the call you keep avoiding
you can build for eight months and still avoid the one conversation that matters.
a founder with three decades in his industry told me today that he made his first real customer discovery call this week. he has been building for eight months.
he is not lazy, and he is not naive. he is the opposite, deeply technical, serious, the kind of person who builds the entire machine before he shows it to anyone. another founder i spoke to had spent nearly a year perfecting a deck for a product so intricate it could not be explained in three minutes.
it is the same mistake wearing two costumes. you fall in love with the thing you are making and you build everything around it except the one conversation that tells you whether anyone outside your own head actually wants it.
investors do not buy complexity. they buy a market, a little proof, and a team they believe in. the product is what you explain after you have earned their attention, not before.
what is the conversation you have been avoiding because you would rather keep building?