All right, party people. We are back with another episode of below the hotline and that is where you the listeners get to call in with any question that you have. Really any question typically is around the intersection of creation philosophy technology or one of those three and if you dig our conversations at the intersection of creation philosophy and Technology then hit that subscribe.
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And yet we never get to hear from listeners at least from their voices. See, all the reviews and we love those, please keep sending those in. But we really love hearing
Voices, and the questions that you have of topics that we may not have covered the numbers. Four, two four, two, seven two, six, six, four zero and it's also in the show notes. So feel free to drop us a line on today's episode. Like, many of our episodes is brought to you by Magic mind, go to magic mind dotco, enter promo, code BTL for 20% off. It is the anchor to my morning ritual, 12, magical ingredients, that get you into productive creative flow within minutes.
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As well. So let's jump into today's voicemail. Hey James, this is Mike from San Francisco have been listening to the podcast and follow me for a while. Really a refreshing take on the Creator Journey. Especially interesting. Thank you Mike from San Francisco on word. I'd really like that two questions for you. What is something you learned 10 or more years ago that still stays with you and is even more true. Now and also, why do you like Oh I like that.
Instead of kind of what is hip new contrary to typical narratives, what is something that has stuck with me over time? I like that and then I think you got another question or two also. Why do you like matcha green tea? So much? Oh, hell yeah. I'll talk about matcha, green. Tea all day long. Totally unrelated, but have wanted to know. Thanks and absolutely love the podcast. Keep it up. Alright, thank you. Mike. I
That from San Francisco. My old stomping grounds.
And actually San Francisco is where I learned about matcha and became obsessed with matcha. So it's somewhat relevant. Alright so here is
something that
whether I mean, there's so many things I think about from 10-plus years ago, but going back to when I was 25. What's something that I learned that is stuck with me? And I think, yo, I think the, to the spirit of the question, something I think about more and more each year rather than less
Ten years ago, 2011.
I'm going to go with.
there's a one of the ogs of startup literature, Eric, Ries,
Is a friend, he's been on the podcast a couple times.
But this is this actually we became friends. Probably five years after this. Thought hit me like a ton of bricks and people in the startup ecosystem, have probably heard this before, but it's it is I'm sure they've heard it before, but it is just so I think it's more and more valuable now than ever. And that is his concept of an MVP, a minimum viable product.
And I think about that concept.
More every year.
And it feels like I needed. I almost feel like as a investor and advisor that I need to talk about it with the 80, plus portfolio companies and Founders that our work with more and more each year rather than less and that is the concept of the MVP. That the minimum viable product is, what is the minimum version of your grand? Ambitious, massively, world-changing idea, what is the minimum if you back away from
How different the world is going to be in 10, 20, 30 years. And you work backwards from that, what is the minimum viable version of that that you could launch today? You look at a brand like Nike and they are one of the superbrands in the entire world with products and probably have they probably have 200,000 plus products but it started with
a waffle maker and a very lightweight rubber tied around these sake. Tiger shoes, might not even be pronouncing that original shoe properly. But these these shoes called tigers. And they took off the the soul and they added this little literally from a waffle maker. These really light souls to them and that is how Nike starting for the first seven years. That's
More or less. What Nike was was very, very minimal line of only running, Focus Shoes.
And made with a very different type of Soul. With the rest of the shoe was very similar to many other shoes on the market. That was their minimum viable version to becoming one of the if not the best known brand in the world and loved brand, not just known, people know AT&T that, I love it but to become one of the best-known and most loved brands.
So many of us can start with our ideation in that 30 year out world, but how do you, how do you get there? And I think Eric outlines the best way of getting there is by starting with the most minimal version of your product.
And I often think about why is it so seductive to think of a maximal viable version of the product? And it's because as consumers, which all of us are, we are constantly consuming typically the Nike of today, and the Facebook of today, the Instagram of today, the Starbucks of today. And we forget that all of these stories started with a very, very
he
sick minimum version, if anything
All of the brands that you and I do not consume today. Many of them do not did not spend 10 years with a very minimal version, many of them launched with these maximal versions and and they never had a market, but this concept of MVP and and a minimum viable version, it is the quickest way for two things and why it's so powerful towards that 30-year.
In or where you want to be a year from now doesn't really matter. But there's two reasons why it's so valuable first is
it is the least expensive way for you to get feedback of whether people want your product or not.
And it's seductive to want to build the maximal version because in many ways, that's a way to avoid getting this feedback. So you build out, you think? Okay. My product needs at 14 17. Different features or my art needs to have all of this, you know, this massive series. And all of this love from people already before I really go big, in my art career or whatever it is.
Are you trying to take on Thanksgiving dinner as a cook and and your first foray into cooking and it's so overwhelming that you end up bailing. Well the antidote to that is you start with something super super small and it's for these two reasons, one to get the feedback of whether people actually want that, you know, the very first work of art, the very first version of that application that you want to build the very first tiny little, you know, back of a
A bike type of Rickshaw shop Kiosk for your coffee, or your XYZ project, whatever it is in the mall or right on the side of the street of a busy intersection. Start with that. To see if people really want your coffee, if people really dig that direction of your art and and you get that feedback early on the second piece, that's so critical. And I think the
Are much less appreciated aspect of a minimum viable product and launching super early with this super bare-bones, minimum viable product, is that you also get to incorporate others.
Into your work.
and that is,
That's subtle but that's a profound part of the equation incorporating others into your work.
If you have that application that you think is going to be great, you start with the minimum viable version, you get 15 customers seven of which hate it, three of which just lukewarm like it. And then you have five that love it. You have now recruited five people to collaborate with you to conspire with you and bringing that to the next fifty, five hundred, ten thousand people. Those five people are now on your team and they wouldn't have been
How do you just stayed in your lab for two years tinkering away and not launching a minimum viable version and people love minimum viable versions.
It is think about the the bands that you got into when you're younger, the love for the brand that you had when you discovered it before other people.
That comedian that you just stumble across on YouTube that now you love a year later? Five years later, 10 years later because you got to see their rise because you got to discover them early on and that that is the same thing that happens. Whether it's the feedback and collaborating on what's, what is the next iteration from that, that mvp and that feedback along the way with your product roadmap, which is so invaluable in its own right? But
Also, this amount of Love That Gets created. That cannot it's invaluable. You cannot put a price on it for the people that got to be there from the beginning and so much of us out of fear. And Mike to your question, I think about this all the time because, especially as you get further and further along in your creator Journey you the, you feel like, okay, the bar is getting higher and higher and yet I think it is more important.
Important 10 years end of your journey, then maybe even 10 days into your creative journey to start with the super raw version of what you're creating because of those two things. One you get to hear what you actually should be making, you know, the, the app, the product, the music, the art, the coffee, kiosk, that you've got, whatever it is, you're incorporating, the market, which is ultimately going to decide the fate of your
Act, if it's a commercial Endeavor, but also, you are in gen during the early advocacy and love that comes when you show your project, when it's really raw Facebook, when it launched our remember, I loved it because it was so project asked they had. I mean, it has so much of it was slightly buggy here and there, it just felt like a project Myspace. I remember felt like this really polished heavily produced thing. Facebook was
The people love to hate on it but hundred million people love the hell out of this thing within a first within its first few years, because it was well, felt like a project. It was super minimal, almost no design to it. And it was really, really lovable Clubhouse launched with absolute abject Simplicity, and got to 10 million users before. It's quicker than then Facebook did.
The Apple, the iPhone, the iPhone, when the first iPhone launched and this is not minimum viable product, but this was the minimum viable version of an Apple product. It every phone had three G. It only had two G when it launched. It did not have a functional clickable keyboard, you know, it had its screen keyboard and it was actually total shite, and in the first version of it.
It was, it was not the greatest thing that they could make, but it was there understand. Same thing with the Apple watch first three versions of the Apple watch sucked. The first three versions of the iPad weren't that useful but it allowed them to incorporate the other side of the equation. What people really wanted out if their devices what people really wanted the market resonated with how they were going to start using, whether it's the phone or whether it was Facebook. And the fact that they
Within a year okay? People are using this so much around the photos. Okay, let's lean into the photo side of things. They would have never figured that out had, they spent two years just tinkering away. It would have never figured out. Probably the most key Insight in all of Facebook was that It ultimately was a photo-sharing site that didn't look like it and they figured that out about 11 months in after launch, when they started to look at the engagement around the photos. So there's that part of the equation, equation of the feedback and Incorporation.
In of the market and what they want on your product and then it's also as the advocacy of those first customers that got to see it when it was raw and got to love it when they felt like they were part of bringing it to the world rather than when it is polished and you know didn't need your help. So that's something I think a lot about Mike from San Francisco is launching with a minimum viable product going into that fear knowing that you're going to get criticism. But embracing that loving that because
It's ultimately going to refine and polish and iron sharpens. Iron type of whittling away of what you ultimately are going to create. So launch friggin early, super early with the most minimal version you can and beautiful things happen, either. You know you incorporate the feedback from the market or you also see this this steady fan base and love that builds from five. Ten fifteen fifteen hundred early.
Chapters of of what you're making and then, to the second part of your question. Why do I love matcha so much? That's super simple. Matcha is in Magic mind. And Masha is it's the highest amount of caffeine in a green tea that also comes with l-theanine, which dials down aren't actually helps reduce your body's cortisol production which is body stress hormone and in you have a spike of cortisol when you drink coffee mate.
Has caffeine in it, like coffee. But instead of a spike in cortisol, the l-theanine will actually help dial down your body's production of that stress hormone. So you get energy without the Jitters when drinking Masha, and it just has more more caffeine than a typical cup of green tea. So there you go. More energy and less Jitters. That's why I love it. All right, so that's the go, Mike. That's what I think about
ten plus years later, the value of launching early.
Incorporating feedback fans Community, instead of fearing their feedback that is such an integral and somewhat counterintuitive, piece of the Creator Journey. Highly recommend reading more about the MVP or minimum viable product, if you're interested and then why do I love module? You could actually, you can also go check out, go read my book beyond coffee and it'll tell you a little
More about why lamantia so much.
And that has been another episode of below the hotline. Four two four two seven two, six, six four, zero is the number. If you got a question of your own we'll see you next time.
