The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know

Chapter 2

Make It Feasible

A feasibility study is used to determine the viability of a new business venture. Commonly called a business model by entrepreneurs today, a feasibility study is simply a summary of the key components of a proposed venture. You will make literally hundreds of assumptions as you move through the six stages of entrepreneurship. These assumptions are directly linked to your risk of failure. The more assumptions you make, the higher your risk. As a result, your top priority has to be to turn your key assumptions into facts as quickly as possible. Without a doubt, this is the most important lesson in the book—to succeed, turn your key assumptions into facts as quickly as possible.

As you research the feasibility of your business with customers, investors, and partners, you’ll find that many of your initial assumptions were wrong. This is to be expected—when you’re innovating, you’re venturing into the unknown, which forces you to make guesses about the future. The essence of entrepreneurship, therefore, is not nailing your business model at the outset. Rather, it’s adapting to your emerging reality rapidly enough to survive. You have to be agile and make your business feasible. Every business has gone through these growing pains. Startups that can’t adapt are quickly buried and left behind.

This chapter covers the most important feasibility strategies to help you learn, adapt, and make your business feasible.

Is It Feasible?

ASS Out of U and Me

Three Questions ...