I used to tell founders that if they can't figure out how to find the right people to get feedback from early, they're also not going to be able to find the right people to sell to later.
The logistics are the same at either end of the process.
If they expect to hire a salesperson once they have a product, why not hire a research panel vendor or a firm like GLG to get validation?
If they want to own their sales and customer acquisition channels once they have a product, they have to figure out how to build an audience to get validation.
Is it a dark art of hustle and luck, or is it just marketing, and most founders don't want to do that?
The only difference is what you're selling, but the process is equivalent.
I used to tell founders that if they can't figure out how to find the right people to get feedback from early, they're also not going to be able to find the right people to sell to later.
The logistics are the same at either end of the process.
If they expect to hire a salesperson once they have a product, why not hire a research panel vendor or a firm like GLG to get validation?
If they want to own their sales and customer acquisition channels once they have a product, they have to figure out how to build an audience to get validation.
Is it a dark art of hustle and luck, or is it just marketing, and most founders don't want to do that?
The only difference is what you're selling, but the process is equivalent.