Prototype Stage: Find the Best First Customers

Once you have a prototype, interviews shift toward identifying who your best first customer is. Migicovsky warns that the wrong first customer can sink you: they demand features off your roadmap, consume your time, and churn anyway.

He suggests scoring prospects on questions like: how much does this problem cost them (in money, time, or pain)? How frequently do they hit it? And do they have budget to pay for a solution? The ideal early customer has an expensive, frequent problem, knows they have it, and can pay today.

The numbers you collect here compound. If you know the problem costs a customer $10,000 a year and your product solves it for $1,000, you have both a pricing anchor and a sales pitch, sourced from the customer's own mouth.