Should you build that million dollar product if you're starting up?

According to Harvard's Amar Bhide, the answer? No:

Look for quick break-even, cash-generating projects. The rule in large companies and well-funded enterprises is to stick to the basic strategy. Not so with the bootstrapped start-up. Profit opportunities that might be regarded as distractions in a large company are immensely valuable to the entrepreneur. A business that is making money, elegantly or not, builds credibility in the eyes of suppliers, customers, and employees, as well as self-confidence in the entrepreneur.

We agree. All new products, no matter how successful you think it will be, have high failure rates. Usually, most entrepreneurs spend the entire enchilada on building one product. When it fails, what then? Where's the beef? At Trizzy, instead of throwing all our eggs into one basket, we favor building tiny, affordable, quick-to-launch products. Usually from those small innovations, we'll get a good sense of what works and what doesn't. If something fails, we'll have money left over to start anew. Yet, if a particular product proves successful (i.e. profitable), we'll invest more into it. Tiny steps. It always works.

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