A Start Up Community

When a new company decides to take part in the MassChallenge competition, they tend to find everything the advertisements promised at the start.  You get access to accomplished mentors, first rate guests with great info sessions and some even get the funding they need.  What you don’t expect going in is the community of driven people with similar passions that you’re thrown into. Entrepreneurs have an outlet here to share experiences and ask the nagging little questions that don’t always seem big enough to seek out answers to.

As they approached their final round of judging, Roof For Two emailed me to ask if I had had a production-ready prototype by the time of my final presentation. They were also curious to know if I’d learned any lessons along the way that had helped to speed up the product development process. My response to them is below:

Hey Justin,

I’ve reached a point very near to complete, but I won’t call it final until somebody pays me for an inventory of devices.

When presenting your current status the important thing is to provide context.  Show that there are a couple iterations down the road, but they’re part of a well thought out strategy. There are lessons you plan to learn from one that will lead to an added level of sophistication in the next. Right?

Floundering is bad; Iteration (within reason) is good.

As for what you can do to speed up the process?  Make a map right now that covers every element at play on your road to commercialization (technical challenges, supplier relations, marketing milestones etc).  Make note of all the unknowns you face and find people who have the answers need. Everybody does it to some extent, but few do it thoroughly enough.

Surprises generally cause delays.

Helpful?

Best,

Dave