How do they expand their business with a MVP? - Airbnb, Twitter, and Dropbox
A minimum viable product (MVP) is a core concept of the lean startup. In his book The Lean Startup, Eric Ries defined the MVP as follows:
The MVP is that version of the product that enables a full turn of the Build-Measure-Learn loop with a minimum amount of effort and the latest amount of development time.
The most important thing is to minimize the total time through the Build-Measure-Learn loop. The process consists of building ideas into products, measuring response from customers, and learning a way to the next step.
I introduce good examples of the MVP: Airbnb, Twitter, and Dropbox.
Airbnb
In 2007, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia came up with the idea to rent out their bed to people who could not book hotels because of conferences in San Francisco. They built their own small web site, and 3 guests paid $80 each for their service. The interaction with them gave the founders insight for potential customers. Based upon their experience, they started “Airbed and Breakfast”.
“twttr”, the first version of Twitter, was created in a podcast company called Odeo. It was a web-based application which was used only by the company menbers and their immediate families. The founders were following everyone on the system, and added new features such as Private Accounts from their observation.
Dropbox
The CEO of Dropbox, Drew Houston, made a simple 3 minutes video of the beta version for early adopters. Most people did not know the concept of file synchronization at that time, and he explained how useful the product is with the demo. As a result, their beta waiting list went from 5,000 to 75,000 people overnight.