#9: Launching a community MVP: 3 lessons so far

This past week I’ve been putting together an MVP for a community I’m launching as part of the advisory side of my business.

While doing it, I started thinking about the stuff I’ve learned over the years from building MVPs for software and how much of it still applies here.

So I figured I’d share some of the things I’m “re-learning” by building this out.

1. Appearance matters more than anything

With an MVP, the look is way more important than the actual thing you’re building.

I’ve probably spent 70% of my time just working on copy for the landing page and building out the sales funnel.

The whole point is to qualify buyers, get them to book calls, and make the community feel real and polished before there’s even much inside it.

That’s how software companies do it too.

They throw up a landing page, show off some mockups, put a “buy” button on the site, and just see if people actually try to pay.

Sometimes the button doesn’t even work, or it just drops you on an email sign-up form. The point is to test if people want it.

I’m taking that same approach here with the community.

2. Buying signals + free = okay, otherwise, get cash first

The fastest way to get people in the door is to let some of them in for free. I’m doing that, but only with one or two businesses because I already know this is something customers are willing to pay for.

Everyone else, even pre-launch, has to pay something. Maybe it’s a steep discount, but I want them invested.

And the free people? I’ll still stipulate in the contract what I expect of them in exchange:

Feedback
Testimonials
Referrals
Using their business as a case study.

This way, I’m getting a LOT out of it even though no money exchanges hands.

If I were building a piece of software, I wouldn’t even go that far.

I wouldn’t write a single line of code until I collected cash up front because it takes forever to build software, even MVPs.

Community MVPs are quicker to spin up (I’m almost done and I started 2 days ago), so I’m a little more flexible, but the principle is the same.

3. Get people invested early

There are always people who like to be early. They subscribe to YouTube channels with five subs because they want to say they were there first.

Same with products. They like the feeling of shaping something new.

That’s who I’m looking for.

If they help build the community, if they see their input reflected in it, then first, they’ll never churn, and second, they’ll be happy to recommend it to others.

And if I give them an affiliate deal on top of that, now their incentives are truly aligned with mine.

The Final Musing

Here’s a quick recap:

Appearance comes first
Free with prior buying signals = fastest way to get early users
Get people invested early

A reminder to myself: the whole point of an MVP is to validate as fast as possible.

This is probably the one time I”ll say you should absolutely cut corners lol

That’s all for this week.

See ya next Sunday 🙂

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how we can help you:

Newsletters: Our newsletters provide tactical information that innovative entrepreneurs, investors, and other forward-thinking people can use to scale their impact.
Community: Coming soon! You’ll automatically be added to the waitlist by joining any of our newsletters.