Great question. I wrote the book Lean B2B: Build Products Businesses Want to help entrepreneurs get from idea to MVP to Product-Market Fit. I also built a few B2B startups (Flagback, HireVoice, etc).
There are a few things that make this a challenge:
1) MVPs are typically much further along the process in B2B than in B2C. In B2C, entrepreneurs find a market, identify the problems and build a MVP. In B2B, entrepreneurs find a market, find the stakeholders, identify the problems, validate a solution then build a MVP. Customers are less accessible; it takes time to get on their agenda.
2) Investors typically don't want to fund early sales and MVP development in B2B. It's "too risky"; they'd rather come in when the company has a wee-bit of traction.
3) The whole process from inception to early traction and MVP can easily take more than a year. You need sufficient runway to survive.
Although I agree with Jeff, Shaun and Suresh that you can build early MVPs on the cheap, it's important to remember that your initial objective is to convince 5-6 businesses to commit to purchase your solution when it's ready.
To that end, a vision and early mockups can be enough.
If you need money to get to MVP, I suggest finding angel investors, but don't expect your MVP to be the actual product. Everything will change.
Feel free to reach out if you'd like to talk about this.
Answered 10 years ago
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