0 1 00:00:00,750 --> 00:00:06,180 One of the first ways of the idea of validation I'm going to talk about is doing it in person and in 1 2 00:00:06,180 --> 00:00:06,970 real life. 2 3 00:00:06,990 --> 00:00:13,320 Are you I'm not online? And this is the absolute easiest way of validating your idea or your product and it's 3 4 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:15,900 basically just talking to somebody about it. 4 5 00:00:15,900 --> 00:00:21,600 Now the important thing is that you have to get good feedback and you have to listen to that feedback. 5 6 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:27,270 You have to find somebody in your life who is not afraid of telling you that your idea is absolutely 6 7 00:00:27,270 --> 00:00:27,780 crap. 7 8 00:00:27,780 --> 00:00:29,370 Of course they can be wrong. 8 9 00:00:29,370 --> 00:00:32,150 You have those people who just tell you that you're no good at anything. 9 10 00:00:32,220 --> 00:00:39,390 But there are also people who will give you balanced critical opinions and those are the most valuable 10 11 00:00:39,390 --> 00:00:40,740 people you can find. 11 12 00:00:40,770 --> 00:00:46,080 Now the thing about now the thing about humans is that we don't take criticism very well. 12 13 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:52,110 One of the things that a lot of founders can get stuck in is this sort of idea chasm when they are so 13 14 00:00:52,140 --> 00:00:57,950 vested in this brilliant idea that's going to be the next unicorn or the next Facebook, 14 15 00:00:57,990 --> 00:01:01,700 they cannot accept any sort of criticism. 15 16 00:01:01,740 --> 00:01:08,040 And I've seen this so often when people come to me for advice on their idea or the company that they're 16 17 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:11,970 starting. Now I often try to give a balanced feedback 17 18 00:01:11,970 --> 00:01:18,060 you know if there's something that's really glaringly obvious that makes their idea completely unfeasible 18 19 00:01:18,270 --> 00:01:25,230 I will tell them about it. And you see the way that different people react to that kind of feedback. Some 19 20 00:01:25,230 --> 00:01:25,940 people-- 20 21 00:01:25,950 --> 00:01:31,080 Now some people will argue back and say yeah but there's this and that which is good that means they're thinking 21 22 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:31,460 about it. 22 23 00:01:31,470 --> 00:01:37,020 But then there's other people who will just completely not accept any sort of criticism of their idea. 23 24 00:01:37,020 --> 00:01:39,950 And this is what you must guard against. 24 25 00:01:39,990 --> 00:01:46,110 Look to see if you are doing this in the business or app idea that you're pursuing because it could 25 26 00:01:46,110 --> 00:01:50,430 potentially cost you years in time and lots of money. 26 27 00:01:50,430 --> 00:01:54,500 So listen to critical feedback, evaluate it to see if it's valid. 27 28 00:01:54,510 --> 00:01:59,730 Now this is not to say that if you have a brilliant idea and everybody shoots you down that you should 28 29 00:01:59,730 --> 00:02:05,580 give up on it because there's a lot of ideas that are open markets that we never really thought about. Because 29 30 00:02:05,610 --> 00:02:13,230 UBER started initially targeting the luxury car market, It was absolutely tiny. And nobody, VCs or angels 30 31 00:02:13,230 --> 00:02:18,150 investors could actually see it going anywhere and definitely you know a lot of people missed out on 31 32 00:02:18,150 --> 00:02:22,920 a great opportunity to invest because they couldn't see it getting this much traction and ending up 32 33 00:02:22,920 --> 00:02:24,390 where they are now. 33 34 00:02:24,420 --> 00:02:28,830 And similarly with AirBnB there were a lot of people who were like, "why would you want strangers 34 35 00:02:28,830 --> 00:02:29,490 in your house? 35 36 00:02:29,490 --> 00:02:32,080 Surely they're just going to rape and murder you. 36 37 00:02:32,130 --> 00:02:35,290 This is totally never going to turn out well." 37 38 00:02:35,460 --> 00:02:43,220 And yet you know right now AirBnB has a huge percentage of the private short term rental market cap. 38 39 00:02:43,290 --> 00:02:50,310 So it's not to say that you should let the opinions of others determine how you're going to go forward 39 40 00:02:50,910 --> 00:02:56,940 but it's important to absorb some of the criticisms so that it can guide your decision making or that 40 41 00:02:56,940 --> 00:02:57,990 you can address it 41 42 00:02:58,020 --> 00:03:01,220 when you do launch. So don't be stuck in your own idea 42 43 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:04,620 chasm. Listen to people's feedback and opinions. 43 44 00:03:04,620 --> 00:03:09,710 So this is essentially a boiled down approach of how you can go about doing this from today 44 45 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:14,670 essentially if you already have an idea. So it's called the Starbucks approach and it's basically where 45 46 00:03:14,670 --> 00:03:19,800 you just walk into Starbucks and chat to a strangers. So find somebody who's sitting alone at the table 46 47 00:03:19,870 --> 00:03:26,520 and either offer to buy them a muffin or offer to buy them a coffee. And you ask them about your brother's 47 48 00:03:26,670 --> 00:03:33,780 app idea or your brother's startup idea. And this is very important because if you tell a stranger or 48 49 00:03:33,780 --> 00:03:37,420 even you know somebody know that you have this great idea, 49 50 00:03:37,500 --> 00:03:43,260 people don't tend to want to disappoint other people. They will refrain from giving 50 51 00:03:43,260 --> 00:03:50,850 you know the harshest of criticisms because they care about how you feel. And as humans we are all kind 51 52 00:03:50,850 --> 00:03:52,430 of empathetic in that way. 52 53 00:03:52,710 --> 00:03:57,870 So by saying that it's your friend or your brother's idea and you're just doing a little bit of you 53 54 00:03:57,870 --> 00:04:05,070 know market validation, then it removes them having to be nice about it. And you don't want them to just 54 55 00:04:05,070 --> 00:04:06,610 tell you "Yeah it's great. 55 56 00:04:06,620 --> 00:04:07,220 Well done." 56 57 00:04:07,230 --> 00:04:09,630 You know that's not what you want at all. 57 58 00:04:09,630 --> 00:04:11,870 You want them to identify 58 59 00:04:12,060 --> 00:04:18,330 all of the things that could go wrong with your idea and to bring your attention to things that you 59 60 00:04:18,330 --> 00:04:19,940 haven't really thought about. 60 61 00:04:20,010 --> 00:04:24,560 And step 3 is of course asking them what do they think about this idea, 61 62 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:26,220 do they think it's going to work? 62 63 00:04:26,220 --> 00:04:29,490 If not why if yes why etc. 63 64 00:04:29,580 --> 00:04:36,840 Now this approach is going to cost you maximum £10 or $15. So for the price of two coffees and maybe 64 65 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:38,380 30 minutes of your time 65 66 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:44,100 you could potentially be saving yourself months of hard work of toil and a lot of investment of your 66 67 00:04:44,100 --> 00:04:48,300 resources that will go down the drain because of something that you know you haven't thought about or 67 68 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:51,200 because it was actually a terrible idea to begin with. 68 69 00:04:51,300 --> 00:04:57,180 So whenever I tell people this, there's always somebody who asked me you know "should I ask them for an 69 70 00:04:57,180 --> 00:05:04,990 NDA which is a non-disclosure agreement?" It's essentially sort of loosely legal binding document that prohibits 70 71 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:10,280 the person from sharing details of your idea with anybody else. 71 72 00:05:10,330 --> 00:05:14,650 And my answer is always in phatic clean no. 72 73 00:05:14,650 --> 00:05:20,180 And the reason for that is because if you've ever built a company if you've ever built anything worthwhile, 73 74 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:26,770 you know that it takes so much more than just the idea. You know a lot of people can have ideas but the 74 75 00:05:26,770 --> 00:05:31,450 ones who become found and the ones who become successful are always the people who take action. 75 76 00:05:31,540 --> 00:05:36,410 And I can tell you that there's not a lot of people who take action in this world. 76 77 00:05:36,580 --> 00:05:43,510 And also if it is a good idea that you've got, you can bet that right now across the world five other 77 78 00:05:43,510 --> 00:05:47,730 people at least five other people will have had the same idea. 78 79 00:05:47,860 --> 00:05:49,530 There is nothing unique about our brain. 79 80 00:05:49,540 --> 00:05:55,660 There is only something unique about what we choose to take action on and whether if we do so. 80 81 00:05:55,930 --> 00:06:00,110 So don't worry about NDAs, don't worry about people stealing your idea. 81 82 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:05,530 It is so much more valuable getting that feedback getting information from people maybe with domain 82 83 00:06:05,530 --> 00:06:10,040 knowledge or getting criticisms about your idea that you can address. 83 84 00:06:10,060 --> 00:06:16,960 So this is the approach that is probably the cheapest and the least time consuming and it allows you 84 85 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:21,360 to gauge firsthand at people's reactions and people's feedback. 85 86 00:06:21,580 --> 00:06:26,550 And I can honestly say that this is probably one of the best ways of validating your idea. 86 87 00:06:26,590 --> 00:06:34,660 Now I know that not everybody is comfortable with the idea of going up to a stranger and you know exposing 87 88 00:06:34,660 --> 00:06:39,090 your your deepest darkest secrets in the form of your app idea or your startup idea. 88 89 00:06:39,220 --> 00:06:43,020 But just try it once or twice because starting a startup is all about the hustle, 89 90 00:06:43,030 --> 00:06:48,520 it's all about you know getting out there and getting people to know about what it is that you do or 90 91 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:50,240 how it is that you're helping people. 91 92 00:06:50,290 --> 00:06:55,930 So if you can't bring yourself to discuss your idea with a stranger for 30 minutes in Starbucks you 92 93 00:06:55,930 --> 00:06:58,190 know there's really minimal risks here. 93 94 00:06:58,210 --> 00:07:01,320 The worst thing that can happen is that they'll say no. 94 95 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:03,990 And then you move onto the next person and nobody's going to die. 95 96 00:07:03,990 --> 00:07:05,330 Nothing's going to happen. 96 97 00:07:05,350 --> 00:07:10,420 So just as a challenge for those you guys who are listening right now and you have an app idea or 97 98 00:07:10,420 --> 00:07:16,870 you have a startup idea, go out there grab a coffee buy somebody else a coffee see what they think about 98 99 00:07:16,870 --> 00:07:19,520 it and practice this way of idea of validation.