My start up was featured in a major news magazine. So I show up at a holiday party, magazine in hand and feeling good, only to have cold water splashed on me when I tried to explain social networking to the relatives. ‘But why would anyone want to do that?’ they asked. I couldn’t answer. Ever since, I’ve applied the ‘in-law’ test to my ideas: If I can’t explain to them why someone would want my product, I’m doing something wrong.
Founders’ Lesson #5: Only when you can dumb it down, do you actually have it down.
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6:38 PM PT
This is so true. I like your in-law test as this is the best way to really test an idea, and your pitch. The less they know about it the better the results although the tougher it makes your sell.}
2:14 PM PT
I’d be interested in how you actually did end up explaining social networking to the in-laws (or if you just gave up).}
3:51 PM PT
so true – I was working on a startup idea last year and we called this the ‘grandma test’. We knew we had to make it dirt simple to catch the reader or listener so they would want to hear more. One of our early failures with this was when we tried to explain a social software concept to a group of angels – many of whom I think had made their money selling farmland for real-estate. Even though we actually had a solid revenue strategy (not including advertising), it didn’t matter because they were still trying to understood what we did. If people can’t understand what you are offering quickly, the rest of your pitch doesn’t matter.}
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