Interesting ideas Denny. While I agree with the sentiment that sometimes entrepreneurs get caught up in doing too much at first, I think there is something to be said about ‘changing the world’. Without having that internal drive to make the world a better place, even in your own small way, sometimes it makes the startup life unbearable. There has to be that external factor that early hires and founders can hold on to (aside from the promise of a huge payday – which doesn’t happen for the majority of startups) that doesn’t distract them from building their MVP.
If your product is executed properly, or quite frankly you get lucky and are in the right place at the right time, you can inadvertently change consumer habits. There are countless examples of this in the tech industry, from Apple, to Google, to Twitter.
Generally, I do agree with the notion that the founder/entrepreneur needs to be able to focus on the very micro elements of MVP, or as you so eloquently put it ‘nanovating’. Btw, I assume that’s what you meant ;)
I believe we are in total agreement. My experience is that as an entrepreneur, it is tough to get up in the morning if all I want is to make incremental change. But being audacious and being practical are not necessary mutually exclusive of each other. We need to be both.
As I have written in the past ... “Entrepreneurship is all about creative destruction. Entrepreneurs exist for one purpose and one purpose only which is to destroy status quo, complacency and mediocrity, thereby giving renewal to excellence. But the successful entrepreneurs are the ones who actually respect the environment that they do determine to destroy. Without respect, they can never levitate themselves by the forces embedded in their hearts. Without respect, they can never learn from the mistakes of their elders. And without respect they can never stand on the shoulders of the giants who marched before them."
Regardless of your political conviction, there are definitely plenty of lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from our Upstart-in-Chief: product Simplicity, operational Agility, customer Intimacy and financial Leverage (SAIL).
“It’s the simplicity, stupid”.
Don’t try to change the World. Don’t attempt to “fly a new engine with a new air frame.”
Minimum Viable Product is indeed the key.
If your idea is a new product, don’t try to force a change on consumer habit. And if your idea is a new distribution scheme, don’t try to use it to introduce a new service.
