I think it’s just plain stupid to invest on things where I don’t even know who I’m going sell products to.

I have asked more than three hundred projects, posting their problems here, about doing the market learning their chosen method demands. While some admitted they knew they skipped the smoke test, none conducted it.

There were gray area exceptions. One guy got two customers pre-launch, rushed through launch, then spent the next Two Years getting ten more. This dozen he called proof of product-market fit.

Looking back on it, I guess he was right. I certainly had a fit right then and there.

Half is just “Oh you wacky Internet.” Ninety percent is interesting. One hundred percent non-compliance isn’t a fluke – that’s purposeful decision. Now the question is can anybody ever choose to follow the instructions at all?

Keep in mind this was and is a very popular book and method. A whole lot of people see the biggest problem and roadblock to success staring back from a mirror. People will run out of money long before they run out of lame excuses – not one is an excuse for why they didn’t start.

Deny it, ignore the market, make believe you do something else, online or offline, it’s Build It And They Will Come pure and simple. Stupid doesn’t come close to describing it – it’s a failure cult – a business cargo cult. The ongoing proof of Dunning-Kruger.

For entrepreneurs spewing about their love of freedom: Do You Have Any Choice Whatsoever? Because we can see the default advice posted right here. We know where the lemming migration is headed. And anyone who chooses too can acknowledge more businesses fail than succeed. Choose wisely.

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How To Crash Your Startup is the popular bastardization, the default setting of all the popular advice you will get here. Top voted. Wantrepreneur approved.

My product validation is completely different then real results. Advice? Plenty object, use the proper terminology – it changes nothing.

Customer Development versus Product Development is the theory. 3 Awesome Minimum Viable Products is application. Notice how it is exactly opposite of launch first, ask questions later doctrine being ladled out, day-in and day-out.

Let’s Talk About Popups … because if I don’t tell you about a hot trend turned best practice offline … nobody here will. It may have a different name, but the advice is clearly Smoke Test Before MVP. Restaurants are one of the most risky, costly, failure prone ventures. Check out posts here; if even one person wanting to start a sit-down restaurant is even cognizant of this popular, well-known, industry standard practice. Then come to your own conclusions.

Our Dangerous Obsession With The MVP I refer to the popular bastardization as “em-vee-pee.” There are no excuses – we’re not talking about ignorance – this is deliberate.

Building An MVP Is Like Serving Burnt Pizza – don’t serve burnt pizza. In contrast, the popular advice here is you should launch something so bad it makes you cringe.