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Business Model Validation instead of Customer Validation [+Free beta access to all Rodinhooders]

You might remember that I had earlier asked to feedback on my startup idea which was an Anti-Virus for Ecommerce Agreements. Rodinhooders were extremely helpful and gave valuable feedback. Thank you so much for that. 

However, one thing I realize that that there are two type of validation- Customer Validation and Business Model Validation. 

Customer Validation is easy, almost everyone will sign up for a free beta. And since, I picked a very common problem everyone I talk says yes, I need this product. [talked to around 300 people personally] Validation from the customer, which any online shopper can give me, but then Rodinhooders are not are just a common online shopper. They are Entrepreneurs with a sharing mind and a business intellect. 

Therefore, it makes sense for me to not seek customer validation but share the so-called secret business model and see what you think. It will answer a lot of smart questions which were raised in my last post. It have begun to trust this community, and as Alok sir has said, I don’t exactly remember but: “If you have an idea worth stealing, be happy that someone stole it and is working on it.”

So here is a link to the LeanStack Business Model Canvas: https://leanstack.com/canvases/194233#

I request you all to give feedback, particular w.r.t to customer segments, and who should my primary and ideal customer. 

And if you would like to receive the beta version for free, as soon as we launch, please sign up here: www.amicus.co

To verify that you are a Rodinhooder, please leave your email id in a comment here for me to verify and approve your email for the beta.

Twitter: @aayush1990sri @amicusco

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3 Comments

  1. Hey Aayyush,

    Glad to see your BMC.

    One thing which I believe from my personal experience is all the skepticism about a brand (online shop, ecommerce aggregator or any other site), only comes up on first interaction. Once I am done with first transaction, I am usually comfortable. In fact, I have heard my friends, saying “yeah, I ordered from XYZ site, it was all good”. 

    I am not sure if I will ever come back to your app/website again. Please take this with a grain of salt, I am just sharing my personal opinion 🙂 

    Best of luck.

    Natwar

  2. Hey Aayyush

    Great job w.r.t the Lean Canvas, but as Natwar has mentioned in the comment below, even I am a tad bit skeptical about your problem segment.

    I have no doubt that the problem exists, but do 300 out of 300 have the problem? This is where customers can be misleading. When you just ask them if you need the solution or do you have this problem they just say yes(for various reasons – it can become a blog post in itself)

    Rather try and validate the problem segment by understanding the underlying

    • Do they shop online 
    • How many times do they shop online
    • Why do they shop online

      • from where do they shop usually
      • how many websites have they shopped from till date
      • do they try new sites –

        • if yes, why?(deals/product availability)
        • If no – why?(credibility, shipping time, product quality, scared to share CC[what if it has CoD]) keep asking why, why,why !

    •  why dont they shop online

      • why, why, why!

    Never ask a customer if he would do a certain thing, try and find out his behaviour through his past experiences.

    Again, wonderful work with the Lean Canvas.

    Keep Chiselling
    Ro

  3. Hi Aayush,

    You might want to (a) fine tune the problem & (b) narrow down your customer segments.

    While I can empathize with the listed problems, I don’t get a tangible sense of how big this problem is. Do you have any data on how much do customers lose because terms and conditions are fuzzy / they don’t read the fine print ? This will help quantify the size of the problem.

    Based on this, you might want to redefine your customer segments (based on what they buy / ticket size).Your current definition appears to be way too wide.From personal experience, I’ve never felt cheated / misled by T&Cs. If you still want to include folks like me in your target segment, you’d need to invest in “educating” us on how exactly I might have lost out by not reading the fine print.

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