At Gato Blanco, we don’t have the luxury of building in the dark. Every sprint, every line of code, every prototype has to move toward one thing: transforming from idea to first paying customer.

Over time, we’ve boiled this process down to five steps that keep me honest and reduce the gap between “this could be cool” and “this is paying for itself.”

Step 1: Fall in Love with the Problem

We start with conversations, not code. We ask uncomfortable questions about what’s broken, what people are hacking together in spreadsheets, and what’s costing them sleep or money.

Step 2: Show, Don’t Tell

Once we’ve heard enough pain, we build a simple prototype. No perfect UI just enough to make someone say “yes, that’s what I mean” or “no, that’s not it.” This saves weeks of building the wrong thing.

Step 3: Design the Invisible Stuff

Only after validation do we think about architecture: APIs, data, reliability, edge cases. Our guiding question: _What’s the simplest robust version of this that won’t fall over if it works?

Step 4: Ship a Narrow but Useful MVP

MVP rule: one core user, one core use case, one core outcome. we’d rather ship something tiny that truly solves one painful problem than a big half‑finished solution that impresses nobody.

Step 5: Charge Early, Learn Fast

Try to charge as early as is ethical. Even a small payment or pilot fee changes the quality of feedback instantly and tells us if we're building a product or just a hobby.

The journey from idea to first paying customer isn’t about speed for its own sake. 

It’s about clarity, reliability, and trust. 

At Gato Blanco, we believe the fastest way to build something real is to start with pain, validate with prototypes, design for resilience, ship narrow, and charge early.