The whole product presentation should take no more than 20 minutes. Now it's time to listen. What are the customers’ first reactions? Does your product solve a painful problem for them? Would the customers buy a product to solve this problem? Do they believe others in their company feel the same? How about in other companies?

In reality none of these is the true objective. Simply put, a startup should focus on reaching a deep understanding of customers and their problems, their pains, and the jobs they need done to discover a repeatable roadmap of how they buy, and building a financial model that results in profitability.

In contrast, the Customer Development diagram says going backwards is a natural and valuable part of learning and discovery. In this new methodology, you keep cycling through each step until you achieve “escape velocity” and generate enough success to carry you out and into the next

“Verifying the problem” simply means summarizing everything you have learned and checking to see whether you have the problem nailed or need to go around the loop again.

Most startups are unprepared to deal with the customer's ROI. At best, they ignore it, and at worst, they confuse it with the price of the product.

“What is the biggest pain in how you work (or in RoboVac's case—how you clean)? If you could wave a magic wand and change anything in what you do, what would it be?” I call these the “IPO questions.” Understand the answers to these questions and your startup is going public.

InLook lacked what every startup needs: a method that allows it to develop a predictable sales process and validate its business model.

there were no tools and processes to search for a business model. It seemed obvious to me that searching is what startups actually do, but it was a pretty lonely couple of years convincing others.

visionary customers, particularly in corporations, will be buying into your entire vision, not just your first product release. They will need to hear what your company plans to deliver over the next 18 months.