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Digital Marketing: What is the best strategy to take to establish proof of concept for a online platform concept prior to a beta version being created?
DF
DF
David Favor, Fractional CTO answered:

Likely you won't like my thoughts about this.

When I give talks about business bootstrapping, I suggest people only work ideas which meet my "Sunset Rule".

Sunset Rule - You should be able to go from idea to first sale, before sunset, or best consider other ideas.

This also relates to your MVP. If you can't dream up an MVP + sell it before the sun goes down, best consider other ideas.

Years ago, I was at an Internet Marketing Party mixer in Austin, TX + sat to visit with a friend. She was down because she was starting a new business + had spent months working on a business plan + determined she required $80K to bootstrap her business + then had spent another several months looking for investors.

A buddy of mine + I sat with her for 15mins + slightly retooled her idea. She launched the next day for a one time investment of $144/year (cost of a Meetup.com account) + was generating some significant profit in a few days.

Chunk down your MVP, so you can manually make sales by the end of the day... for $0 investment + you'll know for sure you have a profitable business.

If you can't sell one unit, by the end of the day... best consider some other idea...

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