Embrace the MVP and Stop Trying To Boil The Ocean

You’re trying to boil the ocean.

You had a simple idea for a startup. One problem to solve. A solution to a common pain point that would attract customers and keep them coming back.

You were targeting a small market at first. But that’s ok.

You had a future roadmap in mind that would expand the product to make it relevant to other target markets. There was a path to building a billion-dollar company. You could see it clearly.

But you were going to be disciplined.

You would solve that one problem for that one target market. Build the Minimum Viable Product. Prove your hypothesis. Make sure your solution and pricing are on point. Build a solution so sticky that your growth flywheel would propel you to a bigger opportunity.

And then you started building.

And that simple plan got lost.

It seemed easy to add just a few more features from your roadmap. Suddenly, you were building the entire platform. Designing the full product line.

You rationalized it. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to build it all at once and prove the grand vision for all to see?

You could target more potential customers. Hit that bigger vision faster.

Without customer feedback, you build in a bubble, increasingly uncertain if your solution will hit the mark. Your initial assumptions go untested until it’s too late.

But the further you go, the harder it is to stop. It’s a snowball rolling down a hill. Absorbing time and money as it grows and picks up speed.

Suddenly, you realize you’re trying to boil the ocean.

You’re building too many features at the same time, none of which are ultimately good enough to launch. You’ve designed too many products at once, none of which are up to your expectations of quality that would represent the best foot forward.

You may decide to keep building, try to launch, and hope the results are strong enough to attract more funding. The end of your cash runway isn’t far behind your target launch date.

And that launch date keeps slipping.

This is how startups run out of money and die.

Out of cash. No signs of product-market fit. Nothing that would inspire investors to put more money behind you and your team.

You can only do one thing when you find yourself in this situation.

Stop.

Stop building. Stop designing. Stop wasting precious time and money.

Don’t succumb to the sunk cost fallacy.

You can stop today. Right now.

Give you and your team time to reset. Redefine that MVP. Pull back to that first problem you were trying to solve. Refocus on that first target customer. Pare everything else back.

Some of the time and money you’ve spent so far will prove to have been wasted. That’s ok. It’s better to find out now than in six months when you’re out of time and money.

Wherever you are in your development cycle, you always have the option to stop, reassess, tighten the focus, and then build something simpler.

Do fewer things better.

Control your startup’s destiny.