Validate First, Build Second: The Startup Lesson Behind an Electric Bus Company | John Walsh, Founder & CEO of Endera
Also available on
Description
What if the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is building the product before they know customers actually want it?
In this episode of the Create the Future Podcast, Rick Williams sits down with John Walsh, Founder and CEO of Endera, to explore what it really takes to build, validate, and scale a company in the rapidly evolving electric vehicle industry.
John shares lessons from his entrepreneurial journey, including the importance of validating customer demand before investing heavily in a product. He discusses product-market fit, learning from startup failures, building high-performing teams, raising capital, scaling manufacturing, and making better decisions as a founder.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
• Why entrepreneurs should validate demand before building
• How to reduce startup risk through customer discovery
• The importance of product-market fit
• What startup failures can teach you about building better businesses
• How to build and scale a high-performing team
• Lessons on fundraising, delegation, and leadership
• How to navigate the opportunities and challenges of the electric vehicle industry
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, startup founder, CEO, investor, or business leader, this conversation offers practical lessons on innovation, customer validation, leadership, and building companies that solve real problems.
Guest: John Walsh
Founder & CEO of Endera
Learn more about Endera:
https://www.enderamotors.com
Subscribe to the Create the Future Podcast for conversations with entrepreneurs, executives, innovators, and leaders who share the ideas and decisions shaping the future.
About Create the Future with Rick Williams Podcast
Rick Williams, hostCreate the Future with Rick Williams is a leadership podcast focused on real-world decisions that determine the future of companies, non-profits, and public agencies and the careers of the individuals making the decisions.
Hosted by Rick Williams, the podcast gives leaders an opportunity to share the stories behind the difficult decisions and tough calls they have made — for their companies, their organizations and sometimes for themselves.
Rick wrote Create the Future — your essential leadership guidebook for making difficult decisions. In this best-selling handbook, Rick gives the principles and leadership team exercises leaders use when faced with major choices for their organization and themselves.
Rick’s goal with the Create the Future Podcast is simple: to share practical leadership lessons from real life experiences so that today’s leaders can become better decision-makers and more effective leaders.
Rick Williams is a deeply experienced corporate leader, management consultant, company founder, board member, and author. He works with leaders through his speaking, newsletter, and board service, with a particular focus on helping leaders make difficult decisions.
“You create the future for the organization you lead by the decisions you make today.”Rick Williams
Learn more about Rick Williams and his leadership guidebook Create the Future.
Go to: RickWilliamsLeadership.com