90 Percent of Startups Fail Because They Don’t Do This

Yesterday while on Growth Hackers, I came across an article by Pieter Levels AKA Levels.io titled “How I Got My Startup to #1 on Product Hunt and Hacker News by Accident.” (I highly recommend reading this)

He’s challenging himself to build 12 startups in 12 months.

Now I know what you might be thinking…

“How is it possible to create 12 startups in 12 months… by yourself?”

I thought the same thing.

After failing at my first startup and having numerous other ideas fall flat because I didn’t know where to start, the idea of someone launching 12 startups in 12 months intrigued me.

I spent the better part of my afternoon reading through his blog trying to figure out how he is going to tackle this, and that’s when it hit me; this guy is a genius.

When most people have a business idea, they immediately think “how am I going to get funding for this” or “where am I going to find a developer to build this”

Instead, like Pieter, they should be focusing on how to validate their idea.

In Pieter’s case, the reason he is able to launch 12 startups in 12 months is because he does testing to validate his idea before he starts building a full business. This enables him to see if there is market fit before he places a large investment in his idea (typically time and money).

The best way to validate an idea is by building an MVP (minimum viable product). You don’t need to be a developer to do this.

For his newest startup Nomadlist.io, he created a public Excel spreadsheet and asked his Twitter followers to help fill in data about the best places to work remotely all over the world. The response from Twitter was overwhelming and this is how he knew he was onto something.

Most entrepreneurs do things in reverse. They dive into business and after going all in, they realize it’s harder than they thought to gain traction in the market.

If you’re thinking about starting a business, do yourself a favor and test the market before diving all in.