In finance, there is a concept called discounting cash flows. The idea can be summed up as the following: since money earns interest over time, $1 today is worth more than $1 a year from now. Adjusting for the time value of money is called discounting a cash flow.

There's a parallel here. When doing a startup (or nearly any type of software development), code written sooner is worth more than code written later. Discount your code flows. The sooner the code is written:

• the sooner you can start validating ideas internally
• you can release to customers
• you can get feedback from customers and iterate on it

When it comes to building a new product, specs can be valuable, but even better is a prototype with working code. Spending a few minutes with working code will tell you more than four people in a meeting for hours speculating on the best way to do something. What can you do now that will provide returns as time passes?

Give me your thoughts in the comments below. What's the most valuable thing you've learned by iterating early and often?