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Verena: Welcome back to the Start Launch Grow Podcast, everyone. today we are doing our Ask Us Anything deep dive. So instead of focusing on one topic that we pick, we are answering your questions, the questions that you sent us over the past few weeks.
Simon: we've received lots of ⁓ great questions ⁓ and although we're not gonna able to cover them all, we've picked a few hand picked ones ⁓ that we think are the most valuable. since our founders are all at different stages of the kind of framework the start, launch, grow, we're going to kind of use that as our structure for answering questions. next episode.
Verena: Funny when you talk about structure, Simon. So so either either you ⁓ want ⁓ to do a favor for me or you're actually becoming more German. You're becoming Verena, a version of Verena.
Simon: Yeah. ⁓ it's rubbing off a little bit, but only a little.
Verena: Well, things could definitely be worse. Well, anyway, let's jump into your your questions. we start with the first questions that we tailor all around start. So basically all around ⁓ what we call knowing what to build, and the first question I have here is is from James. he's based in England. so I will pass that to you, Simon. so James is ⁓ says, Hi Simon Everena. ⁓ I've been thinking about my startup idea for months. But I still can't decide whether it's worth doing. Now that AI makes it way simpler to build something, how much market research do I actually need before I start building?
Simon: I think because you can build really quickly, you almost shouldn't, ⁓ because you'll build the wrong things just much quicker. you still need to do that kind of upfront market research. And like we've AI, it just that market research really easy and quicker to You can certainly do the basics using ChatGPT, Claude, whoever you Whoever you want really quickly. So I would definitely spend quite a bit of time looking at that. So you're doing, you know, keyword analysis, you're doing competitor analysis, all of these types of things that should be held in that kind of start phase. and customer interviews. Chat GPT AI is not going to help you with those. Getting and talking to customers ⁓ is a human led thing and still something you should do. So a couple of weeks, a week, you know, something like that.
Verena: I I guess like his question is what is a good level of market research? When shall I stop? I mean that's the million dollar question, isn't it? ⁓
Simon: Yeah. I think yeah, and and there's I know I don't think there's a there's a firm answer. It's definitely after six days you should stop. But I think the reality is you should stop when you can no longer answer the questions via just research alone. So once you you know, you've got a question, you go, Well, ⁓ my hypothesis, this is what I think all this data's telling me, but really until I put it in front of a potential customer, I c I can't tell. that's when you should start building. So you're building to those to try and test those hypotheses. So, know, that's going to be different for everybody. Some some people that might take a day just to figure it out, others that might be a week, a month, whatever, to to do the market research.
Verena: I think we also need to define what building means, right? Because building might also just mean ⁓ you know, a bit of a demo, without all of the functionality. And I think here it t completely makes sense actually to make use of AI and I would also say that when you speak to customers when you run all of the the interviews watch out for some of the signals because sometimes people, you know, just say, ⁓ yeah, of course, you know, I would, you know, buy it, etc. But let them sign up somewhere. And this doesn't need to be an app, right? You can just create a form or something to say, okay, do you want to get early access once it's ready? So will they go the step to just give you their email address? Right? Like is it or was it just you know nice talk because they like you? I I would always grab Like look for something tangible when you do these interviews.
Simon: I'd just say be careful. You're not putting a product in front of them and saying, look, would you buy this? That's not an interview. What you're trying to as ascertain at this stage is, does this problem resonate with people and how do they currently solve it? Those are the really questions you're trying to answer. So if you you know, almost if you put a product in and go, Well, what do you think of this? Should it have this screen or this screen? They're answering that question. Whereas really what you understand is how do you currently solve this do you know this problem today? I use a spreadsheet ⁓ pick up the and I call someone. ⁓ Whatever the answer is, that's what you want understand is how is it being done today and how are they thinking about the problem? ⁓ rather than saying, like, here's my app, what do you think of this page? Will you sign up to it? Because that's not really what this is about at this kind of core level. So let's take another question. this one's for you, Verena. Sarah from ⁓ United States, somewhere in the ⁓ Hi, Verena and Simon. I'm currently working full time in HR and building my start up in the evenings. At what point would you actually recommend quitting my job?
Verena: one. So Obviously it depends a little bit like on your personal savings, et cetera. But instead of asking when to quit, what a good milestone, I think this is where we come back to ⁓ what what we just discussed is in terms of validation, right? Like after you have done your homework, after you got actually a few strong signals. there can be also something positive about actually still being in a job because it means that you don't enough time, To you know look at all of the nice to have's
Simon: I mean I would just add to that. I'd say don't quit at start, don't quit at You're quitting sometime in grow, but you've as Verena said, you've already set a metric. It's five thousand ⁓ monthly reoccurring revenue. Like so you've picked because that covers your salary and it that means you can pay your bills. That's when you quit, and only then. and you might want to be seeing that month on month, not the first time you hit it, but you know, like make sure that's repeatable, like month two, month three. So, you know. You're probably at least six months away from quitting if you've just got an idea today.
Verena: Okay, next one is from Emma in Sweden. So if you were starting Median Labs from scratch today, knowing everything you know and having access to today's AI tools, what would you recommend us as a founder? Like how can we spend our first thirty days ⁓
Simon: good question. So I think I think in the first 30 days, I would be going through the start, launch, grow, but really quickly. So I'd spend a couple of days doing the research, the start, figuring out what I need to build. What do the customers want? I'd talk to some potential customers, what do they want? And then figure out well, what what does that mean in terms of my MVP or minimum viable product? What features need to go in there? What do I need to build? Really? I'd then something really quickly using AI tools. I'd then push that back to those customers that I've spoken to and say, what do you think? and then I'd ask get that feedback, and I'd go into another loop and I would iterate on my MVP then. and hopefully I'd get to some revenue. Probably not inside 30 days, ⁓ but ⁓ certainly be heading in that direction. by the end of the 30 days, I'd be like thinking like, I've got something here, and now I want to monetise it. Lucas from the Netherlands. Million Labs. I work as an analyst in a very traditional corporation, but I'd love to start something of my own. The problem is that I don't actually have an idea. Apart from asking Chat GPT, what would you recommend? How do you personally go about coming up with ideas that are worth building?
Verena: people often underestimate the value of knowing an industry. So if you're like actually working in that industry for quite some time, right, you're really close to probably a lot of pain points and what's going on around you, and that can give you a competitive edge you know something that most people don't because they're not in a day-to-day. You don't have to come up with the next big new business model, but oftentimes you can just look for, okay, is in an industry what do they do that is working, and would that apply also to my industry? So, for example, I think in installment payments were quite a thing back then in the finance industry, like buy now, pay later. Then Klana actually moved it to e-commerce, right? And it was quite successful. So there are several of these in ⁓ where you look at a business model from another industry and then apply it. okay, let's move on to launch then Simon. this is ⁓ Sophie based in France. She says, Million Labs team. I've been experimenting with lovable claw and a few other AI tools, but honestly, I have no idea which one I should commit to. As a non-technical founder, what tech stack would you mech recommend for building an MVP? What criteria should I use to decide which tools are right for my business? That's a good tech question for you.
Simon: There's a tech ⁓ question, right? Right there. ⁓ obviously if you're from France, you need to find the French tool ⁓ so that you keep it, keep it in France. don't I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. They're all like all the AI models, all the AI tools are all moving at like different paces. You know, today lovable, tomorrow Repli, the next day base 44, whatever it is. So I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. They're all good tools. We also have one called the Foundry.
Verena: Ha
Simon: also a good tool. there's lots of them out there. and they're all driven by the models that sit underneath them. So, you know, going to move in, you know, with those models as well. So I don't think it really matters. I'd be thinking about what do I need to build? and thinking about, you know, how do I get this tested with customers rather than worrying about which technologies you're going to use. Because we see with most startup founders is the the thing that you built today is not the thing that you're still running on in six, twelve months time. Because you you know, you you have to make new decisions and technology decisions later along, which means you're rebuilding stuff or you're scrapping it, throwing it away and starting again. Because you pivoted, let's say. So I I I really wouldn't worry about it. They're all good tools. Just just go go build something.
Verena: Is there something in general like when they when people ⁓ compare tools where you say, Okay, watch out for like crit criteria pricing or anything?
Simon: I mean, I think the only thing to watch out with most of these tools is that the price that you pay when you start, which is often free, then maybe you get on a twenty-five dollars a month plan of some sort, is not the price you're gonna be playing with you've got customers on it. Because they really design these platforms for like let's just build something quick and and dirty and get it out there. But as soon as you start to scale on those platforms, you know. Something unlovable can go from twenty five bucks a month to like a thousand bucks a month in no time at all. And suddenly you go, ⁓ I'm on the wrong platform here for this scaling startup. So as I say, but it's a great place to start. you know, so I I I wouldn't I wouldn't worry about it, but just know that you might have to move at some point. Michael from Miami in the US. ⁓ Hi, Simon Verena. Should I do it with an American accent? No, maybe No, ⁓ I couldn't. ⁓ No, ⁓ I can't. So ⁓ I won't even try. ⁓ Simon and I'm non-technical founder and hearing that AI means don't need a technical co-founder anymore. But I don't.
Verena: Yeah, please. Can you do that? Yeah
Simon: just want to build a demo, I want to build a real business with a fairly complex product. To what extent is that actually true? And where do you think I need to find a developer?
Verena: From our experience, you can definitely start, building something on your own, right? It depends a bit on how much and actually also complex things, but it depends on how much time can you really dedicate to it,
Simon: AI isn't magic. It's only as good as the prompt that you put in. So, for example, you say, I want a login for my app, I want a login box for my app, and I want it to be username and password. It'll build you that, but it might put the whole passwords in text in clear in the database because you didn't say, ⁓ and by the way, I want it to be really secure. Had you had that conversation with a developer, they would have assumed and made the assumption, well, of course he wants it secure. one wants to store the passwords in clear in the database. That's crazy. But doesn't know that. it doesn't assume for you you have to kind of have some of that knowledge to put into the prompt. So if you're a non-technical founder, the challenge is you don't know what you don't know. And so you're not prompting it correctly. So yes, it builds something and on the surface it looks great. It looks like the thing you asked for. I've got a login box. What you haven't realised is there's no security here. This can see this customer's data. There's no back end. When you try to scale, you get to more than ten customers, it's costing you, you know, a thousand bucks a month because it's just like eating compute time and stuff. So I those are the challenges. So I think that's where AI it's not it's bad. It's just it's it's not yeah, you need to know how to use it. ⁓ and that's you know, that's the challenge with any tool.
Verena: You need to know how to use it.
Simon: So you just need to know how to use it and you get that from, you know, experience.
Verena: last one for ⁓ launch. that's from from I Island. He says, Hi Simon Lorena, I've been tweaking my MvP for months, but I know I need to launch at some point. How do you know when a product is actually good enough to launch? mean what what we usually say is that there ⁓ are ⁓ must-have features and they need to work extremely well, And then there nice have features, right? So usually when we work together with founders, we at the beginning, before they build, we actually work out, you know, what what does the version one Look like, and as part of it, we create a feature list and we actually say, okay, these are kind of the must-have features. They're oftentimes around three core features that you can break it down to is ⁓ and they to, as I said, like they need to fully work, right? And they actually help you to validate your proposition. then let's move on to grow. So this is around finding ⁓ first-paying customers. and here we a question from ⁓ Olivia. she said, Hey Million Labs, I launched an AI tool for fitness coaches. the feedback has been really positive, but I'm struggling to get traction and find Paying customers, what do you see works best? And how can AI help me with customer acquisition?
Simon: we have this really simple thing is ⁓ one geography, one use and one customer when we're talking about grow. So ⁓ what we see lots of startup founders do is go, I'm gonna go to the world, I'm just gonna try and get everybody to use it and I'm just gonna advertise on TikTok because I think that's where my customers are. Like it's too big. ⁓ So just pick one go for I don't know, Toronto. I don't know where you're based, Olivia, but like pick pick a city, Toronto. ⁓ Pick one user type. So is it like males between the ages of 20 and 30, right? then one use case. You said fitness coach, but what kind of fitness? Like there's lots of different things. Like, I don't know, ⁓ say it's yoga or something. ⁓ just pick that, keep it really tight because it'll be much easier to go after those customers and your first customer. They'll tell their friends, you'll get a viral loop because it's a much tighter group and they know each other. do it like that and not just try to do this kind of ⁓ I'm just gonna do some adverts over here and and try and find a customer 'cause 'cause you won't.
Verena: there's another question that's actually a bit similar. So this is hi hi Simon. from Ben from Scotland. ⁓ I've built an AI tool for like accountants ⁓ and have a small marketing budget to work with. There are so many channels LinkedIn, ads, ⁓ SEO. If you're starting from scratch today, which one would you focus on first and why? this goes back, I think, to a little bit what Simon what you mentioned earlier, right? it all starts with your niche. It all with your ideal customer persona. So look at those first, they will tell you along the way what is the right channel, and all of your marketing messaging can be tailored around that. So usually we see that those people that have the niche, right? No matter whether then pick LinkedIn or MetaS, whatever, when you know your niche, you will know your channel. And the more niche you go, the more you, you can speak to your customer. and it will be way easier to actually grab their attention.
Simon: So la last question, I think. Mia from Denmark. Heil, I've built a working AI prototype and now I'm thinking about raising investment so I can build the next version. Do you have any recommendations for that process? ⁓ I would say, particularly since you're in Europe, Maya, that you're probably still a bit for raising investment. Sure, we all see the
Verena: ⁓
Simon: I've got a pitch deck and they raised a billion dollars. Yep, that that happens, but they've the rarity for the most of us. We need to be a bit further down the line than that. So you need to be further into the grow. So you've obviously done start and launch. You've got a product or prototype as you're calling it. So it might be, you know, early launch stage. but what really want is what every investor wants, is it de-risked. So you really want actual users using it. And if they're paying, even better. So the further up that line you go towards paying. regularly paying customers, repeatable business, the lower the risk is for you and the more easy it's going to be for you to raise investment. so that's what I would do first. I'd just get a bit further if you can. if you've already built it with ⁓ AI, the next version like is as easy as the first version. So you're just iterating based on customer feedback. So I wouldn't worry about raising investment at this stage because let's face it, if you could get to revenue, Then you don't need to raise investment. You don't need to give up any equity of your business. It's all yours then. and you don't have somebody breathing down your neck saying, Come on, faster, more, et So I'd just get a bit further down the line first.
Verena: I think we we could talk for way longer. But you the episode, if you if it you thinking about your own startup and you want to have a bit more tailored advice beyond what we covered today, if you book a call and if you want to know how we can help in your specific journey, just book the call, it's in the show notes. ⁓ And ⁓ other than that, I think it's time to say goodbye for this one. see you next time Thank you so much.
Simon: Thanks for listening, guys.
Verena: Welcome back to the Start Launch Grow Podcast, everyone. today we are doing our Ask Us Anything deep dive. So instead of focusing on one topic that we pick, we are answering your questions, the questions that you sent us over the past few weeks.
Simon: we've received lots of ⁓ great questions ⁓ and although we're not gonna able to cover them all, we've picked a few hand picked ones ⁓ that we think are the most valuable. since our founders are all at different stages of the kind of framework the start, launch, grow, we're going to kind of use that as our structure for answering questions. next episode.
Verena: Funny when you talk about structure, Simon. So so either either you ⁓ want ⁓ to do a favor for me or you're actually becoming more German. You're becoming Verena, a version of Verena.
Simon: Yeah. ⁓ it's rubbing off a little bit, but only a little.
Verena: Well, things could definitely be worse. Well, anyway, let's jump into your your questions. we start with the first questions that we tailor all around start. So basically all around ⁓ what we call knowing what to build, and the first question I have here is is from James. he's based in England. so I will pass that to you, Simon. so James is ⁓ says, Hi Simon Everena. ⁓ I've been thinking about my startup idea for months. But I still can't decide whether it's worth doing. Now that AI makes it way simpler to build something, how much market research do I actually need before I start building?
Simon: I think because you can build really quickly, you almost shouldn't, ⁓ because you'll build the wrong things just much quicker. you still need to do that kind of upfront market research. And like we've AI, it just that market research really easy and quicker to You can certainly do the basics using ChatGPT, Claude, whoever you Whoever you want really quickly. So I would definitely spend quite a bit of time looking at that. So you're doing, you know, keyword analysis, you're doing competitor analysis, all of these types of things that should be held in that kind of start phase. and customer interviews. Chat GPT AI is not going to help you with those. Getting and talking to customers ⁓ is a human led thing and still something you should do. So a couple of weeks, a week, you know, something like that.
Verena: I I guess like his question is what is a good level of market research? When shall I stop? I mean that's the million dollar question, isn't it? ⁓
Simon: Yeah. I think yeah, and and there's I know I don't think there's a there's a firm answer. It's definitely after six days you should stop. But I think the reality is you should stop when you can no longer answer the questions via just research alone. So once you you know, you've got a question, you go, Well, ⁓ my hypothesis, this is what I think all this data's telling me, but really until I put it in front of a potential customer, I c I can't tell. that's when you should start building. So you're building to those to try and test those hypotheses. So, know, that's going to be different for everybody. Some some people that might take a day just to figure it out, others that might be a week, a month, whatever, to to do the market research.
Verena: I think we also need to define what building means, right? Because building might also just mean ⁓ you know, a bit of a demo, without all of the functionality. And I think here it t completely makes sense actually to make use of AI and I would also say that when you speak to customers when you run all of the the interviews watch out for some of the signals because sometimes people, you know, just say, ⁓ yeah, of course, you know, I would, you know, buy it, etc. But let them sign up somewhere. And this doesn't need to be an app, right? You can just create a form or something to say, okay, do you want to get early access once it's ready? So will they go the step to just give you their email address? Right? Like is it or was it just you know nice talk because they like you? I I would always grab Like look for something tangible when you do these interviews.
Simon: I'd just say be careful. You're not putting a product in front of them and saying, look, would you buy this? That's not an interview. What you're trying to as ascertain at this stage is, does this problem resonate with people and how do they currently solve it? Those are the really questions you're trying to answer. So if you you know, almost if you put a product in and go, Well, what do you think of this? Should it have this screen or this screen? They're answering that question. Whereas really what you understand is how do you currently solve this do you know this problem today? I use a spreadsheet ⁓ pick up the and I call someone. ⁓ Whatever the answer is, that's what you want understand is how is it being done today and how are they thinking about the problem? ⁓ rather than saying, like, here's my app, what do you think of this page? Will you sign up to it? Because that's not really what this is about at this kind of core level. So let's take another question. this one's for you, Verena. Sarah from ⁓ United States, somewhere in the ⁓ Hi, Verena and Simon. I'm currently working full time in HR and building my start up in the evenings. At what point would you actually recommend quitting my job?
Verena: one. So Obviously it depends a little bit like on your personal savings, et cetera. But instead of asking when to quit, what a good milestone, I think this is where we come back to ⁓ what what we just discussed is in terms of validation, right? Like after you have done your homework, after you got actually a few strong signals. there can be also something positive about actually still being in a job because it means that you don't enough time, To you know look at all of the nice to have's
Simon: I mean I would just add to that. I'd say don't quit at start, don't quit at You're quitting sometime in grow, but you've as Verena said, you've already set a metric. It's five thousand ⁓ monthly reoccurring revenue. Like so you've picked because that covers your salary and it that means you can pay your bills. That's when you quit, and only then. and you might want to be seeing that month on month, not the first time you hit it, but you know, like make sure that's repeatable, like month two, month three. So, you know. You're probably at least six months away from quitting if you've just got an idea today.
Verena: Okay, next one is from Emma in Sweden. So if you were starting Median Labs from scratch today, knowing everything you know and having access to today's AI tools, what would you recommend us as a founder? Like how can we spend our first thirty days ⁓
Simon: good question. So I think I think in the first 30 days, I would be going through the start, launch, grow, but really quickly. So I'd spend a couple of days doing the research, the start, figuring out what I need to build. What do the customers want? I'd talk to some potential customers, what do they want? And then figure out well, what what does that mean in terms of my MVP or minimum viable product? What features need to go in there? What do I need to build? Really? I'd then something really quickly using AI tools. I'd then push that back to those customers that I've spoken to and say, what do you think? and then I'd ask get that feedback, and I'd go into another loop and I would iterate on my MVP then. and hopefully I'd get to some revenue. Probably not inside 30 days, ⁓ but ⁓ certainly be heading in that direction. by the end of the 30 days, I'd be like thinking like, I've got something here, and now I want to monetise it. Lucas from the Netherlands. Million Labs. I work as an analyst in a very traditional corporation, but I'd love to start something of my own. The problem is that I don't actually have an idea. Apart from asking Chat GPT, what would you recommend? How do you personally go about coming up with ideas that are worth building?
Verena: people often underestimate the value of knowing an industry. So if you're like actually working in that industry for quite some time, right, you're really close to probably a lot of pain points and what's going on around you, and that can give you a competitive edge you know something that most people don't because they're not in a day-to-day. You don't have to come up with the next big new business model, but oftentimes you can just look for, okay, is in an industry what do they do that is working, and would that apply also to my industry? So, for example, I think in installment payments were quite a thing back then in the finance industry, like buy now, pay later. Then Klana actually moved it to e-commerce, right? And it was quite successful. So there are several of these in ⁓ where you look at a business model from another industry and then apply it. okay, let's move on to launch then Simon. this is ⁓ Sophie based in France. She says, Million Labs team. I've been experimenting with lovable claw and a few other AI tools, but honestly, I have no idea which one I should commit to. As a non-technical founder, what tech stack would you mech recommend for building an MVP? What criteria should I use to decide which tools are right for my business? That's a good tech question for you.
Simon: There's a tech ⁓ question, right? Right there. ⁓ obviously if you're from France, you need to find the French tool ⁓ so that you keep it, keep it in France. don't I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. They're all like all the AI models, all the AI tools are all moving at like different paces. You know, today lovable, tomorrow Repli, the next day base 44, whatever it is. So I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. They're all good tools. We also have one called the Foundry.
Verena: Ha
Simon: also a good tool. there's lots of them out there. and they're all driven by the models that sit underneath them. So, you know, going to move in, you know, with those models as well. So I don't think it really matters. I'd be thinking about what do I need to build? and thinking about, you know, how do I get this tested with customers rather than worrying about which technologies you're going to use. Because we see with most startup founders is the the thing that you built today is not the thing that you're still running on in six, twelve months time. Because you you know, you you have to make new decisions and technology decisions later along, which means you're rebuilding stuff or you're scrapping it, throwing it away and starting again. Because you pivoted, let's say. So I I I really wouldn't worry about it. They're all good tools. Just just go go build something.
Verena: Is there something in general like when they when people ⁓ compare tools where you say, Okay, watch out for like crit criteria pricing or anything?
Simon: I mean, I think the only thing to watch out with most of these tools is that the price that you pay when you start, which is often free, then maybe you get on a twenty-five dollars a month plan of some sort, is not the price you're gonna be playing with you've got customers on it. Because they really design these platforms for like let's just build something quick and and dirty and get it out there. But as soon as you start to scale on those platforms, you know. Something unlovable can go from twenty five bucks a month to like a thousand bucks a month in no time at all. And suddenly you go, ⁓ I'm on the wrong platform here for this scaling startup. So as I say, but it's a great place to start. you know, so I I I wouldn't I wouldn't worry about it, but just know that you might have to move at some point. Michael from Miami in the US. ⁓ Hi, Simon Verena. Should I do it with an American accent? No, maybe No, ⁓ I couldn't. ⁓ No, ⁓ I can't. So ⁓ I won't even try. ⁓ Simon and I'm non-technical founder and hearing that AI means don't need a technical co-founder anymore. But I don't.
Verena: Yeah, please. Can you do that? Yeah
Simon: just want to build a demo, I want to build a real business with a fairly complex product. To what extent is that actually true? And where do you think I need to find a developer?
Verena: From our experience, you can definitely start, building something on your own, right? It depends a bit on how much and actually also complex things, but it depends on how much time can you really dedicate to it,
Simon: AI isn't magic. It's only as good as the prompt that you put in. So, for example, you say, I want a login for my app, I want a login box for my app, and I want it to be username and password. It'll build you that, but it might put the whole passwords in text in clear in the database because you didn't say, ⁓ and by the way, I want it to be really secure. Had you had that conversation with a developer, they would have assumed and made the assumption, well, of course he wants it secure. one wants to store the passwords in clear in the database. That's crazy. But doesn't know that. it doesn't assume for you you have to kind of have some of that knowledge to put into the prompt. So if you're a non-technical founder, the challenge is you don't know what you don't know. And so you're not prompting it correctly. So yes, it builds something and on the surface it looks great. It looks like the thing you asked for. I've got a login box. What you haven't realised is there's no security here. This can see this customer's data. There's no back end. When you try to scale, you get to more than ten customers, it's costing you, you know, a thousand bucks a month because it's just like eating compute time and stuff. So I those are the challenges. So I think that's where AI it's not it's bad. It's just it's it's not yeah, you need to know how to use it. ⁓ and that's you know, that's the challenge with any tool.
Verena: You need to know how to use it.
Simon: So you just need to know how to use it and you get that from, you know, experience.
Verena: last one for ⁓ launch. that's from from I Island. He says, Hi Simon Lorena, I've been tweaking my MvP for months, but I know I need to launch at some point. How do you know when a product is actually good enough to launch? mean what what we usually say is that there ⁓ are ⁓ must-have features and they need to work extremely well, And then there nice have features, right? So usually when we work together with founders, we at the beginning, before they build, we actually work out, you know, what what does the version one Look like, and as part of it, we create a feature list and we actually say, okay, these are kind of the must-have features. They're oftentimes around three core features that you can break it down to is ⁓ and they to, as I said, like they need to fully work, right? And they actually help you to validate your proposition. then let's move on to grow. So this is around finding ⁓ first-paying customers. and here we a question from ⁓ Olivia. she said, Hey Million Labs, I launched an AI tool for fitness coaches. the feedback has been really positive, but I'm struggling to get traction and find Paying customers, what do you see works best? And how can AI help me with customer acquisition?
Simon: we have this really simple thing is ⁓ one geography, one use and one customer when we're talking about grow. So ⁓ what we see lots of startup founders do is go, I'm gonna go to the world, I'm just gonna try and get everybody to use it and I'm just gonna advertise on TikTok because I think that's where my customers are. Like it's too big. ⁓ So just pick one go for I don't know, Toronto. I don't know where you're based, Olivia, but like pick pick a city, Toronto. ⁓ Pick one user type. So is it like males between the ages of 20 and 30, right? then one use case. You said fitness coach, but what kind of fitness? Like there's lots of different things. Like, I don't know, ⁓ say it's yoga or something. ⁓ just pick that, keep it really tight because it'll be much easier to go after those customers and your first customer. They'll tell their friends, you'll get a viral loop because it's a much tighter group and they know each other. do it like that and not just try to do this kind of ⁓ I'm just gonna do some adverts over here and and try and find a customer 'cause 'cause you won't.
Verena: there's another question that's actually a bit similar. So this is hi hi Simon. from Ben from Scotland. ⁓ I've built an AI tool for like accountants ⁓ and have a small marketing budget to work with. There are so many channels LinkedIn, ads, ⁓ SEO. If you're starting from scratch today, which one would you focus on first and why? this goes back, I think, to a little bit what Simon what you mentioned earlier, right? it all starts with your niche. It all with your ideal customer persona. So look at those first, they will tell you along the way what is the right channel, and all of your marketing messaging can be tailored around that. So usually we see that those people that have the niche, right? No matter whether then pick LinkedIn or MetaS, whatever, when you know your niche, you will know your channel. And the more niche you go, the more you, you can speak to your customer. and it will be way easier to actually grab their attention.
Simon: So la last question, I think. Mia from Denmark. Heil, I've built a working AI prototype and now I'm thinking about raising investment so I can build the next version. Do you have any recommendations for that process? ⁓ I would say, particularly since you're in Europe, Maya, that you're probably still a bit for raising investment. Sure, we all see the
Verena: ⁓
Simon: I've got a pitch deck and they raised a billion dollars. Yep, that that happens, but they've the rarity for the most of us. We need to be a bit further down the line than that. So you need to be further into the grow. So you've obviously done start and launch. You've got a product or prototype as you're calling it. So it might be, you know, early launch stage. but what really want is what every investor wants, is it de-risked. So you really want actual users using it. And if they're paying, even better. So the further up that line you go towards paying. regularly paying customers, repeatable business, the lower the risk is for you and the more easy it's going to be for you to raise investment. so that's what I would do first. I'd just get a bit further if you can. if you've already built it with ⁓ AI, the next version like is as easy as the first version. So you're just iterating based on customer feedback. So I wouldn't worry about raising investment at this stage because let's face it, if you could get to revenue, Then you don't need to raise investment. You don't need to give up any equity of your business. It's all yours then. and you don't have somebody breathing down your neck saying, Come on, faster, more, et So I'd just get a bit further down the line first.
Verena: I think we we could talk for way longer. But you the episode, if you if it you thinking about your own startup and you want to have a bit more tailored advice beyond what we covered today, if you book a call and if you want to know how we can help in your specific journey, just book the call, it's in the show notes. ⁓ And ⁓ other than that, I think it's time to say goodbye for this one. see you next time Thank you so much.
Simon: Thanks for listening, guys.
