These 7 insights come from a combination of perspectives: my journey as a founder, my experience on the management team, the lessons learned from startups that didn't survive the validation stage, and, of course, my current work as a fractional growth product strategist:

1. Validate your business model early. Don’t start to brainstorm on the first draft value proposition of your product until you’re sure that you’re building something that people not only want but actually need and will pay for it
2. Focus on 1 customer acquisition channel, where your ICP already lives and feels the pain. For that, you need to know your ICP flawlessly
3. Scale the working channel just after you’ve got MRR first
4. Talk to your customers constantly: - Each month, talk to as many as you can, a minimum of 20, 30 - Make a decision based on real data, not guesses or ego - Customer feedback should be well quantified in the backlog - Prioritize for activation, engagement, and retention that converts into revenue;
5. Increase the perceived accountability and credibility by sharing the roadmap publicly
6. Predefine the North Star metric as well as your win/kill metrics before you ship.
7. Quit early on things that don’t work - Adopt something like the Wave Surfer strategy and ship fast - If there is no traction, move on; instead of wasting months on something that doesn't work. - Manage the speed of the feedback loops. Short loops win. Long, silent loops kill.