There is really only power on earth that is able to validate assumptions, and that’s the market.
This year, I’ve been on quite a journey – what to me has been quite a difficult journey – which is one of talking to founders who want to start their businesses, but get into a position where they’re being quite, I think, “meek” in how they’re building their MVPs.
The current view is very fixated on “validating assumptions”, on checking out what you’re doing before you actually go for it and build something that you can actually put in front of customers, with an expectation that they’re going to buy.
And that’s the issue – the only way you know when someone is “demanding”, in a classic “economics” sense, is when they actually show you they have the means and the intent to buy.
And it’s only the market that can do that. You can have all the conversations you like, cogitate and ruminate as much as is possible, but only the market has the power to validate your assumptions.