Instead of starting out with one business idea that we wanted to make a reality, we had a vision on how we want to work, create and live. Before even starting brainstorming the first concept, we laid out some rules on how to implement & validate them quickly.

The most important ones were:

• launch rapidly
• embrace failure as lessons
• learn & reiterate

As well as:

• try new things & approaches
• communicate our needs and thoughts honestly & clearly
• learn from other people
• connect with the community

They lead to a framework with which we want to approach the implementation & assessment of every idea:

• focus on building for 2 weeks, preferably in person
• polishing it for another 2 weeks for marketing & monetization
• making the first purchase after the month

This meant a v1 of an idea should only take a month, and we could validate its viability immediately.
And the requirements needed to be simple enough to build on weekends and after work.
If we could take a few days off, that would a bonus and the exception.