26 January 2025
“The 30-Day Prototype”
Why I try to validate business concepts in a less than a month
When people talk about launching businesses, they often imagine a team, a pitch deck, a product, and a campaign. But what I’m referring to is something much smaller and sharper: the micro business. A micro business is intentionally lean—it’s typically built and operated by one person or a very small team, with low overhead, and designed to generate income without becoming an operational beast. These ventures don’t need massive funding rounds or year-long timelines. What they need is proof. And they need it fast.
That’s why I run my validation cycles in 30 days or less. Because clarity, not complexity, is the goal.
But I didn’t always work this way. There was one idea—a platform I believed in deeply—that took me 358 days to prototype. That’s not a typo. I spent nearly a full year building flows, designing systems, mapping out scale, refining branding, and constructing backend processes. All before I had a working prototype. All before I had even a handful of users. I thought I was being strategic. I thought the depth of preparation would pay off. But the product was clunky. It was slow. And it failed to meet the expectations of my client base. Other services on the market were smoother, faster, and easier to use. I had invested almost everything—except time in actual validation.
I look back at that project now and realise the problem wasn’t dedication. It was the complete absence of an MVP that was built to give me data. I didn’t test the assumptions early. I didn’t create anything people could respond to. I didn’t even design it to capture meaningful insights. By the time the product was technically functional, the architecture was so bloated that I couldn’t fix the user experience without starting again.
That experience grounded a new rule in my process: build fast, but with discipline. Building fast isn’t about rushing. It’s about carving out a version that does exactly one thing—capture insight. Your MVP should give you a signal. Something to measure. Something that tells you whether to go deeper or walk away.
Too many people build for ego, for beauty, for pride, or for approval. I’ve done it too. But the only thing that matters is the response—and you only get that if your product is designed to provoke one.
You might wonder if you can really gather insight in 30 days. The answer is yes—if you’re intentional. Look at Casper. Before they became one of the biggest DTC mattress companies in the world, they sold out of their entire stock before the product even existed. What they built wasn’t inventory—it was a proof of demand. They created a clear offer, a strong promise, and an environment where people could say yes. That “yes” gave them the confidence to build. That’s what we mean by validation.
If you’re building a micro business—something lean, flexible, and self-funded—you can’t afford to spend 300 days on theory. You need to build fast, not for the sake of speed, but for the sake of direction, clarity, and data. You need a simple structure that tells you which way to move, and how much effort is worth continuing to invest.
Here’s how I do it. First, I clarify the problem in one line. Then I create a basic offer or solution and find a simple way to present it—this could be a landing page, a PDF, a short video. Next, I put it in front of real people. I observe. I ask questions. I open a payment link, even if the product isn’t finished. I test the appetite. I track response. I listen harder than I pitch.
Within 30 days, I’ll know if the offer lands. If people understand it. If they want it. And more importantly, I’ll know if Iwant to keep building it. Sometimes, validation is just as much about testing the market as it is about testing your own interest.
The 30-Day Prototype isn’t rigid. It’s simply a frame to protect your energy and your calendar from being hijacked by beautiful, time-consuming dead ends. It keeps you in motion, in contact with reality, and out of your own head. If an idea deserves more than 30 days, it will earn that extension by proving its value early.
Fast doesn’t mean careless. It means smart. It means precise. And when you’re building across multiple ventures, clarity becomes your sharpest advantage. Build fast. Test cleanly. Learn early. And then build better.