10 stages, from the first conversation to a business that repeats. 5 are key milestones: if you do not beat them, nothing else counts. Each stage says how to know it is done and what to do this week.
Goal: Finding a physical need that someone solves today worse or at a higher cost than you could.
Where to start: Watch five people solve the problem the way they do today and note how much time and money it costs them.
Goal: Having in writing what the product must do, how precisely, and at what maximum cost per unit.
Where to start: Put those three things on one page and show it to two potential buyers before you design anything.
Goal: Having a prototype that works, even if it is ugly and only you know how to use it.
Where to start: Show it to five potential buyers and note what they ask first.
Goal: Having someone outside measure that the product does what you say it does.
Where to start: Ask a lab or a technology centre to repeat your main measurement.
Goal: Knowing what each unit costs to make if you build 10, 100 or 1,000.
Where to start: Ask two suppliers to quote the main parts for those three quantities.
Goal: Having units working in a real customer’s hands, with data on how they use them.
Where to start: Lend three units to a customer for a month in exchange for telling you how they use them.
Goal: Selling a unit to someone who does not know you.
Where to start: Open pre-orders with a real price and a delivery date you can keep.
Goal: Having a manufacturer produce a batch for you at the agreed quality.
Where to start: Order a short batch and check every unit against a written checklist.
Goal: Having the certifications your market requires in order to sell.
Where to start: Ask a certification lab which tests you need and how long they take, before you finalise the design.
Goal: Every unit leaving you a margin, and knowing how to sell the next batch.
Where to start: Work out the real margin on your last batch, including shipping and returns, and set the price of the next one from it.
Inside Madrid Ventures the path becomes your day: your AI CEO turns the stage you are at into missions for each person, and every proof you get raises your FounderSeal.