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If you were inventing the bike it would be pretty hard to get people to understand your idea and want to invest their time and money unless you could show them what you meant…..
Helping other people really get hold of your idea and take it seriously is tough but it amazes me how many people tell me they have an idea for a start up but don’t even chalk up a picture on the wall to help me experience their dream…
I regularly get told ‘If only I could just get my £150k investment to start this idea we could build the next tech shining star’ but then but haven’t even committed £50 or a weekend to their idea.
Quite simply there is a massive trust gap with too many big leaps of faith required.
Here is a simple plan to come up with and de-risk that idea to gain the help you need to begin to scale it.
1. Settle on a problem that you are interested in solving that has effected you personally.
2. Have 10 conversations with smart people who know something about the problem you are interested in. Write notes and then collate the common themes.
3. Decide on a top line idea of what bet you will make in providing a solution.
4. Brain storm a name in 1 hour. Register the domain (LCN.com) get hosting (Rack space) install CMS (WordPress) get logo (Photoshop trial Free or 99designs £200)
Get a yourname@yourbrand.com email and draw some pictures of what your solution will look like.
5. Go back to 10 smart people, show them your progress. Show them what impact their advice had. Figure out what resources (cash / people etc) you need to prove your bets were right in your first ‘leaps of faith’ Ask them for their advice. Ask them if you can keep coming I meet them for advise?Ask them if they know anyone you should speak to?
Ideas gain momentum through inviting people to experience them through relationship and clear requests for help.
All of the 5 steps can be implemented in one long weekend and £50-250. If you don’t want to invest 2 days and £50 my guess is it is not a problem worth persuing so go find another one. (If you really don’t have £50 do 2 days sweat and the conversations then mail me and I will see if I can help with the £50)
So go and draw your bike as well as you can before you try to ask people to get on for the ride 🙂