Ever feel like starting a business is like throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks?

I’ve interviewed nearly 50 entrepreneurs to date, and most of them had at least 1, if not many, business failures in their lives. Some were low-key failures that just ended up eating up a lot of time, but fortunately, did not result in financial ruin. Others were massive, crash and burn failures that cost a buttload of money, theirs as well as their investors’, while sending the founder into credit card debt.

One of the key challenges for entrepreneurs is learning how to fail quickly, to ensure that your precious time, energy, and resources aren’t being wasted on a business idea that’s going no where. But it’s so hard to know if your endeavor is a tire-kicker, or if you are just on the threshold of success. So how do you determine whether or not you should move on, or keep powering through?

Enter the art of startup validation – strategies and tactics to test whether or not your market wants the products or services you offer, before you go out build it.  But how well do these strategies actually work?

Dan Norris, co-founder of WP Curve, is a serial entrepreneur who has launched several businesses, including software products and a private community.  He talks about 4 common startup validation strategies:

Running surveys and focus groups

Preselling your product before building it

Buying traffic (using Facebook Ads and Adwords) to test your product

Building a minimal viable product

And some of the common pitfalls of each. In this interview, he’ll talk about:

The beauty of recurring income & how entrepreneurs can create enough value to prevent customer attrition.

The challenges of leveraging a private community as the value driver for a recurring revenue business.

Why giving lifetime access as a product launch strategy doesn’t validate anything.

Why buying traffic to validate your business idea won’t necessarily give you the market feedback you want.

The one startup validation strategy he endorses.

And much, much more. Show notes and links to all the awesome resources Dan shares can be found on www.entrepreneursforachange.com/23.

Mentioned in this interview

Seven Day Startup Book

Buzzsumo

Followerwonk

Charlie Hoehn Interview

Chris Ducker Interview

Where to Find Dan

WP Curve Website

Follow Dan on Twitter

Check out Dan on Facebook

Visit WP Curve on Google+

Read the WP Curve blog

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