Customer development is nonsence

Startups are a massive, enormous market. There are numerous definitions of "startup," however we will not go into detail. We'll only pick a portion of it and say that a startup is something innovative that will revolutionise how people tackle their present problems.

Because the industry is so large and there are so many remarkable success stories, a lot of people are eager to jump in and get a piece of the pie. I know it sounds cynical, but most people just want their piece of the pie, whether you agree with it or not.

As a result, many people begin to assume that they can solve some "problem" using computers, web, or new technologies. Sad to say, in most cases, there are not any "problems" in the area where they are going to work. No "problem" – no tangible results, even if they got lucky enough to get a round. Sooner or later, they get disappointed and fall.

Okay. Things happens. At the very least, they are made an attempt, which I appreciate.

However, some of them began to blame the approach. They claimed, "We did it badly; we didn't properly develop our potential clients."

The worst part is that some of them are creating books full of advice on how to properly develop customers. Okay, there are a lot of rubbish books out there. But even worse, many people began to take the advice from the books and apply it to their own approaches. Although the root of the problem from the very beginning was that there was no "problem" to solve, hence there were no customers.

The sole piece of advice is to throw away all customer development books. And begin reading Richard Branson's books on the traditional entrepreneurial approach.