The 30 Day Startup: How to Create a Successful Tech Startup in 6 Weeks for Less than $50K

by Sam Kamani

In The Lean Startup (2011), Eric Ries argues that the main reason startups fail is because they spend far too long trying to build the perfect product only to launch, almost out of money, with a “perfect” product... that nobody wants.

A great business idea isn’t enough. You need to quickly and cheaply test your assumptions to establish whether your product meets the needs of a market and fills this niche well enough for people to pay for it.

The early days of a startup should involve constraint testing, tweaking and learning with the ultimate goal of discovering product/market fit. Your product should solve a painful problem and be something the market both needs and wants.