Years ago, I was judging a student pitch competition, and a student team pitched an idea for an app that would show you photo memories.
At the time, I was skeptical. Ephemeral content was in vogue. Snapchat was dominating, and disappearing messages felt more on-trend than nostalgia.
A year or so later, I started noticing a lot of posts about Timehop. It wasn’t the same execution and team I had seen present the previous year, but the idea was similar. Timehop got huge and raised $14 million in funding. Though it didn’t become the next unicorn, it found a real audience, had a strong run, and still holds value (and was acquired a few years ago).
I was wrong. There was value in nostalgia. My being wrong didn’t affect the student entrepreneurship team in any way. If I remember correctly, the judging criteria had little to do with the idea. It’s not like I told them I didn’t like their idea or dissuaded them, but whenever I saw a friend share a Timehop memory, I was reminded: Hey, it’s that idea you didn’t understand.
And that’s okay.
As an entrepreneur pitching products, many people won’t like your idea. They’ll see the downsides and why it won’t work first. After all, it’s much easier to be pessimistic about an idea than positive, and people even tend to think the skeptics are more intelligent! (Spoiler: they’re not).
Because there are skeptics, that doesn’t mean the idea is bad or can’t become something great. Your job isn’t to make everyone like your idea. It’s to find the right people who do.
We often forget that most products, even the wildly successful ones, aren’t universally loved. Even something widely accepted and essential like toilet paper has debates over ply count and strong opinions of whether bears, puppies, or babies sell it best.
Trying to please everyone is a guaranteed way to make something forgettable. The key instead is knowing who you’re building for.
Who Gets a Say?
In Hidden Potential, Adam Grant discusses characteristics of the people whose feedback matters most: they have an invested interest in you, have industry expertise, and can challenge you. Helpful feedback doesn’t come from adoring fans; it’s from finding thoughtful critics who genuinely want you to improve.
I’ve seen this play out in writing my book. Early drafts received praise from friends, but the book was improved by feedback from people who knew the book category, understood my intentions, and weren’t afraid to critique it.
The same rule applies to building products. It does matter what people think of your ideas, but not what everyone thinks. Don’t seek validation from people who aren’t your target user. Your neighbor’s opinion only matters if your neighbor is your customer.
Ask for Feedback (and Mean It)
Once you know whose feedback to value, the next step is learning how to get it—and how to build trust along the way. Asking for feedback isn’t just about validation; it’s about starting a conversation and learning how your idea lands with the people who matter.
There’s a bonus benefit: asking for feedback is often a better way to build investor relationships than asking for money. Sharon Gillenwater recently shared a great piece in
about how she became an angel investor in a company. It started with the founder asking for advice on a good coworking space. From there, she built a relationship. After checking in and following the company’s progress, Gillenwater wanted to invest because she believed in the business, without the founder ever asking for funding. When you ask for advice, you invite someone into your journey. That’s a relationship, not a transaction.Noah Kagan in Million Dollar Weekend shares how he started validating product ideas by pitching concepts to potential customers and seeing what stuck. He didn’t start by building. He began by listening. It’s much easier to course-correct an idea before you’ve sunk weeks (or months or years) into building the wrong thing.
If you’re hesitant to share your idea with someone, that might be a sign, too. Are you unsure about your idea, or are you afraid it’s not good enough? Talk about it anyway. Confidence often follows clarity, and clarity comes from feedback. Just get your input from the correct type of people.
Final Thought
The people who “get it” will always be in the minority, at first. Your job isn’t to convince the world all at once. It’s to find the right few who say, “Yes, this is for me.” That’s the start of something real.
You don’t need everyone to like your idea.
You just need to know who to listen to.
Thanks for reading!
As I mentioned, one of my favorite parts of writing Designing Success was weaving in the insights of people I deeply admire.
I met Chloe Street on Founding Women, and it was such a serendipitous (and perhaps fateful?) meeting that I had to include her insights in Chapter 9: Engineering Serendipity.
Chloe is a career coach, connection expert, and CEO of Human to Human. She also created a card game to lead to deeper conversations.
According to Sheena Iyengar's research, when you start a conversation on a deeper level conversation partners are more likely to have a more authentic encounter and form stronger bonds.
Chloe's Human to Human card game can give you some scaffolding to break through small talk and spark deeper dialogue.
I am so grateful to have met Chloe! The best part of writing a book is having a reason to reach out to so many brilliant people.
As I celebrate the release of the Designing Success audiobook, I’ll share more videos featuring some of the minds cited in the book in the next few weeks. Links to get the audiobook below, or if you're curious about more of the actionable tips to foster meaningful connections, you can download Chapter 9 here.
🎧 Get the audiobook: Amazon | Audible | Apple
Other ways to connect:
🎓 Free “Adulting 101” 14-Day email challenge to develop entrepreneurial mindset skills to build resilience post-graduation.
📖 Grab a copy of my book! Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Signed Copy
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🔌 Or book a power hour