Do you like helping others? Do you like sounding smart? Do you like fixing things? Sure everyone does, but there are some of us who extensively do that. Try to find people like that for your start-up!

The Basics

Customers will make or break your business. Therefore it is very important to establish conversations with potential clients early in the process of your venture. The earlier, the better. And few are earlier to the process than the earlyvangelist. The term describes the kind of customer who is passionate about a vision or product in the early stages, long before it hits the mainstream market. Because they have been looking at the same problem and want to solve the same problem as you, earlyvangelists can envision the potential of your innovation. Therefore, they take a leap of faith and support it creatively and sometimes financially and by this take a leap of faith. Steve Blank explains how to find such earlyvangelists in a short video. Furthermore he defines earlyvangelists with the following five characteristics: 1. Have a problem; 2. Know they have a problem; 3. Have been actively looking for a solution; 4. Have put together a solution out of pieces; 5. Have a budget. In addition to these characteristics there is a last requirement for being classified as an earlyvangelist and that is the capability and disposition to broadcast and spread the vision or product to family, friends and colleagues. They preach and try to convince others of the good news, the “gospel” of your product, and thus increase your pool of customers.

Steve Blank explains earlyvangelists on his website with a visual pyramid.