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Comment by lgkk | Hacker News Reader

From experience customers never know what they want.

There is a reason you, as an entrepreneur, are passionate about building something that’s hopefully better at solving the problem.

I really hate the advice of don’t build something before validating. That has literally never worked for me. That’s like asking a leading question and shooting yourself in the foot at the same time.

You should have some conviction why you’re doing something. Don’t one of those people who tries to do something in an industry they have zero clue about (99% chance of failure). If you know what you’re doing you should have a 60% plus chance of success.

It’s so easy to sell something that people just get at first glance because it’s actually good at solving their problem, because you had faced that same problem and decided to do something about it.

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> don’t build something before validating

It depends on what counts as validation. To me, it's the presence of the problem, and how many people are looking for some solution. This is why, I think, many validation-first sites are intentionally vague when describing the solution.

To me, it's the presence of the problem, and how many people are looking for some solution.

I love how Steve Blank talks about the ideal situation being when the customer has already cobbled together a solution from an old vacuum cleaner, four dozen zip ties, an Arduino, a stepper motor, and some old coat hangers (or whatever). Why? Isn't it bad when the customer already has a solution? Well maybe sometimes.

But if the underlying problem is a high value problem, the customer has - by cobbling something together - validated A. that the problem exists, and B. that they need a solution.

And if they're smart, they know they don't want to be in the business of maintaining this cobbled together P.O.S. which works 63% of the time, violates half a dozen fire-code regulations, and isn't remotely close to being their core competency. No, they want somebody like you to come along and offer a proper solution and will probably purchase your solution as long as the price is right or you don't blow the sale in some other way.

> I really hate the advice of don’t build something before validating. That has literally never worked for me.

> It’s so easy to sell something that people just get at first glance because it’s actually good at solving their problem, because you had faced that same problem and decided to do something about it.

What am I missing? You did validate it. You were the (prototype) customer, were you not?

He did the validation by building the prototype, not before building the prototype.

He validated the idea to build the prototype by talking to himself, in the role of a customer ("faced that same problem and decided to do something about it").

As opposed to "here's a cool idea I have, let me build it because I'm sure somebody will pay me money for it".

I meant the part about the 99% failure.

Every failed entrepreneurs I’ve met fit this category. They try to find validation, but it never works out that way. At least from what I have seen.

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