As you consider building your own minimum viable product, let this simple rule suffice: remove any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek.

We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.

As an entrepreneur, I knew that if my company failed, I could always try again. So I often felt that the only real risk of true financial ruin came from the possibility of a serious illness that either exceeded my insurance plans lifetime limits, or was not covered due to rescission.

The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

At IMVU, we opened up our board meetings to the whole company.

Reading is good, action is better.

The way forward is to learn to see every startup in any industry as a grand experiment.