The hardest thing about getting a new startup idea started

TLDR:

From my personal experiences and what I’ve read of entrepreneurs talking about their own experiences, a recurring theme I’ve seen in the hardest thing to getting a new startup idea started is defining the M in Most Valuable Player (MVP).

It becomes a bit of a conundrum in figuring out just what is the most relevant, tangible thing that your respective target demographic and audience wants to consume the most.

But the annoying thing is that nine times out of ten, you won’t have a cohesive answer to the question until your hands are dirty enough, that is you’ve taken various routes.

Trial and error, experimentation, and immersing yourself in the community’s stratosphere are some of the many routes you usually have to take to get to the treasure, the treasure being the answer to properly starting the startup idea.

So what did I find in my treasure box?

For me, as I wrote more and more articles for my newsletter, basic metrics like views on Substack gave me an idea of what “genre” readers were most interested in reading my thoughts and analysis on, but it wasn’t necessarily that I chose to double down on it.

As I’ve matured as a writer in the past year, I’ve learned that even though we all want to hit it out of the park every time, it’s literally impossible to.

Akin to how the economy has its expansions, peaks, troughs, and plateaus, the same principles apply to everything you try to monetize as a startup.

In reality, what it boils down to is being consistent in who it is you’re trying to serve and formally recognizing it, basically scoring singles after singles like in baseball.

You want to be able to hit it out of the park at least two thirds of the time, with the final third merely being the most consistent in what you do.

And that is the hardest thing about getting a new startup idea started: reaching the conclusion of what is the M in MVP specifically for you.