Week 1 Wrap-Up

This week you covered:

• Why "no market need" is the #1 reason startups fail (43% of cases, per CB Insights' 2024 data) — and why that means the problem, not the idea, comes first
• How to tell a real problem from a guess, using the three-question test
• Airbnb's actual first test: three air mattresses, one specific problem, zero code
• The Mom Test's three rules for interviews that get you the truth instead of politeness
• What an MVP actually tests, and the most common way people build the wrong one

By now you should have: a specific problem written down, named to a specific type of person (not "everyone"), and three Mom-Test-style questions ready to ask them.

What's next

Week 2 is about actually going and talking to those people — structured customer discovery interviews in the field, and what to do with what you hear. Your Week 1 live sessions are where you'll pressure-test the problem you picked before you take it out into the world.