The Minimum Viable Testing Process for Evaluating Startup Ideas

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vector research partners ( aka V4RP )

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The Minimum Viable Testing Process for Evaluating Startup Ideas

Most startup advice is the same: do some customer research, throw an MVP into the world, and hope it sticks. I’ve been early at four startups—Udemy, Lyft, Sprig, and Maven—and three of them hit over $1M in run-rate within six months. That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because we tested the market before building anything substantial.

I call this approach Minimum Viable Testing (MVT). At V4RP, we use MVTs to validate ideas before we waste time on code, features, or branding.

Why MVPs Can Mislead

MVPs often encourage founders to over-build or chase the wrong priorities:

1. Vision > insight. You can’t chase twenty features. Facebook works because of one insight: people want to connect with friends. Purity beats breadth.
2. Customers don’t know. People can’t articulate what they actually want; they’ll ask for faster horses when they need cars. Build based on observed actions, not survey answers.
3. Premature company-building. Skip the logo, swag, and titles. You’re nothing without customers. At V4RP, we don’t “feel like a company” until we hit $250K revenue or 250k users.
4. Form before function. MVPs imply a full user journey—login flows, dashboards, onboarding. Don’t build that until you know people want your product.
5. Technical debt trap. Early code often locks you into suboptimal decisions. Test first, build later.

The core lesson: focus on product/market fit before building a product.

Adding Minimum Viable Tests to Your Startup Process

Here’s the V4RP playbook for testing ideas:

1. Immerse yourself in the industry.
2. Do customer development. Understand the jobs your users are trying to get done.
3. Define the promise. What value can you offer?

Instead of building an MVP at this stage, run MVTs:

1. List the riskiest assumptions that could make or break your business.
2. Test each assumption individually.
3. Repeat until your biggest risks are de-risked.

Then, once you’ve validated your hypotheses, move to:

• Build an initial product to bring insights together.
• Iterate to product/market fit.
• Scale.

What Is a Minimum Viable Test?

An MVT is a test of a single, essential hypothesis—something that must be true for your business to survive.

Key principles:

• Focus only on the hypothesis, not the final product or customer opinions.
• Start minimal—don’t build features you may never use.
• Technical ability is optional. You can validate demand before hiring a technical co-founder.

The 3-Step V4RP MVT Process

1. Find your value proposition.
   • Keep it simple: Stripe, AirBnB, Dropbox, Uber all solved one core problem.
   • Base it on user actions, not surveys.
2. List risky assumptions.
   • People want this.
   • Execution risk: can we deliver it?
   • Marketing risk: can we sell it?
   • Market size: is it big enough?
   • Profitability: is the price point sustainable?
3. Test the atomic unit.
   • Pick one primary risk at a time.
   • Build a test that isolates that risk.
   • Keep it hacky and cheap.

Example: Amazon didn’t start with an all-encompassing online store—they tested one book at a time.

Real-Life Examples

Maven:

• Value proposition: Cohort-based courses deliver 10x more value than self-directed courses.
• Risky assumption: Will people pay more for a cohort-based experience?
• Atomic test: Run a single course with a known instructor.
• Outcome: $150k revenue, 9/10 rating, insights on pricing and community-building.

Sprig:

• Value proposition: Fast, healthy meal delivery is better than existing options.
• Risky assumption: Can the operations scale efficiently?
• Atomic test: Run a one-night pop-up delivery using Craigslist chefs and friends as drivers.
• Outcome: Confirmed operations worked, identified operational challenges, laid foundation for MVP.

At both companies, multiple MVTs were run before a full MVP, giving confidence in product-market fit.

When MVTs Say “No”

Sometimes, tests reveal a path is impossible or not enjoyable. Example: a travel advisor marketplace I tried. The operations were unscalable, the advisor pool was small, and I didn’t enjoy the work. The MVT saved years of wasted effort.

Key Takeaways

• MVTs = art, not science. Judgement is required.
• Success is never guaranteed, even with perfect MVTs.
• Zero out MVT revenue when scaling; focus on long-term growth.
• Run MVTs to de-risk ideas, then build your vision confidently.

At V4RP, this approach is our north star. Test first, learn fast, and scale smarter.

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