On my journey as an entrepreneur, I learned to recognize some of my own biases and assumptions the hard way.

A few years ago I thought I had found a great idea. I discovered empirically that almost every tech company needed help to speed up their software development processes. I spoke to dozens of potential customers who all enthusiastically agreed they needed a solution to make things faster. I even managed to get three of them to pay upfront for a product that didn't exist yet.

Excited by this apparent validation, I started developing it. I worked alone for an entire year, coding. I was confident that I was addressing a common problem shared by many businesses. I even built a team around the idea, and we were all excited to launch the product and start selling it to the world.

However, reality came crashing. When I finally delivered the product, it turned out that what worked for one didn't work for the others. I had fallen into the trap of hearing what I wanted to hear, rather than digging deeper to understand the unique challenges each customer faced.

This experience taught me a valuable lesson: it's crucial to ask probing questions, understand the nuances of each customer's situation, and validate not just the problem, but also the specific solution you're proposing. Be optimistic, but also be cautious.

Take-aways

1. Dig deeper than the surface problem. Don't just listen to what customers say they want; understand why they want it and how they plan to use it.

2. Validate the solution, not just the problem. Ensure that your proposed solution actually fits each customer's unique situation.

3. Beware of false positives. Enthusiasm for solving a problem doesn't always translate to a one-size-fits-all solution. Look for the nuances.

4. Pre-sales aren't enough. While getting customers to pay is important, make sure you understand exactly what they're paying for.

5. Start small and specific. Instead of trying to solve everyone's problem at once, focus on thoroughly solving one customer's problem first.

6. Learn before you build. Spend more time understanding the problem space before committing significant resources to development.