Stop building. Start shipping.
You've got an idea. You've been working on it quietly for weeks. Maybe months. And it's still not ready. Sound familiar?
This week we tackle one of the most common traps new founders fall into: over-building before getting real feedback. The fix is simple — but it requires a mindset shift most people resist. Let's break it down.
What a Real MVP Looks Like
An MVP — Minimum Viable Product — is not a bad version of your product. It's the smallest version that delivers real value to a real customer and lets you learn whether your core assumption is correct.
Dropbox didn't build the product first. They made a video explaining what it would do. The waiting list hit 75,000 overnight. That was their MVP. No code. Just a demo video and a sign-up form.
MVP formats that actually work:
Landing page MVP — describe the product, add a "Join Waitlist" or "Buy Now" button, and measure how many click it
Concierge MVP — manually do the thing your product would automate; serve 5 customers by hand before building the tech
Wizard of Oz MVP — the customer thinks it's automated; it's actually you doing it manually behind the scenes
Pre-sale MVP — sell the product before it exists; if people pay, you build; if they don't, you've saved months of wasted time
The three questions your MVP must answer:
Do people actually want this? (demand test)
Will they pay for it? (willingness to pay test)
Can I deliver it? (fulfilment test)
The Pre-Launch Waitlist Strategy
Before you build anything, create a waitlist. Use Carrd, Notion, or even a Google Form. Drive traffic to it from your social content. Offer early access, a discount, or a founding member price.
A waitlist validates demand, builds urgency, and gives you a warm list to sell to on day one. When you finally launch, you're not selling to strangers — you're delivering to people who already put their hand up.
The goal isn't subscribers — it's signal:
If 100 people see your waitlist page and 40 sign up, that's strong signal. If 100 people see it and 2 sign up, you need to rethink your offer or your positioning before building anything.
Productised Service Business
A productised service is a service packaged like a product — fixed price, fixed deliverable, fixed timeline. For example: "LinkedIn profile overhaul for founders — £149, delivered in 72 hours." Or: "Brand starter kit — logo, colour palette, and fonts — £299, 5 days."
No proposals. No custom quotes. No scope creep. You do the same thing repeatedly and get faster and better at it. Scalable, profitable, and launchable in a weekend.
This week's challenge: Build your MVP in 48 hours
Take your idea and strip it down to the absolute minimum. Create a one-page website (Carrd is free), write three bullet points explaining what you do and for whom, add a way to contact you or join a waitlist, and share the link with 20 people. That's your MVP. You just launched.
Until next week,
Basat Hussain
Founder, The Starterpreneur
