The Search for Customers

28 Apr 2018

Preface

The sole purpose of a new business venture is survival. The main activity that is necessary for survival is the act of customers paying for the products sold by the business for money.

A Story

In a recent conversation with a business founder we were talking about his company’s quest at finding customers for their product. They explained to me how, there was tremendous interest in their product.

There were letters of intent to start a pilot. And these letters came from several companies. Early product prototypes were being readied. The founder was seeing positive signs. However, I was feeling paranoid. I conveyed my sense of hesitation with the following analogy. It sounds quaint, but I knew the founder well enough to know that they could take this to heart.

The founders are travelers through a desert. They need to find water to re-fill their supplies so that they can continue their journey. The founders can see a distant body of water. One founder leaves on a scouting trip to investigate.

On returning back, the founder was excited and claims that on walking towards the water body, they could see a lake that was even bigger than was first visible and that there is a whole oasis around the lake. They should move in that direction immediately.

At this point, I told the founder, that the only way to tell whether they were actually heading to a real oasis, was for one of them to go to the lake and be able to drink the water. Anything less was proof that what they are seeing was a mirage.

Either, be able to drink the water, or abandon the quest in that direction after a pre-determined period of effort.