I recently pitched to a group of seasoned entrepreneurs, who were picking winners to pitch to a group of venture capitalists (VC) at a local Singaporean VC firm.
There were many good ideas, some of them already funded or on their way to getting funded. After my pitch, which in my opinion was not the best, I sat down and thought about how hard it was to find a real winner who would go on to become the next Google or Facebook. I have seen this many times before, in prior attempts at executing my own ideas. The reality is that the chances of picking a winner at any competition, accelerator, incubator or organization is near zero.
Picking a winner
Yet many of our efforts in the startup ecosystem are geared towards picking a winner. The Singapore government does it with their grants, VC firms do it with their funds and institutes of higher learning do it with their available resources. Picking the winner is saying that we can actually predict or perhaps even know who will be the winner. My take is that no one knows or can predict the winner. If we could, we would be the ones doing it. I hope I don’t sound bitter by saying this. I think that our pride is the reason why many of us feel that we know better.
However, I do believe that there is someone who may have the answer, but it is neither the judges or VCs. It is the entrepreneur himself. Only the entrepreneur can see the vision of his success before it actually happens, while the rest of the people picking the winners are merely gambling. That is assuming that the entrepreneur believes in his or her own vision so much that they put in everything they have to see that vision come true. Along those lines, this is how I think our startup ecosystem should be picking winners, by how much the entrepreneur believes in his or her vision. Sounds like a stupid approach? Hahaha… maybe!
Selling the vision
This is the reason why I suggest this approach.
I have come to believe that the entrepreneur who is fighting in the trenches early on in their startup journey is not really selling a product or technology, or even an innovative business model. Rather, he or she is selling a vision.
The vision is also what differentiates a startup from an SME.
The more people who believe in that vision, the greater the chances of success. Think about it! Is it possible to get excited about a startup’s product if you cannot see their vision? The vision is also what differentiates a startup from an SME.
Let me give you an example. I built an automated appointment scheduling product about a decade ago, that had people promoting it and giving it good reviews, even though they have never signed up for the product. I never paid them for the review, and neither were they my friends nor family. It puzzled me for a long time. But looking back, I now think that the reason why they’d responded positively to a product that they have never used was because they saw the vision of an automated appointment scheduler.
The MVP
Let’s face it.
A minimum viable product (MVP) is not going to be able to really sell and acquire a significant number of users in its early days. However, what it can do is to give users insight to the actual feasibility of the vision. The product then becomes the vehicle by which the entrepreneur’s vision is realized.
Selling the MVP is not going to be very effective, because it is at the furthest point from the possible fulfilment of the promise.
We all know that the product is never finished, and is constantly evolving. The better the product gets at meeting the needs of the customer, the closer we find ourselves moving towards the vision that it promises. Therefore, selling the MVP is not going to be very effective, because it is at the furthest point from the possible fulfilment of the promise. Sometimes our MVPs fail to bring clarity to the vision, and instead indirectly obscure it. Our focus should be to sell the vision which the product promises, and the vision should inspire its adoption. I think this also explains why a product that does not have a vision becomes merely a utility tool that never achieves greatness.
I am convinced that entrepreneurs should focus on selling the vision rather than the product. I have been pitching a product that I have been building in my spare time, but with mediocre results. Now, I want to change my pitch and focus on the vision, rather than the product’s utility.
Let me give you an example. This was the tag line that I was using, “Eliminate web traffic spam on your site,” focused on the product’s utility. I have revised it to “Preempt attacks on your site.” My hypothesis is that the measure of web traffic spam on a site has a direct correlation to impending attacks. Therefore the vision is that my technology can predict impending attacks before they happen. The implications are that web security can now be preemptive rather than reactive. Without this vision, the utility of my product would have clouded the full potential of its application.
What do you think? Would you try my product for its utility or vision?