> Ultimately, I don't exactly regret it but I certainly wish that we weren't so convincing that we convinced ourselves of a market opportunity that we couldn't access or didn't exist at all.
How should you really know this without trying?
If you aren't convinced, where should the motivation come from?
Every business has about 100 questions where if you know the answer to those questions, you are quite likely to be successful. The hard part is knowing which questions need to be asked of each business.
To be clear: my co-founders and I were all seasoned, multi-startup people. We had extremely high-calibre investors with finely tuned bullshit meters. In the end, our own pitching skill undid us because I think less-convincing founders would have undergone 25% more scrutiny and that would have required us to demonstrate that we had signed LOIs from 3-5 real customers before starting.
There was a subconscious misdirection around the fact that we didn't actually have anyone beating down our door. We let the excitement for "data", our personalities and our track records carry the moment.
Of course founders have to drink their own Kool-Aid to some extent or they won't make it. But there's real power and value in the customer development mindset. People want this? Prove it.
How should you really know this without trying? If you aren't convinced, where should the motivation come from?