Starting Constraints

Entrepreneurs seek to overcome internal constraints

like team, money, equipment.

But starting constraints are almost always external.

Starting constraints are almost always market constraints.

During business modeling, market demand is usually

assumed to be some non-zero percentage of

our total addressable market captured

as Customer Segments on the Lean Canvas.

Otherwise it wouldn’t make any sense to pursue the idea.

But it still needs to be tested.

Market demand is tested through user acquisition.

If you can’t drive any visitors inside your factory,

none of the other steps matter.

It doesn’t matter how good your product is,

or what referral incentives you build.

No one will ever get to them.