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validated inaveryearly stage.Buildingon theseearly successesandconfident from the earlymarket feedback,David andEric started the business towork on adigital marketplace for long-stay apartment bookings. After finalizing the first version of the platform, Acomodeo had to learn that the market is much harder to acquire compared to the times of sporting events. Their first version of the platformwas serving at individual business travelers to book long-stay apartments directlywith them.However, business travelers in this category are bound to corporate business travel policies most of the time and could not just book their apartment with Acomodeo. In fact, their users of theproductwerebusiness travelers.However, the buyerwas the corporate travelmanager that they had to servefirst. This is a great lesson on product-market fit and the importance of understanding customer seg- ments from a user and buyer perspective. Product-market fit is also a lot about understanding thebuyer and theuser (which is not always the same). Fast forward, David and Eric pivoted the platform to serve the needs of the corporate business travel manager and included the features they needed to approve Acomodeo as a platform for corporate travelers. 4 Practical Implications forDigital Entrepreneurs In the previous thoughts,we have seen thatmanydigital startups leverage the lean startup approach but have challenges in applying it to their own journey. Our presented thoughts on the venture pyramid andMVPs for digital businessmodels are aiming at structuring the search process for an attractive businessmodel. This approach is designed to reduce uncertainty (not to eliminate it) and to provide guidance on the challenging journey. The different types of MVPs shall inspire startups to identify awayof testing andvalidating their business idea in the search process to an attractive business model. We understand the startup process as two-fold.While a startup searches for a repeatable and scalable businessmodel, it also needs to achieve operational excellence in team structuring, management, accounting, sales, and soon.Additionally, realitywill alwaysbring surprises along the way.We have seen great business models that work out extremely well, but then within weeks, one of the key partners goes bankrupt and nothing seems to workanymore.Wehavenot covered this in this chapter, but it shouldbewithin the radiusof awarenessof everyentrepreneur, and it stresses theurge to regularlywork and update the businessmodel. We furthermore believe that every entrepreneurial discovery process is only as goodas thewillingnessof theentrepreneurs to learn, adapt, andchallenge theirown thoughts and ideas.Or simply put, the success of a venture lies in the execution of the idea rather than in themethodology itself. Every entrepreneur needs to decide individuallyhow theywant tobuild their business andwhat tools touse at the right time.As a general take away,we recommend embracing iterative validation based on hypotheses, a mindset to test, and a divergent and convergent thinking processes. BusinessModel Development and Validation… 83