STOP BUILDING PRETTY APPS

So, every week I see 2-4 whitepapers by entrepreneurs (ICOs) who are building apps (Dapps). For us investors, this is one big red flag that we see a lot of times in first time entrepreneurs. And you’re not gonna believe this, it’s that your app looks too good. This becomes a huge problem when you have the coolest looking app, but you don’t have any users. Usually what that means is you’ve invested all your time in creating a pretty app that hasn’t been tested, that hasn’t been iterated one ugly draft after another.

And I know a lot of veteran entrepreneurs probably know about this but those ugly drafts are called MINIMALLY VIABLE PRODUCTS or MVP. You know the website Kayak? I’ve heard that their MVP was just a bunch of PowerPoint slides hyperlinked together. It’s not about the student who pulls an all-nighter and produces one final draft. It’s about being the student who produces one shitty draft after another after rounds of feedback.

Something that's never been really tested is always going to crash hard when it starts to see real traction. The real world and the market have amazing ways of throwing you curve balls that you never would have thought about in a controlled setting. Beta testing is vital. The video game industry has known this for years and there are countless examples of massive failures in that industry from products that weren't properly tested and released to the market, only for consumers to find glaring errors and flaws that reflected badly on the finished product.

Have a nice day!