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- When NOT to use a Micro-MVP
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Hey there - it's Brian 👋
Sometimes a Micro-MVP doesn’t make sense to test your business idea.
Instead, ask for money.
Today, you’ll find out when you should test your business with a Micro-MVP (and when you test by asking customers for money instead).
Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇
📞 Get a free call with Brian
Struggling to figure out if your business idea will work?
To make sure the upcoming Micro-MVP course covers the topics you need to test your business ideas, I’m offering free consulting to give your business direction.
This session is for you if:
• You’re launching a new business
• Your business isn’t getting traction and you’re looking to adjust
• You’re expanding your business and want to quickly test a few ideas
Get time with me here (for $0): 👇
Imagine: you want to quickly figure out how your business will succeed
Imagine you’re trying to figure out what to sell.
Maybe you’re thinking about building an app and not sure who to sell it to.
Maybe you want to sell a creative service.
Or maybe you want to sell physical tools.
In all those cases (and for any business) you need to know:
Sell what? To who? With which words?
You may have a guess at the answer, but you’ll likely be wrong the first time and need to adjust your business.
You may need to adjust 3, 4, 5 times.
If it takes you too long to adjust, you run out of money, and it’s game over. So you want to test each part quickly. Adjust quickly. And get a lot of feedback.
Cue: the Micro-MVP.
A new system to quickly test your business ideas on socials (even with no followers) and let potential customers tell you which business they want.
So you can adjust fast and find the business that works.
Use Micro-MVP to guide your business
So here’s when you use it - first, you build a list of ideas:
• Different people you could sell to
• Different products/services you could sell them
• What words you use to persuade
Post your ideas on socials to narrow down your options. Then test your focus in customer interviews and full MVPs.
The Micro-MVP is a tool to help you guide the direction by narrowing down your options.
And by “build list of ideas” I really mean steal ideas (like customer complaints) from Facebook or ask ChatGPT to think for you.
✉️ Reply to this email if you want the prompts.
When not to Micro-MVP
Once you’ve narrowed down what you’re selling to who, there’s no better way to confirm your idea than getting customers to throw you money.
At that point: run tests that ask customers to pay.
If they don’t buy?
Back to the Micro-MVP to re-adjust your focus.
The faster you go through this cycle and adjust your business, the faster you’ll find what works. Each cycle builds bigger until you have a full business.
Micro-MVP is a new tool to get FAST feedback. It does not replace talking to customers or asking them for money.
Don’t waste months building something customers don’t want.
Comparing Micro-MVP to other tests
Common Mistake: ideas too vague
But Brian, this doesn’t work for me because I’m only thinking about one product (or service).
So this sounds great! Solve 1 problem for 1 customer is the best way to go.
BUT… one big problem.
Most founders I speak with are far too general, so they don’t have options to Micro-MVP.
I’ll use a diet and a piano example, but this applies to any business (tech, teaching, CPG etc)
Mistake #1: Problem is too vague
Most founders:
I’m helping people lose weight.
Better:
I’m helping people lose weight, who can’t keep the same diet long enough.
Best:
I’m helping people lose weight, who can’t keep the same diet long enough, because they can’t break their bad habits.
Mistake #2: Customer is too vague
Most founders:
I’m looking for piano students.
Better:
I’m looking for high school piano students.
Best:
I’m looking for high school piano students who want to play music professionally.
When you get 3 levels deeper than your peers, you’ll have far more options to choose from.
The Micro-MVP is perfect to help you narrow down those options. Once you’ve narrowed them down, run tests that get customers to give you money.
Boom! That’s it.
If you found this helpful, please forward this email to 1 friend or colleague. They'll appreciate you and you'll help grow the community.
See you next Thursday 👋
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🛠️ Outlier Links
🧪 Micro-MVP
How to get views on your posts (even with 0 followers)
Uncover your customer’s biggest pain (by stealing from Facebook posts)
🧑🏻💻 Clickworthy Content
How a broke kid built $150M business in 4 years
Interview with Brett Adcock - the man building humanoid robots
This software billionaire buys 500 SaaS companies (and never sells them)
🧔🏻♂️ Get to know Brian
I’m sending you this email from a flight to Lisbon! I’ve just spent this week building alongside 4 amazing entrepreneurs in Singapore. It's always energizing to hear how they’ve built their business.
Any tips for Lisbon?
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