I am actually in the process of reversing the process and building the marketing first, and not building the product until there is enough marketing validation. My thought is, if maybe 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 ideas is going to sell, better to figure out what will sell before building out every idea and then hoping for the best each time.
I recall, but can't find, a story on HN about someone who, before building any product at all, put up a website with an explanation of value, and a "purchase" page. People put in their credit card number trying to buy the product, validating there really was some market for them.
I've played around with it a bit, though haven't followed through heavily on any of my PoCs so far, but the market first idea seems to be quite useful for a lot of areas. Enjoyed the book quite a bit, was not a fan of their startup academy at all.
I liked Start Small Stay Small, but haven't tried the academy. I just try things in my own business, school of hard knocks as it were. How much is the academy?
It was a year ago, so not sure I remember, but I think it was $50/month and more if you wanted content faster. I think it was a lot more paying for forum access/feedback than for material, but I felt it wasn't worth it for me and cancelled after a month.
