I’ve spoken to dozens of people over the years who just needed someone experienced to spar with about the ideas they’re having.
I won’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t build, but I’ll guide you through how some things are much easier to build than others, and how distribution/messaging is often the problem that causes things to fail, not whether something is possible to build. At this stage, knowing how to interview potential customers is a lot more important than tech.
I’ll challenge your ideas similarly to how investors will when you speak to them :)
When talking to first time founders at the beginning of a new project, it has come to my attention that many tend to overthink about the wrong questions, over develop, and get their engineers to over engineer.
The right questions aren’t obvious. Over engineering means overspending & affects your speed. The market will inevitably force you to make changes, and these need to be quick. I’ve seen many good people spend a lot of money on things no one ever needed or wanted. Proper validation is of tremendous importance, and unlike many CTOs, this is something I will help you with :)
If you’re starting something from scratch and don’t have any code yet, the best decision you could make BY FAR is to get a fractional CTO at least as a one-time consultation to:
- Go over your idea
- Help you think about the right questions
- Simplify your idea
- Turn it into requirements that any developer can start working on
- Decreasing time to market (because the market is very irrational)
- Gathering input from real life ongoing usage data
If you’re still reading, drop me a line in my contact page