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What’s common between Airbnb, Facebook, Instagram, Ola Cabs, and LinkedIn? They all started with something called MVP.
Starting a startup can be a daunting task. There are countless decisions to make and risks to consider. One of the most important decisions is how to bring your product to market. One approach that has worked well is a minimum viable product (MVP). In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at what an MVP is and why it's an effective strategy for jumpstarting your startup.
What is an MVP?
An MVP is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future development. It's a prototype or proof-of-concept for your final product. The idea is to launch your product as soon as possible, even if it's not perfect, to get feedback from real users and improve upon it.
Here are some key benefits of using an MVP for your startup:
- Validate your idea. An MVP allows you to test the market's interest in your product or service before investing significant resources into its development. This can help you determine your idea worth pursuing and make any necessary adjustments before committing to a full launch.
- Save time and money. Starting with an MVP allows you to focus on developing only the most essential features of your product or service, reducing development time and costs. This can be especially beneficial for bootstrapped startups with limited resources.
- Get customer feedback. An MVP allows you to gather valuable customer feedback early in the development process. This can help you identify what features and functionality customers want and adjust accordingly.
- Test your business model. An MVP can also help you test different business models for your startup, such as freemium or subscription-based, to see which generates the most revenue.
- Speed up the launch process. By starting with an MVP, you can launch your product or service faster, allowing you to start generating revenue sooner.
5 Tips for Building and Launching a Successful MVP
The MVP approach emphasizes continuous improvement through iteration. It's essential to be open to modifying your product based on feedback and data. A successful MVP can adapt and develop as you gain a deeper understanding of your product and target audience. For more tips, read more here and follow our founder on LinkedIn!
Some examples of MVPs for a startup can include:
- A landing page with a sign-up form to test interest
- A basic app or software with limited features
- A prototype of a physical product
- A teaser video to test interest in a service or product.
Get Inspired by how successful companies’ MVPs has evolved
Airbnb
Airbnb started with a basic website connecting lodging providers and travelers and has turned into a $38 billion platform.
The founders of Airbnb began with a basic website connecting lodging providers and travelers, focusing on the core features needed to facilitate a transaction between a guest and host. The MVP was launched in 2008, with a few listings in San Francisco. As the site began to gain traction, they added new features and improved the user experience.
Today, Airbnb is valued at $38 billion and continues to be a major player in the sharing economy, thanks to its ability to improve its MVP since its launch in 2008. The platform has been enhanced with features like detailed listing information, user reviews, a messaging system, dynamic pricing capabilities, and instant booking options, making the experience more seamless and user-friendly.
Ola Cabs
Ola Cabs is a successful and popular ride-hailing service in India, valued at around $6.2 billion. They offer various vehicles, from bikes to luxury SUVs, and operate in many major cities. However, when they first started in 2010, they began with a basic MVP to quickly test their product. By listening to customer feedback and experimenting with what worked best, they were able to quickly improve their product.
Uber
In 2008, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp had an idea to make black car services more affordable. They created a simple, cheap MVP to test their idea. They wanted to create a service that would be cheaper than a black car service but better than a taxi. They named it UberCab, allowing people to order black car services through an app on iPhone and SMS on other devices. Two years later, Ryan Graves, who would later become Uber's first CEO, joined the team and helped make Uber a great success. As of May 2019, Uber is worth $75.5 billion.
Dropbox
The idea for Dropbox came from Drew Houston's frustration with constantly transferring files between devices. He forgot his flash drive one day and decided to create a solution. The process was technically challenging and would take a long time to develop. The company made short videos showing how Dropbox works in real life to get more customers. These videos were easy to understand, funny, and didn't focus on technical details or compare Dropbox to other companies.
Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in his college dorm room in 2004. It began as a directory for students at Harvard but soon expanded to other colleges. In 2005, it was available to universities in different countries and high schools. In 2006, it became available for anyone to join by buying a domain name for $200k and opening it to the public. Facebook now has 2.5 billion monthly users and owns Instagram and WhatsApp.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn started with a basic MVP in May 2003, which included user profiles, searching for other users, and sending email requests. Initially, you could only send requests to people if you knew their email addresses. After the launch, they added more features, such as uploading an address book to send many invitations at once and the ability to endorse colleagues. Today, LinkedIn has 706 million users in over 200 countries.
Launch your MVP with Jumpstarter
Have a business idea? Start with an MVP to save time, money, and effort to test product-market-fit. Book a call with us now and let’s put your ideas into action!
https://www.jumpstarter.co/contact-us
