I’ll get straight to it, if your network can’t help your start-up, you’ve got the wrong idea! Your network as it stands today needs to be either customers, champions, advocates or promoters. Not investors, co-developers or supportive suppliers. No good, they are a given. You must have direct, end-of-the-phone access to real paying customers that match your customer profile and unless your profile is a mom of a self-starter creator, it's not your mom!

You might think I’m over-simplifying. But I promise you, if you can’t reach the MVP stage with some commercial traction with your existing network, success will be a strong combination of luck and persistence, which you need anyway! Don't be discouraged If you may be a recent graduate with a limited network and need a senior decision-maker. Can you be introduced today? Lots of senior people are very happy to give time to a graduate with an idea. How many of these introductions can you get from friends and family? Take as many as possible. Ask the hard questions:

If you build it, will they buy it? What does that first order look like? Do you own the budget or can you introduce me to who does? Would they buy from a start-up? What do they currently use, purchased where?

Believe it or not, it’s easier to get answers to these questions at the product idea stage than at any other time, because you are so obviously not selling anything and correctly managed are inviting your potential prospect to help design the offer. Don't waste this vital pre-launch time and activity.

Now here's another thought. Try for a moment to be a magpie entrepreneur.

When I was growing up we were often told to close the windows in unoccupied bedrooms to ‘keep the magpies out’. Folklore had it that magpies would fly in and steal shiny things, like expensive rings. I not so sure if that's true, but they are known to visit other birds' nests and steal their best twigs. Where am I going with this? You don't have to come up with a fresh idea yourself! You can take one that's already out there and do it better! 9 out 10 of the best ideas and business successes we have seen in the last ten years have taken an existing market that was being served badly and applied new logic to it. Google, Facebook, Spotify, and Netflix, all had precurses. A very astute investor, Mark from San Francisco once told me ‘ Be the pilgrim, not the pioneer, pilgrims lose their fingers, pioneers die of exposure’ spoken like a true 49er!

The very best advice I have for a would-be entrepreneur is the idea is really only 10-20% of the success recipe. Customer traction is the flour in the cake - the bulk ingredient and essential. ‘Duh’ I hear you say. OK, well then start with that. Instead of going to your network with your idea, go to them with three questions, two ears and a blank page ( As my dad would say):

1. Is there any process or solution that you rely on today that is not currently being serviced well by your current suppliers?
2. Is that a growth area for your business?
3. If I could provide you with a consistent service at a competitive price, would you let me pitch for and what would a pilot (POC) order look like?

To conclude our second tip: Use your network, ask them what they want before you tell them what you think they need. Before you commit to your idea:

1. Identify and categorize your network into customers and influencers
2. Meet as many as possible and pitch them, pre-development/production is the best time, when they can influence your MVP.
3. Be a magpie. If you have a network, ask them what they want - listen to where others are failing and steal their market.