The auto-clicker problem
Hey there,
At TinySeed, the question I hear most from founders right now is some version of this: if AI can build a product in a weekend, do I still need to validate first?
While I was finishing my new book, I put that question to Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, on my podcast.
His answer was a video game analogy I haven't stopped thinking about.
If you're playing a single-player game and someone hands you an auto-clicker, you win faster. But startups aren't single-player. If you get the auto-clicker and everyone else gets one too, you're not ahead. You're just standing at the new starting line.
The tool isn't the advantage. What you learn is.
And the learning, as Eric put it, is still done by "old-fashioned wetware between the ears of the founders."
That's the part AI can't do for you. It can build the thing, then the next thing, then the thing after that. But if you don't know who you're building for and whether they'll pay, it just gets you to the wrong place faster.
That's why the core of Idea to Traction is a validation framework I call 2/20/200:
At TinySeed, the question I hear most from founders right now is some version of this: if AI can build a product in a weekend, do I still need to validate first?
While I was finishing my new book, I put that question to Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, on my podcast.
His answer was a video game analogy I haven't stopped thinking about.
If you're playing a single-player game and someone hands you an auto-clicker, you win faster. But startups aren't single-player. If you get the auto-clicker and everyone else gets one too, you're not ahead. You're just standing at the new starting line.
The tool isn't the advantage. What you learn is.
And the learning, as Eric put it, is still done by "old-fashioned wetware between the ears of the founders."
That's the part AI can't do for you. It can build the thing, then the next thing, then the thing after that. But if you don't know who you're building for and whether they'll pay, it just gets you to the wrong place faster.
That's why the core of Idea to Traction is a validation framework I call 2/20/200:
- Two hours: research and a hard look at the idea, before you talk to anyone
- Twenty hours: conversations with potential customers, plus a landing page if it fits
- Two hundred hours: build a first version and get it into users' hands
Each step buys you more confidence before you commit more time. The founders I've watched get burned didn't pick the wrong framework — they skipped straight to the two hundred hours.
If you pre-order before Monday, one of the bonuses is The 5 PM Pre-Validation Scorecard. It's the two-hour step turned into a worksheet, so you can run your idea through it tonight.
Pre-orders close Monday, November 9. Pre-order a physical copy and you'll also get the ebook or audiobook free, plus the other three tools I built to go with the book.
Pre-order Idea to Traction →
Already ordered? Enter your order number here to unlock the Scorecard and everything else.
— Rob
If you pre-order before Monday, one of the bonuses is The 5 PM Pre-Validation Scorecard. It's the two-hour step turned into a worksheet, so you can run your idea through it tonight.
Pre-orders close Monday, November 9. Pre-order a physical copy and you'll also get the ebook or audiobook free, plus the other three tools I built to go with the book.
Pre-order Idea to Traction →
Already ordered? Enter your order number here to unlock the Scorecard and everything else.
— Rob
P.S. Jason Cohen, founder of WP Engine, read it early:
"I've never seen so much detailed advice and data about exactly how to validate a business idea."