From Idea to Execution: How to know what to build?

Over the last few weeks, this question has come up several times for us so I wanted to take a moment to share how we think about what to build. It starts with a vision of the future - what is the future going to look like, and what gaps exist today that are keeping us from getting there?

Our vision at EVL: important things will be made here in the US again.

From there, we narrow down into the specific problem spaces we need to be building in - if we are going to build important things here again, what needs to be true? Our existing domestic manufacturing operations need major technology upgrades to compete on a global scale, we need to ensure that critical resources and inputs are always available and are collected and used in an efficient and sustainable way, we need to secure long-term access to the massive amounts of energy needed to power this increase in domestic production, and we need skilled workers to run these manufacturing businesses of the future. Therefore, the areas we will be building in are (1) advanced manufacturing and automation, (2) water technology, (3) advanced and renewable energy, and (4) talent.

So now we’ve got our vision of the future and the sectors we need to build in to achieve that future. Next up is finding the people who share our vision of the future, have rough ideas of what specific problem space they want to take on, and have the backgrounds that qualify them to do so. 

Consider our first EIR Adam Barber - he’s focused on unlocking the airspace for unmanned and autonomous aerial systems so they can safely operate alongside people and infrastructure. This capability will be extremely beneficial for the future of domestic production, and his background as an Army pilot and helicopter+drone company commander, combined with his training as a mechanical engineer, gives him the perfect background to tackle this problem space.

Talk to a Ton of Potential Customers

Once you’ve identified a problem space, the next step isn’t building—it’s talking to as many potential customers as possible. First, you want to define as many potential customer segments as possible, map out what assumptions you have for these groups and what problems or needs they have, and then test these assumptions by having as many conversations as you can with people in each group. From there you likely will narrow down your focus to just one segment with the most burning problem and the strongest motivation to have their problem solved. 

In these conversations, it’s important to call out that you can’t just pitch your idea; that spoils the conversation before it begins because people lie, and they’ll spend the rest of the conversation telling you what they think you want to hear instead of what they actually feel or need. An example of this is the ‘Mom Test’ (a quick read I highly recommend for those just getting into customer discovery.) The premise is - if you tell your Mom what you’re building and ask her what she thinks, she will most likely tell you that it’s the smartest thing she’s ever heard and that it’s a great idea you should definitely pursue. Nice to hear, but not actually helpful at all. Customers will do the same thing to you, regardless of if they actually believe it. Instead, spend these conversations digging into the customer’s day to day, what motivates them, what their priorities are, and whether or not they actually have the problem you think they have. If they do - is it a top 5 problem to them? If not, its probably not worth their time to think about solving it. You want to be addressing a top 5 problem for them, otherwise you risk falling into the trap of building a ‘nice to have’ instead of a ‘need to have’. Great businesses - at least in the sectors we’re focused on - are rarely built addressing ‘nice to have’s’. 

So how do you know when you’re done with customer discovery and ready to start building? Well you should never stop doing customer discovery throughout the entire life of your venture, but generally speaking, you’ll know you’re approaching build mode once you start hearing the same things from multiple customers within the same customer segment.

Don’t Build Too Early or Too Much

A common mistake founders make is rushing into building before they truly understand the problem. It’s easy to assume you already know the right solution, but that assumption can be deadly. Until you’ve put in the work through customer discovery, you don’t actually know what to build, what specific problem to solve, who to solve it for, and how to solve it in the most frictionless way for your customer. What seems like the perfect product in theory might be completely wrong in practice. 

Going back to Adam’s example, he could have easily gone down the path of trying to build some extremely fancy and expensive piece of equipment, but in reality that type of product would likely never get adopted based on the target customer he’s building for. Instead, he needed to know exactly what equipment pilots are already using and how to integrate easily into their existing process to keep additional cognitive load on pilots at an absolute minimum. It took a combination of his unique background, and his commitment to customer discovery before building to uncover these insights that are informing what he builds (and what he doesn’t build).

Be Ready to Kill Your Idea

Not every idea will survive the process, and that’s a good thing. Ideas are cheap—execution is what matters. The likelihood that your first idea is the winner is low, so the goal isn’t to prove yourself right; it’s to find the right idea as efficiently as possible. This is especially critical in a venture studio environment where resources are limited, and every bet needs to count. The second-best answer to “yes” is a quick “no.” A fast kill is far better than dragging out an idea that isn’t getting traction. Founders who let go of bad ideas quickly create space to find the real opportunity. We as founders have extremely limited time and resources - so it is absolutely crucial to minimize time spent chasing after ideas that aren’t going to work.

The Takeaway

Figuring out what to build isn’t about sitting in a room brainstorming—it’s about having a vision of the future, an idea of how to get there, and then ruthlessly testing and validating that idea until you either feel confident it’s worth pursuing or you kill it. Only then do you know what to build and what not to build. And keep in mind that at this point, you still don’t have a business, your journey has only just begun. You can rest easy knowing that you have a business once you have paying customers. 

To wrap it up, if you have an idea for a startup - go start talking to customers! 

-Mike Nieset