Before You Spend a Dime on Development, Do This First

THE LEAN LESSON

Picture this: You have an amazing startup idea.

You just know it’s going to be huge.

So, you go all in—you hire a development team, build the app, and launch it.

And then... nothing happens.

No downloads.

No paying customers.

No traction.

Just a beautiful product sitting in the void while your bank account bleeds out.

I see this mistake all the time.

A founder assumes that if they build the perfect product, customers will just magically show up.

But here’s the truth: Building before validating is the fastest way to burn cash.

A client of mine was about to make this exact mistake.

She was on the verge of spending $95,000 to build an app—without a single paying customer.

Luckily, she reached out before pulling the trigger.

Instead of watching her money go up in smoke, I walked her through the Lean Startup approach—a smarter way to build a business.

Here’s what we did instead.

Step 1: Validate First, Build Later

Most founders build a product first and try to find customers later. This is backwards.

Instead, you should validate the idea before investing a dime in development.

How do you validate an idea?

By testing whether real people actually care about your solution.

Here’s how we did it for my client:

✅ Step 1: Build a Simple Landing Page
We created a one-page website explaining:

• The problem the product solves

• The solution (without needing an actual product yet)

• A call-to-action—a signup form for early access

✅ Step 2: Drive Traffic to It

• We posted about the idea on LinkedIn and startup forums

• We asked for feedback in Facebook groups and Reddit communities

• We ran a small test ad campaign (less than $100) to see if strangers showed interest

✅ Step 3: Track Engagement
Within a few weeks, hundreds of people had signed up for early access. This proved that the problem was real and that people were actively looking for a solution.

Result?
Instead of gambling $95,000 on an unproven product, my client now had data showing there was demand.

Step 2: Refine the Idea with Real Feedback

Once we had signups, we took it a step further:

• We emailed the subscribers and asked: What’s your biggest frustration with [the problem]?

• We did customer interviews to understand their needs.

• We tweaked the landing page based on their feedback.

This process helped refine the idea before writing a single line of code.

Step 3: Build Only What’s Necessary

Now that we knew the product had demand, we avoided the costly mistake of overbuilding.

Instead of jumping straight into full development, we started with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)—a basic version of the solution.

Example: Instead of building a complex app, we launched a simple, manual version of the service first. This allowed early customers to experience the solution without the founder spending a fortune.

YOUTUBE TREASURE

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