Skip to content

Customer Quote by Steven Gary Blank

“the first product in a startup, your initial purpose in meeting customers is not to gather feature requests so you can change the product; it is to find customers for the product you are already building.” quote by Steven Gary Blank
Download Open image
““the first product in a startup, your initial purpose in meeting customers is not to gather feature requests so you can change the product; it is to find customers for the product you are already building.””

Steven Gary Blank

About This Quote

Source Book: The Startup Owner's Manual, 2012

The early goal is to validate market demand by finding buyers for the existing product, not to collect feature ideas for redesign.

In simple terms: Find customers for what you have, not ideas for what you could make.

Key Takeaway

Focus on market validation before product changes.

Themes

entrepreneurship customer discovery product-market fit

Mood

determined pragmatic

Type

strategic instructional

When to use this quote

  • pitch meetings
  • early sales
  • beta testing
  • investor demos

Key Concepts

validation market demand customer acquisition

Questions to Reflect On

  • Are you listening for market signals or just feature ideas?
  • How will you measure true demand?
A Different Perspective

If customers reject the current product, you may need to pivot, not just find more buyers.

2.2 out of 5 (3 ratings)

More by Steven Gary Blank

Explore all 41 Steven Gary Blank quotes

More Customer quotes

Browse all 9,257 Customer quotes