Building in Stealth: How Validate Spent 2.5 Years Creating the Perfect Professional Services Platform
Two and a half years without a single paying customer. In today’s startup ecosystem, where “move fast and break things” remains the dominant mantra, that timeline might sound like a death sentence. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Validate founder Chris McCall revealed why this extended development period wasn’t just necessary – it was strategically crucial for their success.
The conventional wisdom about rapid MVPs and iterative development breaks down when you’re building for professional services. As Chris explains, “The minimum viable product looks a lot like a full-on production product… fit and finish is really important and you have to do a lot of the details.” This wasn’t just perfectionism – it was a clear-eyed recognition of their market’s unique demands.
Why Professional Markets Demand Perfection
The challenge wasn’t just technical complexity. “Selling to accountants and lawyers is pretty difficult,” Chris notes. “The difficulty being there’s not a lot of early adopters.” When your target market consists of professionals whose reputations and livelihoods depend on accuracy and reliability, there’s little appetite for beta testing or working through bugs.
This reality became even clearer as Validate expanded into government contracts, where Chris learned you need to “make very large investments in compliance.” The bar for quality wasn’t just high – it was legally mandated.
The Hidden Advantage of Patient Development
While this extended development period might seem like a disadvantage, it allowed Validate to build something truly comprehensive. Their platform needed to handle cases where professionals “have to base their opinion on evidence” and create datasets that could “withstand cross examination” in court.
This thorough approach paid unexpected dividends. As Chris recalls, “Word of mouth happens really fast… things started taking off really quickly after that too. So there wasn’t a lot of time delay between that first purchase and really scaling up to the first million dollars.”
When Speed Isn’t the Answer
The decision to prioritize completeness over speed came from understanding their market at a fundamental level. Professional services firms often bill at premium rates – Chris mentions experts charging “over $500 an hour.” When you’re serving clients who bill at these rates, the cost of software failures or inadequate features isn’t just inconvenient – it’s prohibitively expensive.
This insight shaped their entire development approach. As Chris puts it, “If you’re in just core tech, a lot of times you can skate by without doing some of that. But for this audience, you have to do everything.”
Building for the Long Game
Today, Validate maintains disciplined growth targets of “60 to 120% year on year growth.” This measured approach reflects their understanding that in professional services, sustainable growth comes from maintaining high standards rather than racing to market.
Their vision extends beyond just building a successful company. As Chris explains, “If we can drive out sample risk and give these professionals way more transparency by providing all the evidence in these large, complex financial matters, ultimately that drives down the cost of capital and makes the whole financial system more efficient.”
When to Break the “Launch Fast” Rule
Validate’s experience offers valuable insights for founders considering a longer development cycle:
- When your users are professionals whose work requires precision and reliability
- When compliance and regulatory requirements demand extensive features
- When your platform needs to integrate with complex existing workflows
- When the cost of errors or inadequate features would be catastrophic for users
- When you’re creating a new category that needs to be fully formed to be credible
The key is understanding whether your market truly demands perfection or whether good enough is good enough. For Validate, the decision to prioritize completeness over speed wasn’t just about product quality – it was about understanding that in professional services, trust is earned through excellence, not iteration.
Their story challenges the notion that speed to market is always paramount. Sometimes, the fastest path to sustainable growth is taking the time to build something that truly transforms how professionals work.