When you start a new business, can you name the wisest first step? Should you build a product or service? Hire staff? Buy stock? No. First step: you talk to potential customers. To see if the pain you intend to cure runs deep enough. Period.

How and why Customer Development shapes a startup was the subject of discussion with the two latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere, my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111.

Picture a circle. Imagine it represents your future startup, transformed into a wildly successful company.