How to Build a Business in 2023
First, Go All In.
Building businesses is hard, and it’s going to take up an obnoxious amount of your bandwidth. Go all in. Raise $$$ that allows you to be there, all in. Yes, you're going to have to give up ownership. But it will allow you to be all in.
Naval nails it with this thought process:
First, you know it.
Then, you understand it.
Then, you can explain it.
Then, you can feel it.
Finally, you are it.
If you are serious about building a successful company, there is no other way to make it happen other than to become IT. Obsessiveness will be your superpower. The more time you can focus on the business, the better.
So, raise the necessary capital to go all in.
Next Phase = Product + Distribution
First-time founders think product.
Second-time founders think distribution.
The reality is, you gotta think both, simultaneously!
DISTRIBUTION
Here’s the cool part. Distribution can start TODAY.
You can have the best product in the world, if there is no distribution, it doesn't matter.
Start niche (industry-wise). You can boil a pot of water on the stove quickly. It's impossible to boil the ocean.
Focus on an industry you are familiar with:
You know their pain points
You know how to solve them
You know a bunch of key players
You know what sort of language they use
Use tools and high-leverage platforms to facilitate your distribution:
ConvertKit for email
Twitter / LinkedIn / IG / FB / TikTok for eyeballs
Squarespace for the website
Carrd.co for Landing pages
Build your audience. Write up the specifics of whatever it is that you are in the process of building. Build your company and product in public in public as much as humanly possible.
For inspiration here, take a look at MID-DAY Squares. Nick Saltarelli and team are doing a fantastic job of this sort of thing with a normally pretty boring brand/concept.. Chocolate!
Add value right away
you only have a couple of opportunities to set the hook
make sure you have a killer offer in the beginning that gets people to sign up
what is the aspect that will entice people to jump on board?
PRODUCT
Build something that people want/will pay for (and are paying for)
PRODUCT IS EVERYTHING, especially in software
Before you really raise/scale, have this ironed out (trust me)
Use early days to really nail the product
Tech debt becomes insurmountable the longer you wait to fix it (especially with software)
Remember, no one cares about your product, they only care about what your product can do for them.
Talk to your audience. Ask them specifically what they are looking for. What would the perfect product look like for them? What sort of resources would make the most sense? What would make their lives easier?
Iterate your product. This is helping you achieve PMF as quickly as humanly possible. Implement. Immediately. You have no idea how powerful quick iterations are with early adopters. They create evangelists for life!
Assume the product that you set out to build WILL change.
We call this a pivot.
This happens all the time. Amazon started off as a bookstore. Angellist started off as a talent collective, now it provides all of the tools necessary for entrepreneurs to build businesses.
Some sort of pivot early on needs to be assumed. You need to stay malleable and embrace the iterative product process.
Take time to Achieve Product Market Fit (PMF). Trust me, there is nothing worse than trying to force a half-baked product into a marketplace. Users are way too smart and have too many other options than to put up with a product that truly isn’t working, is better than their current solution, and adding serious value.
Revenues will be slow early on. That’s OK. Keep iterating. When PMF happens, you’ll know. You’ll feel it.
BUT - make sure you’re using the initial product iteration period strategically… So simultaneously build personal/brand equity and your community/distribution list.
OK, so we understand that the first 12-18 months or so are going to be 'slow', but we are supplementing it with the following activities
Building your audience
Building your community
Building your product
Iterating the product
Building Brand Awareness
Generating Demand (w/ a waitlist)
Finding TRUE Product-Market Fit
Consistency is KING. (Every day, throughout this entire process!)
By knowing, understanding, and having a set plan, we will be able to avoid the classic early stage 'Trough of Sorrow'.
Not only will this do wonders for your mental health, it will engrain a long-term thought process and time horizon into the very foundation of your business. (something that is vital to go the distance)
This will also help you set correct expectations with anyone you are raising money from!
All of this can be done solo, or with a small team (oftentimes outsourced overseas to keep costs low). You can run extremely lean during this phase.
Getting software companies off the ground is the toughest part. Finding initial PMF is going to be a major challenge.
But, after it happens, software orgs are compounding machines. The beauty of software is the endless scalability w/ marginal increases in COGS, infrastructure, you name it.
In conclusion:
How to Build a Business in 2023:
Go all in
Start your ‘Distribution’ strategy immediately
Focus on a specific niche (industry) to start
Build a product that solves a real problem that people will pay you for
Find product market fit (by asking early adopters for feedback and quickly implementing it)
Iterate / Pivot
Build your distribution channel in public (demand generation), every single day
Create a raving community of evangelists (customers) by solving real problems and adding immediate value
This is the way.