Dear Entrepreneur: The First Version Will Be Ugly. Ship It Anyway.

May 19
3 min read

Dear Entrepreneur #6

Dear Entrepreneur, the First Version Will Be Ugly. Ship It Anyway.

You wake up after a deep night's sleep and suddenly come up with an idea.. “This is it, my big vision, my path”, you told yourself. But before you build, you stall waiting for the perfect logo, a polished brand, a slick website, or a “big” launch moment. Isn’t it sound familiar? Here’s the hard truth: the first version of anything worthwhile is almost always messy, imperfect and embarrassingly rough around the edges. In case no one has told you, that’s okay. In fact, it’s necessary. Because waiting for perfect is just another form of procrastination. The real magic begins when you ship it anyway.

Perfection Is the Enemy of Progress

Entrepreneurs often wait for the “right moment”. After they’ve found a better brand name, hired a designer for the perfect logo, built a pixel-perfect landing page, or rehearsed a viral product launch. One way to kill momentum is waiting.

How about this? You don’t need a prettier website. You don’t need better branding. Not even permission. But you need action! Because the market doesn’t care about perfect. The market cares about real. And real starts with shipping.

Start Now. Learn in Public. Make It Real.

Maybe no one told you this before, some of the world’s most iconic companies started ugly:

Airbnb began with renting out air mattresses in a living room.
Twitter was a side project with a 140-character limit and endless fail whales.
Facebook was just for Harvard students — and it was painfully basic.

What they had in common? They shipped. They put something out into the world, listened, learned, adapted. At the beginning, they didn’t wait to look good, but waited to get better.

You Can’t Iterate on What Doesn’t Exist

One thing about waiting is that "The longer you wait, the more you build in isolation". At the result, the more likely it is that you’re building the wrong thing. Shipping a rough version gives you feedback. You have to admit the fact that every feedback gives you insight. Insight makes you smarter because you know what it is, where the problem comes from,... Your audience will teach you what matters, but only if you give them something to react to.

What If It’s Not Ready?

Well you are not alone when you feel that way. Everyone, especially entrepreneurs, when start this journey, they always ask that question "What if it's not ready?", but it’s not. And it won’t be. You don’t need to launch to the world, but launch to one person. You don’t need a brand book, one thing you need is clarity. You don’t need hype — you need a heartbeat.

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is not the minimum you can tolerate. It’s the minimum your customer needs to get value. Ship that.

Build in the Open. Show Your Work.

When you create publicly, even with flaws, typos and bad colors, you’re signaling something powerful: you’re doing the work. And people respect that and they root for it. And often, they join in.

So don’t hide behind a perfect plan and disappear for six months to make something “worth launching.” Just start now, make it ugly, honest and make it yours. Then ship it and let’s get something out of the way: your first version won’t be pretty.

"Start first, ask later" - Melissa Lo, CEO of Wildcats said

Always have your back,

Wildcats

Are you interested in insights about entrepreneurship? Don’t miss Wildcats’ new blog series, “Dear Entrepreneur,...”. Catch up on previous posts here!

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