MVP Shows Potential
Share
Shaan Puri and Sam Parr discuss Figma's early pitch deck and founding story, emphasizing that successful companies don't need to start with perfect products or grandiose visions. They highlight how Figma's $20 billion exit started from humble beginnings.
Key Points:
-
Initial Product Quality:
- MVP was "pretty ugly" and only "mildly effective"
- Product was effective enough to demonstrate future potential
- Early demos didn't suggest a future $20 billion company
-
Founder Characteristics:
- Technical founder who could build working prototypes
- Appeared very young but demonstrated wisdom in presentations
- Focused on showing product demos rather than traditional pitch decks
- Made presentations fun and interactive (e.g., photoshopping the investor's face during demo)
-
Technology Advantage:
- Built on WebGL, a new technology enabling graphics in browsers
- Recognized opportunity to recreate Adobe suite in browser
- Technical capability provided competitive advantage
-
Startup Philosophy:
- Don't need to start with grand, world-changing plans
- Success can come from smaller, focused ideas
- Important to recognize technology inflection points
- Technical skills significantly help but aren't absolutely necessary
-
Pitch Strategy:
- Showed working prototype instead of traditional slides
- Made demonstrations interactive and entertaining
- Let the product capabilities speak for themselves
- Didn't oversell or make grandiose claims
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.