The Fastest Way to Test a Startup Idea

Last week, I reconnected with Shuo, founding partner of IOVC, and one of the first people I reached out to when I began my career in venture. That day, I asked her a pretty stupid question, “Given the rise of solo capitalists, rolling funds, equity crowdfunding, and the democratization of capital, do you think now’s a good time to raise a fund?“

She replied, “I don’t know. It could be a good time now. It could be a good time five years from now. If you’re set on sticking around for the long term, it really doesn’t matter. ‘Cause whether it’s a good time or not, you’re going to be raising a fund regardless. So just do it.”

Not gonna lie, it was serious wake-up call. While I was initially looking for her perspective on the changing venture market, what she said was right. If you’re set on doing something, say starting a fund or a business, the “right time” to start is irrelevant. The world around us changes so much so frequently. We only know when’s the right time in hindsight. So focus on what we can control. Which is starting and doing.

So as an aspiring founder, which idea do you start with? And how do you test it?

Starting a business is scary

Starting a business is scary for most people. And well, the government doesn’t always make it easy to do so. Just like what WordPress and Squarespace did for websites, you have companies, like Stripe (and their Stripe Atlas), Square, Shopify, Kickstarter, just to name a few, streamlining the whole process for entrepreneurship. For an aspiring entrepreneur, not only is it taking that leap of faith, before you begin, there’s a slew of things you have to worry about:

• Figure out how to incorporate your business (C-corp, LLC, or S-corp),
• Assign directors and officers to your business,
• Buy the stock, so you actually own your stock,
• Learn to file your taxes (multiple forms, including your 83(b) election),
• When you raise funding, get a 409A valuation,
• And that’s just the beginning.

Of course for the above, do consult with your professional lawyer and accountant. It’s two of the few startup expenses I really recommend not skimping on. While the purpose of this post isn’t designed to solve all the documents you’ll have to go through in starting a business, hopefully, this will help with one front – taking that leap of faith. Specifically finding early validation for your idea.

The superpower of writing

I stumbled on Max Nussenbaum‘s, who’s leading On Deck‘s Writing Fellowship, provocative tweetstorm:

My hot take of the day:

Most aspiring startup founders who think they should learn to code would be better off learning to write well instead.

Here's why 👇

— max nussenbaum (@maxnuss) March 2, 2021

He boils it down to, effectively, four reasons:

1. You can test the validity of an idea faster by writing than with code.
2. Writing well trains your ability to sell.
3. Publishing regularly gets you comfortable with shipping early and often.
   • To which he cited one of my favorite Reid-isms: “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” – Reid Hoffman
4. Writing is easier for most people to pick up than coding.

There’s a “5th reason” as well, but I’ll let you uncover that yourself. Talk about creativity. Side note. Max created one of my favorite personal websites to date.

Much like Max, I write to think. And in sharing my raw thoughts outside of the world of startups via the #unfiltered series, often far from perfect, as well as my take in this fast-changing universe, my cadence of writing twice a week has forced my brain to be accustomed to the velocity of growth. In the sense, I better be learning and fact-checking my growth week over week. Over time, I’ve developed my own mental model of finding idea and content catalysts.

Of course, if you know me, I just had to reach out. Particularly around the third point in his tweetstorm.

3. Publishing regularly gets you comfortable with shipping early and often.

"If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late." —@reidhoffman

I'm embarrassed about pretty much everything I write. But less embarrassed with each piece.

— max nussenbaum (@maxnuss) March 2, 2021

What mental models or practices did he use to help him wrestle with his embarrassment from his own writing? And he replied with two loci that provided so much more context:

1. “Reading other writers who open up way more than I do, which makes what I’m doing feel easy by comparison. Two favorites I’d recommend are Haley Nahman and Ava from Bookbear Express.”
   • And another I binged for an hour last night. Talk about counterintuitive lessons. My favorites so far are Stephen’s 12th and 16th issue. You might not agree with everything, but he really does challenge your thinking. Thank you Max for the rec.
2. “Publicly committing to writing weekly and finding that the embarrassment of publishing was outweighed by the embarrassment I’d feel if I missed a week. Also, like all things, I’ve found it very much gets easier with practice.”

Why not both?

Then again, why not both? I go back to Guillaume‘s, founder of lemlist, recent LinkedIn post. He says:

And he’s completely right. If I were to analogize…

Writer = common
Writer + coder = uncommon
And… writer + coder + X = holy grail

You don’t have to own one unique skill. And in this day in age, there aren’t that many individually unique skills out there that haven’t been ‘discovered’ yet. Rather than search for the singularly unique skill that you can acquire, I’d place a larger bet on a combination of skill sets that can make you unique. As a founder, test your ideas early with writing. If there’s evidence of it sticking, build it with code. And it doesn’t just to be just writing and code, whatever set of skills you can acquire more quickly and deeper with the circumstances and experiences you have. Even better if there’s a positive flywheel effect between your skills.

Top photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash

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Thank you Shuo and Max for reviewing early drafts of this essay.

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