At the pre-seed stage, startups often waste months in the planning phase, locked in cycles of research, theoretical validation, and endless brainstorming. This delays product development, leaving founders with nothing to show but a refined idea.

This “thinking time” does more harm than good.

Planning is Overrated

Many startups get bogged down in refining their ideas, waiting for the perfect MVP before they even begin building. It's easy to mistake planning for progress. The reality is that the more time you spend planning, the longer it will take to actually build.

Waiting for perfection before launching leads to an endless cycle of revisions, and you end up spending months without having a single line of code to show for it. The focus should be on speed and iteration, not perfection.

Instead of perfecting every detail before launch, get a simple version of the product out there. A basic version that solves the core problem will teach you more than weeks of planning. The sooner you start building, the sooner you can test your assumptions and refine the product based on real user feedback.

Don't Overthink Customer Validation

Founders make the mistake of thinking they can validate their ideas with surveys, market research, and customer interviews.

While these methods can provide valuable insights, they don't offer the real-world data you need to validate your product.

People might say they want something in a survey or interview, but their actual behavior when using the product will give you far more accurate feedback.

The only real validation comes when users interact with your product. Build something simple and get it into their hands quickly.

By shipping early, you start gathering the kind of feedback that drives real progress.

Avoid Over-Engineering Early

It's tempting to add features, make everything scalable, and optimize the product from the get-go, but this over-engineering will only slow you down.

At the pre-seed stage, the focus should be on solving the core problem, not on making everything perfect. Building unnecessary features or trying to scale too early can delay progress and waste valuable resources.

Instead, focus on building the simplest product that solves the core problem. Keep things lean, functional, and focused on what really matters. Once you've validated the core product with real users, you can begin to iterate and add features as needed. Keep the complexity to a minimum early on—this way, you can move faster, learn faster, and build a stronger foundation for the product.

How to Apply This in Practice

Stop over-planning: Get something functional out the door as quickly as possible. Perfection isn't necessary at this stage—just something users can interact with.

Test assumptions with real users: Build the product and let people use it. Gather feedback from actual usage, not just hypothetical responses.

Focus on core functionality: Build the simplest version that addresses the primary problem. Don't worry about extra features until the core product is validated.

Move fast, but stay lean: Avoid adding unnecessary complexity early. Focus on learning and iterating, not scaling or perfecting the product.

The biggest mistake most pre-seed startups make is wasting time on planning, research, and perfecting their ideas before building. The key to success at this stage is moving quickly, building a simple MVP, and getting it into the hands of real users. It's only by testing, iterating, and learning from actual product usage that you can refine your offering and get closer to product-market fit.

Start building now. Don't wait for perfection—build, learn, and iterate. The faster you get started, the faster you can start making progress.

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