According to Steve Blank’s Lean Startup methodology, the top three activities that a startup should focus on before seeking investors are:
- Customer discovery: This involves actively seeking out potential customers and learning about their needs, wants, and pain points. This can be done through activities such as customer interviews, market research, and usability testing.
- Market validation: Once a startup has a deep understanding of its target customers, it can begin to validate its assumptions about the market by testing its product or service with a small group of customers. This can help the startup refine its value proposition and business model, and identify any areas that need improvement.
- Product development: Based on the insights gained through customer discovery and market validation, the startup can then begin to build and iterate on its product or service. This may involve prototyping, testing, and refining the product until it is ready for a larger scale launch.
Overall, the goal of these activities is to help the startup develop a clear understanding of its market, its customers, and its value proposition, which will be essential in convincing investors to back the company.