Bob and I released show #131 of the Startup Success Podcast yesterday, featuring our interview with Dave Feinleib, better known as VC Dave and author of the book Why Startups Fail and How Yours Can Succeed.

I really like Dave – he’s been around the block, but he retains his sense of fun about building startups. He just happens to find it fun to build companies that affect lots and lots of lives.

My favorite bit of specific advice from Dave is to build your 30-second marketing video before you build your product. That syncs with a lot of other Lean Startup advice, but it’s simple, concrete, and fun. It forces you to figure out what’s the true value proposition of your startup. If you think you have a great idea but the people you’ve been talking to find it squishy, maybe you just haven’t packaged it well enough – figure out your 30-second marketing pitch to customers and make a video out of it. Brilliant.

Dave’s also a violinist, so he must be cool …

Thanks, Dave!