The 7 Day Startup

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🎯 The Book in 3 Sentences

Start with a unique idea, execute it well, and focus on acquiring customers.
Learn from real data and not assumptions; validate your idea through customer payment, not just feedback.
Choose a simple, meaningful, and broad business name.
Build a website in one day, collect email addresses, and set up payment options.
Market your business through content creation, email marketing, podcasting, and engaging with online communities.
Set financial targets and measure important metrics for your business growth.
Build a business model with a good profit margin, a large market, asset building, simplicity, and recurring revenue.

You don’t learn until you launch.

Execution is your ability to present your idea just as well as the best ideas in the world.

No more assumptions. No more validation. Launch.

Solve problems where people are already paying for solutions.

A startup has:

You need to have a unique idea.
It needs to be executed as well or better as the competition.
Then spend your time on the things that are most likely to bring customers.
Anti-hustle is what wantrepreneurs do. They do everything other than what they need to do— which, more often than not, is getting more customers.

Learn from real data and not assumptions.
There is a very big difference between someone entering their email and someone paying you each month for a product.
People saying “It’s a good idea” doesn’t mean it is.
Coverage in tech press doesn’t work.
Targeted surveys don’t work.
Pre-Selling is a flawed experiment.
The concept of “validation” is too simplistic.

Day 1 - You need to have an idea.

Elements of a Bootstrapped Business Idea:

Enjoyable daily tasks. It makes no sense to start a business that is going to have you doing work you don’t enjoy.
Product/founder fit. The skills you have, what are you known for, and where you can provide the most value should be in line with the idea.
Scalable business model.
Operates profitably without the founder.
Large market potential.
Ability to launch quickly.

Day 2 - Minimum Viable Product.

A common MVP mistake is over-emphasizing the “minimum” and under-emphasizing the “viable.”
Write down exactly what you will launch on Day 7.
What will your customers get, what is included, and what is excluded?
If necessary, write down what is automated and what will be done manually in the short term.

Day 3 - Choose a business name.

Day 4 - Build a website in one day.

Day 5 - Market your business.

Day 6 - Set Targets.

Make it a financial metric, not a vanity metric like website visits or Facebook likes.
Save your excitement until you land people you don’t know as customers.
Set a goal for the first month and re-visit it each month after that.
Don’t measure something that no longer represents an important metric for your business.
Create a spreadsheet that covers the first few months in business, the number of signups, revenue, estimated costs, and monthly growth.

Day 7 - Launch and start executing your marketing plan.

Put up your live website with the payment button.
Include as many options as you can for people to contact you.
Email anyone who is on your pre-launch list.
Post an update to social networks and any forums or groups that allow you to do so.

Build a business with growth in its DNA.

Profit margin. Prefer having a reasonable margin and getting more customers at that price.
Large market. Make sure there is enough potential in what you are doing to have a continually-growing business.
Asset building. Assets help your business grow and make it worth something when you sell.
Simple business model. A business with one basic product is a growth machine.
Recurring or predictable revenue.

Test every assumption. Most of the assumptions you have prior to and after launching your business will be wrong.
Solve problems as they arise.
Do what you say you will do. Being true to your word is a very important part of building trust in business.
Benchmark against the best. Once you have a clear path, quality is more important.
Always consider how your business looks without you.
Manage motivation. You should be more excited about Monday than you are about Friday.
Cull difficult customers. They will waste your time, kill your confidence, and destroy your motivation.
Focus on retention. You need to do everything to keep your customers and the data you get from churning customers is priceless.
Focus on the product. If you are feeling overwhelmed with all of the things you need to do, just focus on how to make your product slightly better.
Love your work.