Latest / Pitch to Product / Is Your Product Ready To Become A Business?
Transcript
- Pitch 2 Product: are you willing to get uncomfortable and start making tough decisions? And really that is when you go from being a an idea to now being a business. Hey, I'm Peter Drakulich This is 52 Launch, our Pitch to Product Podcast. This is my partner Dan Gonyea. Hello, folks. Pete, finally we're here at a point where we've talked about this for a long, long time. Three years, four years, five years. we're we're rolling out our fifty-two university program. So we can call it fifty-two U for short. Plus it sounds better. 52 EDU, 52U. Right. I totally agree. Look at this is exciting because there's so much knowledge that I've already forgotten from ten years ago. It it's time to record it, put it out there. I will tell you that we get so much feedback from people that get to meet us and watch our podcast. I know I'm on more calls than you are, but the accolades and the appreciation from people who we talk to daily, this is the most important step that we did five or six years ago when we started the podcast. And now it's time. It's time to educate. Absolutely. And what you s told me something a few weeks ago that you started get people who call and say, Yeah, I've watched all of your podcasts and I'm like, Really? They they watched all of our podcasts, which is pretty awesome that there are enough people out there that are really wanting to learn and And be educated in this space because obviously it's a huge space. It's a very important space. Well, this is like what I life changing space. We we have to take some podcasts down because it took one client four months to hire us because he watched every single minute of our podcast. So as I said, this is fifty to you. we're gonna do this every day, for the foreseeable future. and we'll highlight certain topics every day. We've pretty much programmed out exactly what these episodes are gonna look like. So the today's episode, so day one, it's the topic is, you know, an idea versus a business and why most entrepreneurs never get to the idea stage. it's extremely important that we outline exactly what that looks like. Well I I love I love the four gates that Steve kind of cleared up here for us, right? It it really I think there's a couple of gates before this, right? Like the the gate before this is like you you do have to find your idea. You find your confidence that this is something you want to make a decision to move forward with or at least explore. Right. But once you've decided that you are going to really consider turning an idea into a product, go with that one step further because you're really turning it into a business. So this is where the four gates really come into play. Right. Well these are the four yeah these are the four questions that we're going to help you answer today. you have to understand these questions and then and go out and have them answered before you even pick up a phone to call us. so the you know, the four questions that you need to ask are who is the product for? You need to understand your audience for sure. I go even, yeah. So like yeah, that's a hundred percent. Yeah. Gate two is the price gate. Yep. you want to make sure that what do you think someone would pay for? Exactly. and do some research, you know, on that. Ask questions. again, Everybody has friends and family. So go out and ask your friends and family. well, first of all, make sure that they're someone that you can that would buy this product. But more importantly, if they were to buy it, what would they be willing to pay for it? You only need to get a half a dozen to a dozen of those and you'll you'll get a good idea. Yep. gate three is the we call the make gate, and the make gate is simply what is it gonna cost to make this? if you've got a selling price, well. What is it going to cost you to make it? Because quite frankly, that number is actually more important than what someone's willing to pay for because you've got have margin. So you know, if you've got great value propositions, then people might pay a little bit more than you even think. But getting an understanding of, you know, what you're gonna sell it for, and more importantly, what are you what is it gonna cost to make? and then you know, number four is the commitment gate. are you willing to get uncomfortable and start making tough decisions? And really that is when you go from being a an idea to now being a business. I I sometimes wonder, Dan, if you and I are so comfortable being uncomfortable all the time. Like I swear I don't even know if I got a pain threshold anymore. And it's not because we have a we've got a flourishing business. Right. But if every day there's a new pain that we want to solve for people. And if we stayed in our comfort zone, how would would we be here today? No, no, the very definition of an entrepreneur is n is to be very Very good at being uncomfortable. I mean, there's no other way around it. there is a r I I've probably said this a hundred times on other podcasts. There is a reason why 3.5 358 million people are not self-employed. Right. It is hard. Okay. It's very hard. You have to have just so many qualities. and again, the number one quality is that. and I relate things to sports all the time. you're gonna fail over and over and over and over again. and the more you fail, the more you learn, and the better you become as anything in life, whether it's a professional athlete, whether it's a husband or a father. it it's you know, you've gotta fail. all date us. How many free throws did Larry Bird throw in practice to make the thirty percent or forty percent of his shots in a game? Right, like thirty to forty. He's fifty percent shooter. Fifty percent shooter. All Thirty to forty, he wouldn't be in the MBA. I don't have the stats, but y you know, look at how many how many shots did he practice? Yes. Right. Hockey is the same thing. How many shots do you practice to make the shot? Yeah, like Michael Jordan said it the best. I mean, you you miss every shot you don't take. Yeah. So well first of all, that was Wayne Gretzky, but we'll let Micha we'll let Michael have it. All right, maybe it was Wayne Gretzky. so again Going out, you know, today's education is about the four questions that you need to get answered. and you also need to do your own research. you know, you're hire if you hire 52 launch, of course, we're gonna do a tremendous amount of work for you. But even before you hire us, just ask those four questions. you know, even if you're gonna hire us in three years, ask those four questions, keep in contact with your friends and family, ask them, you know. You know, would they buy this product at? What price would they buy it at? get that information, you know, under your belt first. It's gonna make you feel a lot more comfortable. and and have them be honest, obviously. You want an honest answer from your friends. When I when I read this and I I kind of kept this a bit of a secret from you, I think there's a fifth gate, or maybe it's a four point five, right? And the fourth question it's asked, it's the commitment gate. Are you willing to get uncomfortable? The fifth question I was asked is why wouldn't you do this? Right. Well, there's a lot of reasons. But it's self reflection. Well I I'm talking about if you if you don't think that you're the conf if you don't have the confidence or if you don't think that you should be able to do this, I'm gonna tell you product sales is probably the one area where you don't have to be as good as bus in business as you do in service, right? Like in the service business, you have a client that you have to always talk to, communicate with, improve. In a product, you do that up front. The product should sell itself. Right. So I do think that there's a a question like if you see products out there like Why wouldn't it be you in today's world? Why couldn't you bring a product to market? Yeah. Sixteen seasons of Shark Tank that tell you that there's a good reason that you should. I think we've answered that before. And I think we have coffee mugs that read it. It's either fear or financial. Those are the two reasons that you would not want to continue. And both of them are hugely acceptable. I mean, we don't want anybody hiring us if they're fear if they have any fear whatsoever. it's it's a it's Difference between fear and being nervous, it it's black and white. I mean, we're all nervous. I mean, I'm nervous. And I the way I drive, I'm nervous every time I get in the car. And I'm the one driving. Okay. So, you know, but I but I'm not fearful of that. No, I'm just nervous. So it's okay to be nervous. That means you're alive. being fearful of something, no matter what it is, you shouldn't do it. If you're if it's if it scares you that much. And then, of course, secondly, if you just don't have the money, That's 100% okay too. Not everybody has the kind of money to bring a product to market. But that's why we're doing 52U. I would rather educate, or we would rather educate everybody out there on exactly what to do, because I truly believe timing's everything in life. I I believe that there could be a moment where you know your fears have l gone and and somehow miraculously you were able to get some money. and I think at that point. You know, we are the right choice for you. But meanwhile, I'm gonna we're gonna educate you on exactly what we're I'll go with a little arrogance and confidence there. We are the only choice for people that have decided that want to take an idea and turn it into a product. So if you want to do this on your own, this is what the CDU is for. So you can understand what you need to do, what we have the team built for. Now you you put here a bullet point. How long are you willing to sit on an idea? Yeah, that's that's the million dollar question. That is the million dollar question. We used to call that the gut punch when you found someone else that made it. Come to life and it wasn't you. Right. Like that hurts. And we all have that conversation. We all had our parents say, I drove by a property. I wish I would have bought that. And I could have done this and I could have done that. I I said to you the first day we met, like, I want to build a company where dreams no longer have an excuse to go die. Right. And I think this is a culmination of ten years. We're pretty darn close. Right. And again, that's the reason that th those two reasons are jump out at It's either fear or finance, right? It's either you don't have the money, which is 100% acceptable, or you're afraid and you're afraid because you might just not know what to do. And we have we have figured that out. So we're sharing it with you. Right. we we're we have 100% confidence that could you do this on your own? Sure. You could probably do it on your own. Are you going to make a lot of mistakes? Yes. Because we've made thousands of mistakes. We've learned from them all. The difference is is that we'll get you there faster. And believe it or not, for less money, because if you make a couple of mistakes, you're gonna be you'll you're gonna be in trouble. So financially, we've just you know, we just wanna share it with you, be as transparent as we can with you to sh to give you the roadmap on how to get a product to market. and again, we've always said this from day one. We want our customers to win. Yep. and we're gonna share our secret sauce with you, which's hard. otherwise, you know, there's no need for us to share it. if it were that easy to do, everybody would be competing with us. what we do is very difficult and there's very little room for error and you know we're gonna roll out I'm gonna I'm gonna you know a new a new podcast. And then look at l this one here, the how long are you willing to wait? I'm gonna use us as an example. Did you need a partner for prior to us meeting? No. I didn't either. No. And and so the minute we met, and we talked about a project. You were a little lonely. I was, yeah. No, no question. You were. You were all by there all by yourself. You wanted someone you wanted someone to talk to. Talk my ear off. you missed reverse sold me. Yeah, I d is that what that is your version of the story. I I wanted to buy your leads from you because I saw opportunity, but but did we wait a minute no on the first project that we did together? No. Both of us could figure it out. And have a have a single source do everything because we had the experience. So we didn't have to think about it a second. I gotta tell you, this one line here is where I think what makes us completely different and makes you and I unique to the world. We didn't make wait a minute once we knew that there was an answer. Right. Right. And and I think that's when once you know what the answer is, it frustrates me that you don't make a decision to go forward. And I have to be I have to be a little curtailed to say I know, but the difference between you and I. Yeah. Well, not difference. I'm sorry. The difference between us and everybody else is that, you know, we're a little older. We're very experienced at running businesses. So we have no fear whatsoever. Yeah. So look at we appreciate the people out there that have the fear. You you own it and and and that's great. Just know that you got a couple mentors here, along with sixty other, you know, team members at fifty two launch, they're gonna get you through this journey. and eliminate a lot of that fear. but again, this 52U is to help you understand exactly what we do on a regular basis. Yep. and we're gonna roll out, you know, more episodes every day. and look, I I think this is worth you know, being very biased here. this is certainly worth $80,000 a year, which is what you probably pay to go to a great college. Yeah. you're getting it at no cost because we wanna share it with you. We want you to be so educated about. How we bring a product to market and how you can bring a product to market that we're gonna share it with everybody. So on the next thing here, it says, Are you ready to live with regret if someone else takes your idea to market first? Of course. I think people all would be regretful. Well, so we it's come down to you have to have the confidence to move forward from what I'm reading here. The second thing is you need to be, you know, are are you willing to take action? Is that that's the question? Right. you've gone through the four gates. You know, how do you live with regret? If you live with regret, we already, you know, that's that's a that's a good question. If you're okay with that, then like maybe this isn't for you. if you don't have anecdotal evidence that your product has a market, that just means you haven't talked to enough people. Right. Right. And and I like what you put here. So if you haven't spoken to people about your idea, of course you're not ready to start. Let's go into who you should talk to. Right. Right. 'Cause this is about taking the first step. I think this first podcast is just understanding these are natural. Right, fear or finance. Like I'll assure you that our accelerator contract takes out of takes the fear out of this. Like we that's my job. If if you wake up fearful Well, it answers all four gates. Yeah, it does. It answers all four gates. I not only answers it, but it's precise. so But here here's where I don't think you can talk to your aunt Jenny and ask her if she if you should start a business. Unless Aunt Ginny's got a business. Right? Like She can tell you if it's a good product. Yeah, I don't think you you're asking any of your friends and phones if you start a business because most people are very con you know, conservative and they're not gonna they don't want their yeah the member of their family to make a mistake or lose at anything. you have to have that inside yourself. you know, are you willing to get uncomfortable? That's the best word here. I you know, it's an uncomfortable process, but it's also an extremely rewarding and educational process. So look at you know the gates now. It's the customer gate, the price gate, the make gate, and the commitment gate. Those are the four things that you need to answer. And there'll be description in the podcast below that gives you an outline of what those are and to help you kind of start checking off your boxes because you know the purpose of this program is you know, what would I do right now to move forward to the next step? And what does fifty two launch do? We help turn ideas into Marketable products that we can manufacture, design, usually we're on the same page. Give it to me. I d we turn ideas into into businesses, of course. Right. So to recap, an idea has no customer, no price, no decision made. Yeah. But a business does. A business. A business has all three of those. you don't need a perfect answer in any of the gates, you just need an honest one. Yeah. And then lastly. We've said this a thousand times, but we use per vet we say perfection kills profitability. Well, movement beats perfection, right? Advanced going forward. Movement beats perfection. Absolutely. The first real decision is what starts the clock. And that has to be, you know, paramount. when you're ready to go, be ready to go.