Get your MVP mar­ket-ready

Now it’s time to turn your MVP into a com­pelling prod­uct cus­tomers actu­al­ly want – and are will­ing to pay for.

1. Opti­mize your solu­tion

• Fin­ish core fea­tures: Make sure every key func­tion works seam­less­ly, even out­side of a test envi­ron­ment.

• Increase effi­cien­cy: Stream­line how your solu­tion is deliv­ered. For ser­vices that rely heav­i­ly on peo­ple, this may be hard­er – but look for ways to make things run smoother.

• Ensure scal­a­bil­i­ty: Your tech­ni­cal infra­struc­ture should be robust enough to grow with increas­ing demand.

2. Keep devel­op­ing your MVP

Use insights from your MVP test users (see“Min­i­mal Viable Prod­uct on the test bench: Test­ing the impact of an impact start­up”) to refine the user expe­ri­ence. Reg­u­lar user test­ing helps make sure new fea­tures meet expec­ta­tions – and helps you avoid build­ing the wrong thing.

3. Expand your team

As your prod­uct grows, so should your team. Bring in peo­ple with exper­tise in UX/UI design, prod­uct man­age­ment, and mar­ket­ing to round out your prod­uct devel­op­ment (see “Grow­ing sus­tain­ably: Team, struc­ture, and cul­ture for impact star­tups”).

From ear­ly adopters to a larg­er cus­tomer base

Scal­ing means reach­ing more of the peo­ple your solu­tion is built for – and that takes a smart strat­e­gy. These five steps will help you move from ear­ly adopters to the main­stream:

1. Focus on the fea­tures that mat­ter most

Start by build­ing the fea­tures that offer the great­est val­ue to your tar­get audi­ence and cus­tomers. Keep things lean – expand the scope of your prod­uct grad­u­al­ly, adding new ele­ments around the core solu­tion.

2. Keep improv­ing the user expe­ri­ence

Con­tin­u­ous­ly refine the design, usabil­i­ty, and func­tion­al­i­ty of your solu­tion. Use user-cen­tered design meth­ods to bet­ter under­stand how peo­ple inter­act with your prod­uct – and make sure it meets their needs in the real world.

3. Expand beyond ear­ly adopters

Grow your cus­tomer base beyond the ear­ly adopters. Here’s a gen­er­al break­down of adopter types to guide your strat­e­gy:

• Inno­va­tors (3%): Inno­va­tion enthu­si­asts who are eager to try new solu­tions.
• Ear­ly adopters (13%): Vision­ar­ies who quick­ly rec­og­nize val­ue in new solu­tions.
• Ear­ly major­i­ty (34%): Prac­ti­cal users who want proven, reli­able tools.
• Late major­i­ty (34%): More skep­ti­cal users who adopt only after wide­spread val­i­da­tion.
• Lag­gards (16%): Skep­tics who are reluc­tant to adopt new solu­tions

4. Tai­lor your strat­e­gy to each group

Speak to each audi­ence in a way that res­onates. For inno­va­tors and ear­ly adopters, empha­size cre­ativ­i­ty, bold think­ing, and your long-term vision. When tar­get­ing the ear­ly major­i­ty, focus on ease of use and proven results. To win over the late major­i­ty, high­light social proof, endorse­ments, and a strong track record. For lag­gards,present your solu­tion as the new indus­try stan­dard.

5. Share suc­cess sto­ries

Use real-life exam­ples from ear­ly adopters to help con­vince oth­ers to get on board.

Build your mar­ket­ing and sales chan­nels

With­out vis­i­bil­i­ty and a clear sales strat­e­gy, even the best prod­uct will strug­gle to gain trac­tion. Here’s how to build both in a focused, strate­gic way.

1. Ana­lyze where you’re start­ing from

First, gath­er as much insight as you can about your poten­tial cus­tomers. Look at mar­ket data, run a com­peti­tor analy­sis to see which chan­nels are work­ing for oth­ers in your space, and assess your own per­for­mance Use tools like Google Ana­lyt­ics, social media dash­boards, or cus­tomer sur­veys to get a sense of what’s work­ing and where there’s room to grow.

A SWOT analy­sis can help you eval­u­ate your cur­rent mar­ket­ing and sales chan­nels:

• Strengths: What’s already work­ing well? (e.g., strong social pres­ence, good SEO, high con­ver­sion rates)
• Weak­ness­es: Where are the gaps? (e.g., unclear mes­sag­ing, lack of capac­i­ty for run­ning cam­paigns)
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• Oppor­tu­ni­ties: What trends or part­ner­ships could help you grow? (e.g., ris­ing inter­est in eth­i­cal brands, poten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tors)
• Threats: What chal­lenges might slow you down? (e.g., com­peti­tors, lim­it­ed bud­get, shift­ing mar­ket dynam­ics)

Once you have a clear pic­ture, set goals using the S.M.A.R.T. frame­work. The indi­ca­tors should be:

• Spe­cif­ic: Focused and clear­ly defined
• Mea­sur­able: Quan­tifi­able
• Achiev­able: Real­is­tic giv­en your resources
• Rel­e­vant: Aligned with your broad­er objec­tives
• Time-bound: Set with­in a clear time­frame

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2. Define your cus­tomer group

Cre­ate detailed pro­files of your ide­al cus­tomers, includ­ing their chal­lenges, goals, and what they val­ue most. You already start­ed this process in “Prob­lem and tar­get group analy­sis: How to val­i­date for impact star­tups”. Now’s the time to go deep­er – with tools like per­sonas or sim­pli­fied ver­sion of the val­ue propo­si­tion can­vas.

3. Refine your unique sell­ing propo­si­tion (USP)

Your USP is what sets your solu­tion apart – and it’s the rea­son cus­tomers should choose you over any­one else. The Lean Can­vas is a help­ful tool to define your core val­ue and com­mu­ni­cate it clear­ly. In ear­ly stages, high­light bold ideas and your vision for change. As you grow, shift toward reli­a­bil­i­ty and proven mar­ket fit.

Here’s how to use the Lean Can­vas to sharp­en your USP:

1. Prob­lem: What’s the core issue your cus­tomers are fac­ing? Your USP should speak direct­ly to that.
2. Cus­tomer seg­ments: Who exact­ly are your cus­tomers, and how does your solu­tion meet their spe­cif­ic needs?
3. Unique val­ue propo­si­tion (UVP): Dis­till your mes­sage: Why is your solu­tion bet­ter? Think clear, punchy phras­es like “Faster. Smarter. More sus­tain­able.”
4. Chan­nels: Where will your mes­sage land best? Con­sid­er con­tent mar­ket­ing, social media, and tes­ti­mo­ni­als.
5. Unfair advan­tage: What makes your USP dif­fi­cult to copy? Maybe it’s pro­pri­etary tech, deep domain knowl­edge, or a pow­er­ful net­work.

4. Choose the right mar­ket­ing chan­nels and meth­ods

Once your USP is clear, it’s time to fine-tune your mar­ket­ing. A SIPOC dia­gram can help you under­stand and improve the flow of your mar­ket­ing activ­i­ties (see “Grow­ing sus­tain­ably: Team, struc­ture, and cul­ture for impact star­tups.”

5. Choose the right sales chan­nels

Build a mul­ti­chan­nel sales strat­e­gy that com­bines both online and offline approach­es. Revis­it your exist­ing sales process­es and opti­mize them – again, a SIPOC dia­gram can help spot inef­fi­cien­cies (see “Grow­ing sus­tain­ably: Team, struc­ture, and cul­ture for impact star­tups.”)

6. Train your mar­ket­ing and sales team

Even the best strate­gies won’t work if your team isn’t pre­pared to exe­cute them. Make reg­u­lar train­ing a pri­or­i­ty to keep your team sharp and aligned. To iden­ti­fy skill gaps and plan learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, check out “Grow­ing sus­tain­ably: Team, struc­ture, and cul­ture for impact star­tups.”

Devel­op mul­ti­ple growth sce­nar­ios

Plan­ning for long-term suc­cess means think­ing beyond the ide­al case. It’s about antic­i­pat­ing dif­fer­ent pos­si­bil­i­ties and prepar­ing for what’s ahead. Here’s how to cre­ate sol­id, data-dri­ven growth sce­nar­ios:

1. Look at your startup’s past growth

To make real­is­tic pro­jec­tions, start by ana­lyz­ing your his­tor­i­cal growth. Review your rev­enue over the past few years and com­pare it with rel­e­vant indus­try bench­marks and com­peti­tors. Ask your­self: Has your growth also led to greater impact?
Exam­ple: A tech start­up grows 20% year over year for three con­sec­u­tive years. That trend becomes the base­line for its future pro­jec­tions.

To get a clear­er pic­ture, use key met­rics like the com­pound annu­al growth rate (CAGR), the rev­enue growth rate or the cus­tomer growth rate. The for­mu­la for the rev­enue growth rate is:

(Cur­rent year rev­enue – Pre­vi­ous year rev­enue) / Pre­vi­ous year rev­enue × 100

2. Con­sid­er exter­nal fac­tors that affect growth

Don’t just rely on inter­nal data – exter­nal trends can shape your future just as much. A top-down approach, ooks at macro-lev­el indi­ca­tors like GDP growth, sec­tor trends, or pol­i­cy changes. A bot­tom-up approach starts with your own data – such as mar­ket share or month­ly recur­ring rev­enue – and builds from there.

Expert insights, your man­age­ment team’s strate­gic vision, and over­all mar­ket sen­ti­ment can also help you spot risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Look at mar­ket trends, shifts in cus­tomer behav­ior, and poten­tial new mar­kets to explore where you could expand next.

3. Build out real­is­tic growth sce­nar­ios

You can use your data to map out dif­fer­ent growth paths:

• Best-case sce­nario: Every­thing goes bet­ter than expect­ed. Your solu­tion gains fast trac­tion, fund­ing rounds are suc­cess­ful, and your impact exceeds tar­gets. Think 50% more rev­enue or sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er cus­tomer num­bers than planned.

• Base-case sce­nario: The steady mid­dle ground. Growth fol­lows his­tor­i­cal trends, rev­enue is sta­ble, and oper­a­tions run as planned. Most cus­tomers pay on time, and the busi­ness scales grad­u­al­ly.

• Worst-case sce­nario: Here you assume the worst pos­si­ble case. Growth stalls or declines. This could involve fac­ing delays in prod­uct roll­out, missed fund­ing mile­stones, low­er-than-expect­ed impact, or unfa­vor­able mar­ket con­di­tions. The result would be a col­lapse in busi­ness.

Exam­ples: Cus­tomer pay­ments are delayed, projects can­not be ful­ly invoiced, or sales efforts fall short.

4. Turn each sce­nario into a strat­e­gy

Once your sce­nar­ios are in place, use them to guide your plan­ning: Dou­ble down on oppor­tu­ni­ties in the best case, strength­en your foun­da­tion in the base case and min­i­mize risk and stay agile in the worst case. This way, you can stay focused but flex­i­ble – ready to piv­ot when need­ed and in con­trol of your growth.

Next step: Start track­ing your KPIs

You’ve laid the foun­da­tion for your startup’s finan­cial growth – now it’s time to track your progress.

Before set­ting up KPIs or build­ing your base­line sce­nario, make sure your team, your struc­tures and your orga­ni­za­tion­al cul­ture are ready for the next phase (chap­ter “Grow­ing sus­tain­ably: Team, struc­ture, and cul­ture for impact star­tups”) and fine-tune your impact man­age­ment strat­e­gy (LINK 2).