Okay, so you’ve declared Minimum Viable Product (MVP). You’ve nailed your value propositions and your pricing and terms, and you are confident that your category positioning is on point. Your team is now marketing and selling your product. This means your next challenge is to reach the Traction Gap value inflection point called Minimum Viable Repeatability (MVR).
To reach MVR, you must demonstrate that you have been able to successfully release multiple versions of your product, market and sell your product many times to many companies, hire top talent personnel, and develop the internal systems that enable you to quickly and cost-effectively manage the business. This is the first significant step in your journey of “scaling” your business. And, to be on track with the best startups at this phase, you only have a year and a half to go from MVP to MVR.
Make no mistake: getting to this next Traction Gap value inflection point is the most difficult phase you and your team will face. As far as the venture investment community is concerned, your ability to go from MVP to MVR in the next 18 months — which, trust us, will fly by — will determine whether your startup sinks or swims. And during this time, not only will you need to demonstrate you can grow your business, but you may also be faced with having to raise your next round of capital. It’s one of those times when caffeine will be your savior.
This is an intense phase because you are now fully at the mercy of forces other than your own ingenuity. In the go-to-product phase, it was all you. Your design, your innovation, your decisions. But as you leave the go-to-product phase, you throw yourself upon the unforgiving market, in the form of potential consumers or customers. The market will either be convinced and purchase your product or service, or the market will toss your idea in the bin along with 80% or more of all other startups. Capitalism is ruthless.
So: the clock is ticking. After you declare Minimum Viable Product (MVP), savvy investors expect to see healthy growth metrics — downloads, conversion rates, usage rates, and revenues. If those metrics aren’t there, no amount of future promises will save you. A fancy slideshow or prototype describing how great it will eventually be will no longer cut it. You will be evaluated on hard, empirical metrics.
Here’s the crucial thing about getting to MVR. Remember how the Traction Gap Framework is built upon four core architectures of an enterprise: product; revenue; team; and systems? Up until now, most of your attention has been focused on developing and delivering the first version of a quality assured product using your product engineering and market engineering skills.
Now that focus shifts. Market awareness and demand are now crucial, and this means your requirements have shifted with it. At this phase, the other three Traction Gap pillars begin to play a more prominent role.
Here’s how these three pillars relate to the crucial MVP to MVR phase.