What's More Important: Your Product Or Proof-Of-Concept?
I have had the luxury of meeting over 500 startups at Red Rocket Ventures over the last three years. And, typically, most of them approach me at the same point in their startup development. They have just finished building their new product, whether it be a website or mobile app or whatever, and they are seeking venture capital to assist them with sales and marketing to bring in new users. It is typically then, when I ask them "do you have any current users and how quickly are you growing" to point to a proof-of-concept around your startup. Which is typically followed by, "I don't have a material user base yet, that is why I need the venture capital". Then I shrug, and have to be the "bad guy" of telling them they are not ready to raise professional venture capital. A sad and familiar story, as without this round of capital, the startup will most likely go out of business, as they lack other sources.
So, everyone stop what you are doing with your products, take some time to understand what will be required of you from a proof-of-concept perspective with new investors down the road, and align all of your immediate efforts around those clearly defined goals and metrics. To help you here, check out my Red Rocket post on how to budget and test your proof-of-concept marketing.
George Deeb is a Partner at Red Rocket Ventures and author of 101 Startup Lessons-An Entrepreneur's Handbook. For future posts from George, please follow him here or on Twitter at @georgedeeb or @redrocketvc.