the most effective technology. That way I can mitigate problems down the line like bugs or adding new features or supporting customers. But now I realise this is the wrong approach. Because really the biggest user of the product is going to be me - I'm the one who will always be in the weeds, in order to support the customers. That's why how to start building really should be a list of the things I need as product support - looking up user info, backing up data, having checks running to flag inconsistencies. I think this framing can profoundly change the way you approach building the product by building it for you and your team to best support clients
Love this video, Michael! I love how succinctly you taught his incredibly impactful lesson. I teach this topic and will be sharing this video with my students!
I love the hair on fire analogy.. I am very inexperienced in this space, but I would love to chip in something. "Sometimes, you should build for people who didn't know they needed the product " Your product might then wake up something in them or make them realize a subtle inconvenience they've always had, and seeing your product eliminate that would then be a win for both of you.. IMO
tyvm Michael! your advices are pure gold. You pushed me to go live asap. I've just launched the app and I feel alive again :D I couldnt imagine the ways ppl break my app
This was exactly the talk I needed to watch! It doesn't need to be perfect and don't spend too much time trying to make special features work. Get the skeleton out, put in muscles later on!
This will work for niches with few competitors, like in the case of inventions, but when your idea is based on small details, MVP will just be ignored, Threads from Meta as an example which now losing their users, on the other side Nothing phone which comes up with a good prototype for the phone market. otherwise, focusing on the problem and what makes your product different from the other is very important, this is what actually makes your project worth spending time on it.
I’m about a year into my MVP. About 6 months to go before launch. I’ll take all of this to heart though. I’ll launch sooner than when I’m finished I suppose. The basics are there.
The thing to keep in mind here is that although the iPhone went through iterations, Steve and Apple put out a first version that surprised the world. The takeaway being that there's thought that goes into getting your first version out there much before you iterate, and that requires an opinion about what that product should be even before you get customer/market feedback
true, i would however say that they kinda iterates with the ipod. the iphone was kinda an ipod touch with calling right? so i think the example still holds
This video boosted my confidence in what I'm thinking about building. I was bogged down with all the features of my app and trying to figure out how I go about implementing them all.
Great video, thanks! One thing I can't agree is that you can't validate the idea before MVP. I really like approaches like prototyping or mock-ups, which (if well prepared) give you huge amount of information even before MVP, which reduces number of iterations of MVP and later stages
@@AbdulSamad-ct9io Mockups can be used for UX tests and interviews with users. While users might provide positive feedback for mackups and still not use the product later, often they'll be able to tell you, what is wrong with your product even before you develop MVP
WOW THE HAIR ON FIRE ANALOGY JUST HIT ME! Cause the person has no option but to take that solution! If not iterate until we have the water to resolve the issue at hand!
Great video! Thank you! I do have 1 question though. The two companies you share your personal experience about (Twitch and Stripe) were both founded in a time when this was more or less the state of the internet: simple and quite messy to be honest. Nowadays, BECAUSE many online businesses have had years to iterate, don't you think the average customer's expectations have also changed? How does that affect the MVP concept nowadays?
am currently at a startup as and I now understand why our founder keeps rushing us to push products to customers even if they are not 100% perfect. Thanks
Great advice! As I reflect on my life, the same principle should apply to my thesis, first job and first coding project. To date, I still want to perfect my work but always receive real-world feedback too late.
Hey YC, can you make a video on customer channels for early founders ? It's hard to get to talk to someone outside your inner circle unless you've significant achievement
Michael Siebel: How would you characterize the "hair on fire" problem in the context of entertainment? Specifically for instance justin tv / twitch. Are we talking about people who are so bored or have such a strong need for human connection / live interaction over video that they would watch a person asleep / do something pretty boring? I can understand perfectly well what an MVP means for a customer with a problem. But entertainment seems like something a bit different and I haven't yet come across a YC video that explains it. Maybe I missed something.
An MVP is all about reducing the scope down to the essentials. In entertainment, that would mean reducing the scope of the production quality, subject matter, or length of media to just enough that it could test whatever you're making is entertaining enough to attract a niche audience. For Justin.tv, that meant they didn't launch with a ton of different personalities or a big television production crew, but instead focused on just a single person, Justin Kan, to prove that there are people who would want to watch someone's daily life livestreamed. Same reason why many filmmakers start out making inexpensive short films and music videos before directing a feature film.
I agree with most what Michael said, especially the idea of iteration and minimal functionality. Avoid fringe features at all cost. However the timing suggested for releasing your first version (weeks, not months) that may work for software or SaaS product. Not when hardware is involved. Even if you use off the shelf components it important you validate core technologies because the cost of change will kill your business. It took me months of trial and error to make sure I used the right technology. But now I can iterate fast because the foundation is good. And I can release something scrappy and iterate. In fact, it is very likely the first paying customers will get my hardware with the off the shelf hardware. Later we can build custom hardware, re-write the firmware, etc..
This video tells almost everything that someone needs to know before thinking about a startup idea. But there's just one problem that is not ideally how it works as of present day. Back in 2007 or 2010, customer had very limited options and different pain that needed to be solved. It was okay to quickly build an MVP and reach out to customer and the reiterate your product overtime. However as of 2023, no user has anytime or desire to sit and wait for your crappy product to rise when they could be using best alternate product available right onto their phones. The only way the customer will accept your crappy product is if you really solving a massive pain (like the fire on your head example) and it's especially difficult in online world to find such a massive pain when the market is oversaturated with millions of competitor that's just waiting to see what crappy product you're building and they gonna launch 10x times better than less than a week. Plus, let's not forget all the marketing and networking these startup companies had to get the early adopter. If you can get Obama as your user on your crappy Instagram app on the very first day of launch then it's sure to get more early adopter over time. In general, business world don't move as simple as it seems. You must be wildly in right time, place, people, product mix to succeed with a crappy product
I know this is not the point of this video but the audio quality is almost like I'm sitting with the guy in-person in a soundproof studio. Thank you for the video, brings a lot of confidence to what I'm trying to get off the ground
This post shares valuable insights on building an MVP from Y Combinator. Looking forward to implementing these tips in my own startup. Email finder tool can help expand our reach.
MVP is a very confusing term. I think only in terms of designing experiments, running experiments, documenting learning and building a lot of prototypes. It is easier to throw away the prototypes. It is easy not to fall in love with prototypes. The purpose is to learn quickly and iterate to build a revised prototype. There are a lot of unknowns and it can be addressed by building prototypes. This also overcomes the need to be perfect. Just take the first stab and resolve as many problems as you can. Some of the examples given in this video have an offline component to it - like renting a room, dealing with banks. They built something to address those risks. Some products are pure 100% software products, in this case you need to know the big picture, be able to architect the right blueprint. Otherwise you will waste a lot of time because most of the things will be thrown away. You have to start over from scratch. Talking to customers requires you to apply a filter - you must have a technical vision. Otherwise you will end up with a me too product or something that is not cohesive. Coming up with a unique and differentiated product requires a high level view of what you are building. Fear can be overcome, if you focus on prototypes. Build fast advice is a bit misleading. It takes time to first have the right mental model of the technical side of the product. You have to build the right thing, otherwise it is going to be like Twitch streaming - some random person streaming some random stuff that nobody cares about.
To piggyback on the iPhone example - The iPhone launch demo was carefully planned, used multiple phones and the path that Steve took through the different tasks on the phone was the path least likely to crash. Vision provides the destination, restraint guides the journey.
What problem will your MVP solve?
Solving the inventory issues that million of small businesses face
My MVP set to launch this month, will make property virtual tour creation 100x easier.
@@uptimehalil I guess this alter call was for you. 👏👏👏👏
Financial Illeteracy 😢
Connecting end customers, sellers and installers on a renewable energy marketplace that takes key pain points of all three parties to speed up the energy transition.
This is the discussion that all first time founders need to hear
There is no discussion, it’s a monologue
@@damientan4522 it would be the same thing sitting in front of a first time founder because he’s answering most likely all the questions they would ask. And also addressing the potential bad ideas they would speak of in the conversation. Of course, you say that because it’s here on TH-cam.
And WILL NOT listen to lol. They should though, this is the best way hands down. It took me many years to realize this because I was terrified of putting out something less than perfect. If you keep your eyes closed, the problems dont exist right?
Agree 100%
I’m😅
My favorite quote ever: "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution". I've been a software engineer for over 22 years and it wasn't until I learned about MVP 5 years ago that I felt like I was making a real difference. This video is one of the greatest videos I've seen on MVP. Very well done!
Sage advice.
It took me 3 months to build my mvp but I’m solo
I once heard the phrase "The perfect problem" relates to that quote
These videos have saved me years and so much money/potential regrets - I would have fallen for so many of these traps, and I can see how much closer I am to my goals, and it's helped me make so much more money, for free! Thank you guys for putting this material out there. Thank you Michael!
I second that. I don't know if you guys know, but you couldn't have nailed it better on the content: this is some of the MOST valuable ways anyone could help aspiring entrepreneurs. So good!
Wow, its amazing
Oh man, you completely changed my mind. last two months I have been working on my project and thinking about how to make it perfect and input enough information into the service. Without stumbling upon your video, I might have spent another two months heading in the wrong direction before launching.
Now I'm thinking differently as you suggested and planning to share my MVP with my potential customers. Hope I can learn new things from here.
Thanks for your contribution to my dream project. love man........
❤
Stripe: 2010
Twitch: 2007
AirBnb: 2008
iPhone: 2007
I believe that a lot of the fundamentals you lay down are true, but I think there's a much higher level of execution expected by consumers now vs 15 years ago. While the "back in the day" stories are fun, I hope you can provide us with more recent examples, given your exposure to those startups through YC.
I had the same thought. These products when they were released at that period of time, had the base version of latest things
few e.g:
Apple - iPhone was not the basic in everything. it had the best and big display with touchscreen for that period of time.
AirBnb - It didn't have the payment because it was not basic as it is now.
Now since everyone is exposed very much to the internet, I think that things like a big display with touchscreen and payment are kind of basic and most probably will be expected from the users.
Counter to that it's so easy to spin up a lot of functionality that 10 years ago was a pain. You can use 'as-a-service' and cloud tools to get basic stuff like auth, db etc sorted in minutes when it used to take days.
Customer Expectations and competition is very high now .Internet & Google search are fast now than 15 yrs back so customers search alternativeTo products faster than ever immedietaly.
Let's say you want to build a phone with a hologram. The early adopters would not care about your phone even having a screen, that is how much they need that hologram. The big screen is not solving their problem. And the initial target should be early adopters, not everyone.
facts. The iPhone 1 in 2007 was still superior to its competitors, LG, Black & Berry and whatnot. I'm surprised Micheal Seibel is making such mistakes and not realizing all those services were far successful not because they had a shitty MVP but because they were first in the market for what they had to offer.
Looking at back at 2007 and when those services were started and assuming that today you can do the same, is non sense. He failed to point out that an MVP has still to be superior to what exists in the market. It's all relative to what already exists.
What was the alternative to AirBnb in 2008? Seriously, does anyone have any idea? That's what made them successful, not necessarily the fact they had a landing page with no features. So the goal should be to come up with an innovative solution AND an MVP, not just an MVP.
But I do agree that you should cater to the early adopters and not the skeptics, or people who started using your competitor's services just recently. Those people you may be able to reach only once your service is already well known and established.
I've been in love with my MVP for many years and haven't launched yet 😭😂
I learnt a lot from this video. AirBnb, Twitch, Stripe also started from the bottom, improved gradually whilst they were learning from their users.
Thank you Michael
Review point number 4 at 15:32, you're welcome. 😅
Sad lol
"I learnt a lot" unless you put something on hands of users before the end of March, you did not
@@olemew Agreed. Before end of March.
I agree with everyone else, ship it my friend!
I’m so emotional about this😢, thank you Sir. No one told me these things but I’ve been following these advice for a year now.
I cannot believe TH-cam is such a useful tool for mere mortals like myself. You can pretty much learn anything here.
I deeply feel this bro
Even though I've watched all YC videos I've made so many mistakes... I am rewatching all of them and understanding them better, thank you very much for the content, it is gold
This is probably the most important video to watch at this point in time for any founder out there either currently building or thinking of building a product
This is the Best advice for all first time founders. Awesome, Michael!
Building an MVP quickly is an essential step in the product development process as it allows you to test your assumptions and validate your idea with minimal investment, helping you to save time and money in the long run.
This one video has helped me out more than anything. I keep coming back to this video every once in a while. Thank you Yc
This guy is amazingly calm explaining something that creates incredible fear, anxiety, and excitement for the majority of people looking to do an MVP. Thank you good sir for your demeanor and awesome information🔥🙏
Honestly I feel YC is giving us this because they wanna tell new founders this is how we prove our concept fast, get metrics and start taking action on our ideas.
That way it’s more practical to go up to VCs such as YC to get investment as we have proof of concept.
Super great valuable info 🔥🔥🔥
Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) -
00:00 - Intro
00:09 - How to Build an Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?
00:20 - Midwit Meme
00:54 - Launch Quickly and Iterate
01:50 - Pre-launch Startup Goals
02:52 - What's an MVP and Do Startups Need Them?
03:49 - Don't Worry About Losing People
04:26 - Founders Biggest Fear
04:53 - What Would Actually Happen?
05:39 - Fake Steve Jobs
07:17 - Examples - Software MVP
07:48 - First Version of Airbnb
08:36 - Twitch
09:15 - Stripe
10:36 - Solving Hair On Fire Problem
11:52 - Problem with Surveying Users
13:27 - You Don't Start With All Answers
14:00 - MVP is the Fastest Way to Start Learning
14:12 - Build an MVP Quickly
15:51 - Outro
Sometimes Solving Hair On Fire Problem as the first version can be difficult. You have to work your way up to it by building many small prototypes.
@@balaparanj1593 💯
One of the most important videos on TH-cam for founders, builders, dreamers. Thank you. 🙏🏾 and Shout out Eric Ries! 🥂💯
Well, when I was 21, I had an idea, but I didn't have any money to develop an MVP. So, I learned to code by myself and built an MVP. It took me 2 years to learn and build an MVP, but now this video shows me how we can build an MVP. I love this video
I made the same error by several years, by today I'm YC alumni, and I will never spend so many years under development, MVP intent to be 3-4 months of development,
@@CoeficienteIntelectual great man
Very motivational video for a founder who has fears about starting their project. It was really helpful. Thank you!
lol. 4 years of grit trying to build a spaceship and I was wrong all along. Years of testing and iterating, and the lightbulb just went off a couple of weeks ago. Built the MVP fast with a newly motivated small team. Showing our MVP to users tomorrow. Our runway is nonexistent, running on fumes, personal debt is scary lol. But I know we've built something people want. Wish us luck!
I think that all of the examples you gave have something in common. They were MVPs in a new tech space. I feel that customer expectations were lower because of this, and so an MVP was more lightweight. Whereas, today, I feel in many sectors the customers' expectation has been set really high, and so the MVPs in many areas of today have to be quite polished and not as 'minimum' as they used to be.
Thoughts?
Thats something that I'm scared of, if u want to start a business improving something that already exist, you cannot spend weeks developing de product because if you want to improve something that already exist you need to do what they do and then go to your project. Making the weeks being months or a year.
Yes, my company is obsessed with building MVPs right now but they are not building anything that is unique or solving a real problem that our customers have. If anything our company is playing catch up to get to the same playing field that our competitors are at… but that is not what MVP is about. It’s not about building catch up products…. It’s about building something that is going to solve your customers problem that isn’t already on the market.
That's EXACTLY what I thought! Just about every possible product has been created in one way or another. No one is going to hit themselves with a brick today! 😂
I felt in love with my MVP so much that I abandoned it after putting a lot to make it near finished product. This video taught me the way to follow as against what majority do.
I feel that the 2014 Y combinator lectures have some of the best startup advice but please keep making these kind of videos that build up on those points.
This is the best lecture I’ve ever listened to. thank you Michael!
My first video of a startup school and I'm amazed to see how excellent they are, as a software engineer working in mobile apps, I am moving more towards startup MVP development and perhaps becoming a founder myself one day.
An important question is what should be the roadmap if you plan to work in MVP in 2023 when there is a lot of competition and people with fair advantages who can simply beat you in your own game
Thank you Michael and YC for keep producing and delivering quality guidance to founders.
This one video is a zillion times far better than what any top B-school would teach. Learned so much from it in just 17 fckin minutes. Amazing!
I spent a year building a product, and it isn't working as I expected right now I'm about to drop it down and I see this video. now I got a clear vision of that. thanks a lot ❤♥
My favorite episode so far! Straightforward, no bs.
Love the comment section because SAME! It's been 4 months and just now i'm going all the way with my crapy MVP using notion. Thank you!!!
This is such great advice! We applied to YC for this summer batch and are working on these exact steps while we await the decision 🤞🏽🙏🏽
Hi. What is it that you're building?
Videos like this is the reason I can't go to school. Concise and useful.
I had seen this advise 100 times, but never explained in such detail and in simple words and examples.
One of the thing that affected me was the lack of tech skills to build a functioning MVP, i had to spend 6 months learning the MEARN stack online, then i managed to create an MVP and gave it to the users to test it and gave me feedback...Just imagine,i started in march last year, then spend 3 months looking for someone to develop the product,and when i couldn't find anyone, i decided to learn how to code on my own, and then launched a simple MVP in February this year... n
how is it going ?
@ismaeltinta6118 it going slowly well, the product clicked with the target users ... But now the struggle is to find capital and build a team to scale up...
@@websterj5844 great. I am actually in the same path as you. Started learning to code by myself 3 months ago because of lack of funds to hire an expert developer.
Learning a mern stack is very useful so on future you can build new products or free lance I'm doing the same..
Needed this, I keep getting caught up on trying to create a solution to every problem instead of getting the product out. I’m a real estate agent building a platform for my clients that list with me. I have my actual clients test it out and they typically have no problem testing it out for me as I’m a real estate agent building out a platform myself. Gonna stick with getting the basic, foundation done and out and build on top of that.
This is most important step for aspiring founder to watch.I am former Student of YCombinator
Michael, Thank you for this video. I am glad that I came across your video and got to know about your mindset and intellect by listening to your thoughts and thinking process.
One thing I've been wrestling with is really how to start building. I've been a developer for a long time and my first thought was using what seemed like the most effective technology. That way I can mitigate problems down the line like bugs or adding new features or supporting customers. But now I realise this is the wrong approach. Because really the biggest user of the product is going to be me - I'm the one who will always be in the weeds, in order to support the customers. That's why how to start building really should be a list of the things I need as product support - looking up user info, backing up data, having checks running to flag inconsistencies. I think this framing can profoundly change the way you approach building the product by building it for you and your team to best support clients
Love this video, Michael! I love how succinctly you taught his incredibly impactful lesson. I teach this topic and will be sharing this video with my students!
This is really what the first startup owners wants to hear and should hear. Thanks very much for your open and clear brief.
I love the hair on fire analogy..
I am very inexperienced in this space, but I would love to chip in something.
"Sometimes, you should build for people who didn't know they needed the product "
Your product might then wake up something in them or make them realize a subtle inconvenience they've always had, and seeing your product eliminate that would then be a win for both of you..
IMO
As a first time Entrepreneur and innovator I needed to hear this
tyvm Michael! your advices are pure gold. You pushed me to go live asap. I've just launched the app and I feel alive again :D I couldnt imagine the ways ppl break my app
launching mvp fast doesn't mean it should ok to break, I guess but you made the move that important and congragulations to that.
This was exactly the talk I needed to watch! It doesn't need to be perfect and don't spend too much time trying to make special features work. Get the skeleton out, put in muscles later on!
Pure brilliance. Goldmine for me! Thanks a bunch YC and Michael. LY!
I hear it again and again and again.... and every time it makes even more sense
This is one of the best videos I’ve seen on this subject in my life.
This will work for niches with few competitors, like in the case of inventions, but when your idea is based on small details, MVP will just be ignored, Threads from Meta as an example which now losing their users, on the other side Nothing phone which comes up with a good prototype for the phone market. otherwise, focusing on the problem and what makes your product different from the other is very important, this is what actually makes your project worth spending time on it.
Short and crisp, yet powerful ❤
I’m about a year into my MVP. About 6 months to go before launch. I’ll take all of this to heart though. I’ll launch sooner than when I’m finished I suppose. The basics are there.
The thing to keep in mind here is that although the iPhone went through iterations, Steve and Apple put out a first version that surprised the world. The takeaway being that there's thought that goes into getting your first version out there much before you iterate, and that requires an opinion about what that product should be even before you get customer/market feedback
true, i would however say that they kinda iterates with the ipod. the iphone was kinda an ipod touch with calling right? so i think the example still holds
Just what I needed to hear before I work on my MVP
This video boosted my confidence in what I'm thinking about building. I was bogged down with all the features of my app and trying to figure out how I go about implementing them all.
MICHAEL BACK WITH THE HEAT
You really leave an impression of a guy who knows his stuff well. Thank you!
Great video, thanks!
One thing I can't agree is that you can't validate the idea before MVP. I really like approaches like prototyping or mock-ups, which (if well prepared) give you huge amount of information even before MVP, which reduces number of iterations of MVP and later stages
how do you validate your idea with just mockups, as your users can actually use the MVP so it's just a walkthrough?
@@AbdulSamad-ct9io Mockups can be used for UX tests and interviews with users. While users might provide positive feedback for mackups and still not use the product later, often they'll be able to tell you, what is wrong with your product even before you develop MVP
One of the most brilliant things I've seen! Thank you for this!
Best communicator at YC! Thank you for all you do.
Listen! We’re doing this now…like this.
It’s a great way to get people invested in helping.
PLUS! We got people to PAY to be our ALPHA Founders…
I'm sad that over a year passed between this being posted and me discovering it. This is SO GOOD ! Thank you
This video litteraly change my life
this is good for first time founders, third time founders know good distrubtion + ok product> low distrubition + great product
Thank you so much Michael. I so wish to meet you one day. You are a mentor to all of us.
This was excellent, thank you Michael. As an experienced founder who's neither the Jedi nor the idiot, I needed to hear this. Vivek
What a brilliant and insightful video!! I needed this!
Clear and understandable, I wish there was more information like this.
I cannot express in words how much I love this guy
This video was so helpful! I’ve always wanted to make sure everything is in place before I start something ❤
WOW THE HAIR ON FIRE ANALOGY JUST HIT ME! Cause the person has no option but to take that solution! If not iterate until we have the water to resolve the issue at hand!
Great video! Thank you!
I do have 1 question though. The two companies you share your personal experience about (Twitch and Stripe) were both founded in a time when this was more or less the state of the internet: simple and quite messy to be honest. Nowadays, BECAUSE many online businesses have had years to iterate, don't you think the average customer's expectations have also changed? How does that affect the MVP concept nowadays?
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:33 Launch *Quickly, Iterate*
01:44 Learn *from Users*
03:20 Target *Early Adopters*
05:26 Address *Fear*
07:02 Avoid *Perfectionism*
08:26 Examples *of MVPs*
11:42 Solve *Desperate Problems*
12:23 MVP *over Surveys*
13:47 Start *with Learning*
15:50 Don't *Fall in Love*
Made with HARPA AI
am currently at a startup as and I now understand why our founder keeps rushing us to push products to customers even if they are not 100% perfect. Thanks
Great advice! As I reflect on my life, the same principle should apply to my thesis, first job and first coding project. To date, I still want to perfect my work but always receive real-world feedback too late.
Wow… thank you for sharing. This is exactly what I needed to hear 🙏🏼
Thank's, now I'll build and MVP that will become into a $1B startup in a year.
a year passed, how is it going?
learnt so many valuable lessons from you . Keep doing good works
I hope most first time founders get to watch this video before they start out on their entrepreneurship journey.
Thank you so much this is exactly where I am at on my startup. i appreciate you
Hi! That's a great video, thank you We also thought that this is an important topic, so we compared MVP and Prototype in our newest video
BEST ADVICE VIDEO FOR DEVELOPERS/TECH STARTUPS I HAVE SEEN ! ❤
Thank you for the video - it gave a huge amount of comfort and reassurance.
Hey YC, can you make a video on customer channels for early founders ? It's hard to get to talk to someone outside your inner circle unless you've significant achievement
Wish i heard this video before working for 18 month on my MVP :D, but i learnt a lot by doing that anyway
Michael Siebel: How would you characterize the "hair on fire" problem in the context of entertainment? Specifically for instance justin tv / twitch. Are we talking about people who are so bored or have such a strong need for human connection / live interaction over video that they would watch a person asleep / do something pretty boring? I can understand perfectly well what an MVP means for a customer with a problem. But entertainment seems like something a bit different and I haven't yet come across a YC video that explains it. Maybe I missed something.
An MVP is all about reducing the scope down to the essentials. In entertainment, that would mean reducing the scope of the production quality, subject matter, or length of media to just enough that it could test whatever you're making is entertaining enough to attract a niche audience.
For Justin.tv, that meant they didn't launch with a ton of different personalities or a big television production crew, but instead focused on just a single person, Justin Kan, to prove that there are people who would want to watch someone's daily life livestreamed. Same reason why many filmmakers start out making inexpensive short films and music videos before directing a feature film.
I agree with most what Michael said, especially the idea of iteration and minimal functionality. Avoid fringe features at all cost.
However the timing suggested for releasing your first version (weeks, not months) that may work for software or SaaS product. Not when hardware is involved. Even if you use off the shelf components it important you validate core technologies because the cost of change will kill your business.
It took me months of trial and error to make sure I used the right technology. But now I can iterate fast because the foundation is good. And I can release something scrappy and iterate. In fact, it is very likely the first paying customers will get my hardware with the off the shelf hardware. Later we can build custom hardware, re-write the firmware, etc..
Profound life advice, too. This really hit home for me with my product and was very timely
This video just saved me a lot of money! Thank you🙏🏾✨️
This video tells almost everything that someone needs to know before thinking about a startup idea. But there's just one problem that is not ideally how it works as of present day. Back in 2007 or 2010, customer had very limited options and different pain that needed to be solved. It was okay to quickly build an MVP and reach out to customer and the reiterate your product overtime. However as of 2023, no user has anytime or desire to sit and wait for your crappy product to rise when they could be using best alternate product available right onto their phones. The only way the customer will accept your crappy product is if you really solving a massive pain (like the fire on your head example) and it's especially difficult in online world to find such a massive pain when the market is oversaturated with millions of competitor that's just waiting to see what crappy product you're building and they gonna launch 10x times better than less than a week. Plus, let's not forget all the marketing and networking these startup companies had to get the early adopter. If you can get Obama as your user on your crappy Instagram app on the very first day of launch then it's sure to get more early adopter over time. In general, business world don't move as simple as it seems. You must be wildly in right time, place, people, product mix to succeed with a crappy product
Advice and insights every first-time founder should consider. thank you 😊
I want you to hug Michael 🤗. Thanks for this great video
Best content I've seen about building an MVP!
Great video. 20+ years experience in IT industry finally learned that I can use…
I know this is not the point of this video but the audio quality is almost like I'm sitting with the guy in-person in a soundproof studio. Thank you for the video, brings a lot of confidence to what I'm trying to get off the ground
This post shares valuable insights on building an MVP from Y Combinator. Looking forward to implementing these tips in my own startup. Email finder tool can help expand our reach.
This was very helpful for me, thank you Michael, I now have my next steps.
This is brilliant its changed my mindset and understood the reality thank you verry mutch 🥰
MVP is a very confusing term. I think only in terms of designing experiments, running experiments, documenting learning and building a lot of prototypes. It is easier to throw away the prototypes. It is easy not to fall in love with prototypes. The purpose is to learn quickly and iterate to build a revised prototype. There are a lot of unknowns and it can be addressed by building prototypes. This also overcomes the need to be perfect. Just take the first stab and resolve as many problems as you can. Some of the examples given in this video have an offline component to it - like renting a room, dealing with banks. They built something to address those risks. Some products are pure 100% software products, in this case you need to know the big picture, be able to architect the right blueprint. Otherwise you will waste a lot of time because most of the things will be thrown away. You have to start over from scratch. Talking to customers requires you to apply a filter - you must have a technical vision. Otherwise you will end up with a me too product or something that is not cohesive. Coming up with a unique and differentiated product requires a high level view of what you are building. Fear can be overcome, if you focus on prototypes. Build fast advice is a bit misleading. It takes time to first have the right mental model of the technical side of the product. You have to build the right thing, otherwise it is going to be like Twitch streaming - some random person streaming some random stuff that nobody cares about.
Please use paragraphs, thanks
@@ghulam4024😂😂😂
It is confusing if you over think everything or don't pay attention to a simple explanation. Search for a 1 - 2 minute video, it might help.
Thanks so much for this video. Now I'm going to launch my own product without wasting any time 🎉😊
To piggyback on the iPhone example - The iPhone launch demo was carefully planned, used multiple phones and the path that Steve took through the different tasks on the phone was the path least likely to crash.
Vision provides the destination, restraint guides the journey.
Best advice to founders who are building their mvp
I had fallen in love with my MVP before and transition became almost impossible. I felt too comfortable to embrace change when it came up.