The Advice that Would’ve Saved Me a Second Mortgage..
A company starts with an idea.
“The world needs x”
or
“Hey, there is an opportunity right there”
So founders go ahead and build the software (or pay for it to be built)...
Then they take it to the market and...
Nobody cares.
This is exactly what happened to me (many years ago).
I was 32, working at a videogame company.
I had a brilliant idea to use our sim platform for training -- called “serious games” back then.
I even landed an early customer -- literally the first company I spoke with.
And, then, the videogame company went bankrupt.
But..
..I really wanted to keep this thing going.
So, I got a second mortgage for my house and bought the assets of the former employer.
That’s a good idea a month after you’ve had your first kid and you have no income, right?
Safe to say - I believed in the serious games biz.
6 months later - I could not convince one additional company to pay for a training game.
No one was interested in our idea.
As founders, we often act as if our assumptions are always true. I learned the hard way: our early assumptions are mostly wrong.
So “sell it before you build it” became one of my aphorisms.
One my clients now hears A LOT.
If there is a single reason why founders fail?
This is it.
They get so wrapped up in their beliefs, build the thing and shout:
“TADAA here it is”
And the world just doesn't care.
So:
👉 Sell it before you build it.
(And talk to me before you take out a second mortgage.)