Late last week, I sat down with Sramana Mitra to discuss the latest book in her Entrepreneur Journeys series: How To Test, Validate and Bring Your Idea To Market. In this third volume, Mitra confirms that clarity is the ultimate tool in building a successful business. But such clarity cannot be purchased or assumed – it requires asking the right questions. The book is available on Amazon for purchase - read the details of our chat below.

[Manoj]: How does this book, transition from your earlier book: "Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Destruction":

[Sramana Mitra]: Positioning: How To Test, Validate and Bring Your Idea To Market is a strategy book, and focuses on precisely what the title states. It helps entrepreneurs understand the nuances of a clear and concise go to market strategy, a due diligence exercise so to speak.

[Manoj]: What are the major benefits of entrepreneurship using the bootstrap route vs. the venture capital route?

[Sramana Mitra]: Bootstrapping allows you to keep control of your equity, while venture capital is designed for investors to gradually take control of more and more of your company's equity. Also, bootstrapping is appropriate for businesses that don't necessarily have to be going after very large market opportunities, whereas, venture capital is only appropriate for businesses that have the potential to get very large.

[Manoj]: What are a couple of strong methods of testing the viability of your idea?

[Sramana Mitra]: Speak with 100 prospective customers. And use the appendix of the Positioning book, which gives a thorough due diligence framework.

[Manoj]: How important are relationships during the entrepreneur's journey - being able to bounce ideas off of colleagues/mentors and to validate your thoughts?

[Sramana Mitra]: Mentors, the right ones, can be extremely valuable. Especially for first time entrepreneurs, mentors can make a huge difference. But note that I said the "right" mentors. The wrong mentors can also screw things up in a big way. So what's a right mentor? Greg Gianforte discusses that in the Bootstrapping volume.

[Manoj]: At the end of your book you have an appendix which is a detailed list of questions to help "clarify your story" tell us the importance of being able to answer any one of those questions before you take an idea to market?

[Sramana Mitra]: I cannot over-emphasize the importance of addressing those detailed questions. In entrepreneurship, the proverbial devil lies entirely in those details. Gaining clarity of those issues, pain, value proposition, TAM, channel, messaging, buying cycle, sales cycle that's what will determine whether you can build a scalable business or not. Otherwise, you end up with a spray and pray situation which is entirely undesirable.

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