The paradox of early stage businesses (and how I am trying to solve it for Lesk)
In this article I will enumerate the problems I am encountering to grow Lesk.
So Lesk is a product which is not really finished but that I can produce. What I mean by that is: We can make some early versions and sell them, already.
Will they be as finished as the phone you have next to you? no.
Will they resolve someone’s problem (a.k.a. make their party better and give them the feeling that they’re cool)? Definitely.
So here is my problems here, I have a product that can still resolve someone’s problem, but few possibilities to produce it. We’ll see which ones.
1 – People expect proofs
Whenever I talk with a friend, in case he would invest, his answer is “what is your business plan”. As if the business plan was the only key to help in the production of a product.
People are expecting unrealistic plans to show that we have planned everything.
But planning is unnecessary if you can’t produce, if you can’t move on. I can insert millions of lies in a business plan. I can’t lie on the quality of my product or the feeling it produces.
Producing is what will make people make the difference between “that’s something I want” vs “that’s a nice product”.
Producing is the non-red flag that people under appreciate.
2 – It needs to be cheap before it can be produced
The second paradox is the cheap/affordable paradox.
To be bought, it needs to be cheap for the user, hence cheap to produce, but no scale economy can be made here.
The logic is that: you need to internally reach a minimum size to start making profit but without profit, you can’t grow and invest.
That is the second paradox I am facing.
3 – It needs to be secure
Complying to a minimum of security is obviously something needed when selling a product. Mostly when it deals with electronics and fire security.
The paradox here is to try to make a product secure while it should be safe to be sold. Let me explain. Reaching the ultimate security means producing it in accordance to all the existing laws. I do not have law expertise nor I have producing skills. Where are we going then?
If thinking that way, the answer is nowhere.
The goal hence is not to make a product that is 100% secure but rather make a product that avoid to get hot and provoke fire or death.
That is crucial because here the goal is to be able to sell no mather what. Instead, people think that you shouldn’t sell as you haven’t complied to all the laws. That is another big paradox.