Grow a Business to $1,000 MRR
24 weeks · 5 milestones
Build a product or service and grow it to $1,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue from real paying customers. Proofs at every milestone require financial evidence — not self-reported numbers.
Milestone map
Milestone map
5 milestones
Identify a specific problem experienced by a specific type of person and validate that they would pay to solve it. Talk to at least 10 potential customers using the Mom Test framework — asking about their behavior, not their opinions. Do not build anything until you have evidence the problem is real, frequent, and painful.
Proof required
Submit your problem statement (1 paragraph), a summary of 10 customer conversations (one paragraph per conversation: who you talked to, what they said, and what you learned), and your decision: build or pivot, with the reason. Each conversation summary must include what the person currently does to solve the problem today.
What gets checked
- At least 10 conversations, each with a different person — not 10 conversations with the same 3 people
- Each summary includes what the person currently does to solve the problem — behavior beats opinion as validation evidence
- At least one pivot or scope change happened as a result of the conversations — if your original idea is unchanged, you did not learn enough
Resources
Enroll free to unlock learning resources →Mastery
Lenny's Newsletter
Search for 'validating your startup idea' on the site. The jobs-to-be-done framing gives you a way to organize what you hear across 10 conversations into a coherent pattern.
Unlocks after completing Foundation + Depth