Moore (Chasm guy) says that "visionary" customers actually do like to be first: they want to leap-frog their competitors, and to do that, they need something that their competitors don't yet have; which is necessarily not known or trusted. They therefore expect (very) rough edges etc (of course, they also need some amazing order-of-magnitude breakthrough benefit).
BTW: the 3-year rule-of-thumb rings true for me too: a year to get the first customer (putting it out there and improving it for a year); a year to refine it/build the customer list; a year to make money hand-over-fist. (Unfortunately, by then I also got competitors, and worse, I also got bored.)
BTW: the 3-year rule-of-thumb rings true for me too: a year to get the first customer (putting it out there and improving it for a year); a year to refine it/build the customer list; a year to make money hand-over-fist. (Unfortunately, by then I also got competitors, and worse, I also got bored.)